Detroit from the Maccabees Building, 1942.

[Aaron]

I was browsing the Library of Congress photo archives when I came across a killer 1942 shot from Detroit photographer Arthur Siegel. It was taken looking south from the Maccabees Building, but the real sweet thing is it's in color.

Here's page leading to the original photo with all the credits, details, and download formats. Go to "Michigan--Detroit." I was crazy enough to download the HUGE 192 megabyte TIFF, which resulted in my current wallpaper (679k). I brightened up the photo a bit, and added some much-needed color saturation that's always lacking in Olde Tyme color photographs.

Browse around the LOC site. There are some more photos from Siegel in color, and hundreds more in black and white, of Detroit and everywhere else.

EDIT: The description says it's from the Fisher Building, but upon examination of the photo itself and some maps, it's gotta be from the Maccabees, where Siegel took some of his others. Your thoughts?

[wolverine]

Holy crap, that's an awesome photo!!!

Where did we go sooo wrong!!!

[baldy]

Aaron, yeah, it's definitely not from the Fisher, and would think its the Maccabees building too.

Also, did anyone else notice the street cars going up and down woodward? I'm jealous of those days!

[Allan]

Wow! Awesome find! The photo is definately from the Maccabees.

I noticed the streetcars too, Baldy. Why did we ever get rid of those in favor of buses?

[dnast]

Great find, Aaron!

[Daytwahs Own]

I wonder what a picture taken from that spot looks like today....

[WBG4]

http://forgottenmichigan.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1060

You'll find more pix from the LOC site of detroit here if you are interested. The LOC site is great for pictures

[Aaron]

Sort of a followup to the above...poking through the University of Michigan photo collections, I found another shot from the Maccabees (412k), this time from 1934. Notice it's before Woodward was widened; very pedestian-friendly.

[rbdetsport]

Wow! Amazing, but look at how you can tell how industrialized Detroit was just by looking at the air.

[haydenth]

Wow. Those are some badass pictures.

Here's pretty much what the view looks like today (from a block over in my apt)

the view today