History of Detroit, Michigan

History Of Detroit, Michigan

The city of Detroit, the largest city in the Midwestern state of Michigan, developed from a small fur trading post of New France to a world-class industrial powerhouse and the fourth largest American city by the mid 20th century. The city, settled in 1701, is one of the oldest cities in the Midwest. After a devastating fire in 1805, Augustus B. Woodward devised a street plan similar to Pierre Charles L'Enfant's design for Washington, D.C. Detroit's monumental avenues and traffic circles fan out in radial fashion from Campus Martius Park in the heart of the city's theater district, which facilitates traffic patterns along the city's tree-lined boulevards and parks. Main thoroughfares radiate outward from the city center like spokes in a wheel.

During the 19th century, Detroit grew into a thriving hub of commerce and industry, the city spread along Jefferson Avenue, with multiple manufacturing firms taking advantage of the transportation resources afforded by the river and a parallel rail line. Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of the city's Gilded Age mansions and buildings arose. Detroit was referred to as the Paris of the West for its architecture, and for Washington Boulevard, recently electrified by Thomas Edison.

Following World War II, the auto industry boomed and the metropolitan area becoming one of the largest in the United States. Immigrants and migrants have contributed significantly to Detroit's economy and culture. In the 1990s and the new millennium, the city has experienced increased revitalization. Many areas of the city are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and include National Historic Landmarks. The suburbs continue to grow, but the population of the city itself has plunged from a high of 1.9 million in 1950 to 710,000 in 2010, with the non-Hispanic white element falling from 816,000 to 56,000.