Detroit's Boston Edison Neighborhood

[Allan]

Continued from part Part one....

This home is one of my favorites, so I had to include it on the tour.

The house next door

This home's side entry is more ornate than the front entry!

Another beautiful brick home. Every home built in the neighborhood was required to be constructed of long-lasting materials, hence the many tile and slate roofs, and birck and stone exteriors seen on all of the houses.

This home's wide overhangs make it reminiscent of of Frank Lloyd Wright design.

A fairly modest brick home.

A brick colonial

1221 W. Boston

Another brick colonial. The cut-outs on the shutters are different...I've never seen anything quite like it.

829 W. Boston

Have you seen enough brick houses yet? I hope not. We've still got one more street to go (for this time).

A brick home on Chicago.

Homes on the north side of Chicago Boulevard.

Another brick home on Chicago.

There is a house beneath all that ivy somewhere!

Back to Part One

[ezcheese]

These are great threads, I have really enjoyed them! Keep up the interesting posts!

[Brickcity]

Great threads

[Allan]

Thanks guys.

[wolverine]

The entire city of Detroit needs to be like that! Nice pics Allan!

[Scott]

Great stuff Allan!

I like the house with the ivy but it must be destroying the bricks!

[monsoon]

[wolfdawg54]

That neighborhood in Detroit is awesome! What do some of the houses sell for?

[Allan]

That neighborhood in Detroit is awesome! What do some of the houses sell for?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The houses sell for anywhere between $150,000 and $1,000,000+. In any other city, the homes would sell for more, but this is Detroit, so you can get a beautiful historic home for dirt cheap.

[dnast]

Awesome tour!

[ezcheese]

The houses sell for anywhere between $150,000 and $1,000,000+.  In any other city, the homes would sell for more, but this is Detroit, so you can get a beautiful historic home for dirt cheap.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I couldn't believe it when you said that very first house was listed for under 1 million! That would be a steal in many other areas.

[wolfdawg54]

The houses sell for anywhere between $150,000 and $1,000,000+.  In any other city, the homes would sell for more, but this is Detroit, so you can get a beautiful historic home for dirt cheap.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know if that is good or bad. It seems bad for the city but great news for potential buyers in the area. Thanks though.

[Allan]

Real estate in Detroit seems to be quite undervalued. That seems to be changing, though. The fastest appreciation of real estate in metro Detroit is happening in the city. Some zip codes in the city have seen a 50% increase in value in only five years!

The biggest problem with Detroit is the school system. It's not nearly as bad as some of the other urban districts in the country, but it's not all that great either. Renaissance High School and Cass Tech High School are nationally recognized for being some of the best schools. Still, on average, the suburban school systems perform much better than Detroit Public Schools. As long as the suburban schools are better, families from Detroit will continue to move there.

That's not to say that there are not other issues. The city struggles to maintain basic services, despite the fact that the city of Detroit is the largest employer in the city. Things like broken streetlights can go unrepaired for months at a time. Vacant properties are scattered throughout most of the city. Much of the infrastructure in the city is now 75 years old or older, and needs to be replaced from age.

Despite the negatives, there are positives to living in the city. Living in the it allows you to be centrally located. No matter where you live, you will be able to get anywhere in metro Detroit in a relatively short period of time. The neighborhoods also seem to be very neighborly. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and they look out for each other - much more than in the suburbs. And of course, there is a wide variety of historic homes to choose from.

I have barely scratched the surface with the photos I've posted here. For instance, the photos in this thread represent less than 1/4 of the Boston-Edison neighborhood. And that doesn't include the neighboring Atkinson Street Historic District or the Arden Park Historic District on the east side of Woodward Avenue. I have Indian Village, Woodbridge, and Corktown neighborhood tours to post, which I will get around to doing eventually. My problem is that I take photos 10 times faster than I can post them! If you were to look at every single Detroit photo I've posted since I joined the forum, you probably would see only about 5% of my total collection.

[bobliocatt]

Great pics. I love the diverse amount of historic architecture in Detroit. Boston-Edison looks like a great place to live. Thanks for posting.

[Dougw]

Houses in Boston-Edison and other historic Detroit neighborhoods are definitely inexpensive for a large metro area. Most of the homes in this Part 2 thread would probably go for $200K to $400K, and these are big homes, usually 3-4000 square feet.

Basically, the city of Detroit has a huge number of these types of homes, so demand is fairly low. And of course the city does have some issues, but its reputation is much worse than the reality, so buying in the city at this point is a good deal IMHO. (I live in the Indian Village neighborhood, a different historic district.) Property values have increased quite a bit over the last 10 years.

[Aaron]

Welcome aboard, Doug!

[Allan]

Welcome to the forum, DougW! I do have an Indian Village Tour coming soon - probably later this week, so be on the lookout for that.

I photographed some more of Woodbridge, Corktown, and the monuments and buildings on Belle Isle this weekend, so I will be posting those tours in the future. I photograph things much faster than I can post them, so those might not be posted for another week or so. So far I am on track to take 15,000 photos this year. Yikes! I am also working on getting some unique photos downtown, which I will take on Tuesday.

I could actually use some suggestions as to what areas I should photograph next. I have several areas in mind, but I am always eager to find some new neighborhoods.

[Dougw]

Thanks guys. (I spend most of my time on the detroit.com (fabulous ruins) forums, but I will have to stop by here periodically to check things out.)

Looking forward to the Indian Village tour. Great Boston-Edison tour, by the way, probably the best online tour of a Detroit neighborhood that I've seen.

[Brother Ray]

I could actually use some suggestions as to what areas I should photograph next.  I have several areas in mind, but I am always eager to find some new neighborhoods.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Allan,

One area I have wanted to capture on film/digital is the Jefferson and Alter Rd area. This is where Detroit meets Grosse Pointe Park. As you head north on Jefferson and appraoch the Pointes, you see a drastic change in scenery - Liquor stores, burned out neighborhoods, etc..... on the Detroit side, and then a tree lined neighborhood with beautiful. This is expecially prominant in the spring and summer months when there are leaves on the trees. The contrast is stunning to say the least.

- BR

[Allan]

I will have to check that out sometime, but I will probably wait until spring. I was outside taking photos today - thanks, but no thanks! It was just too cold!! I handled the 17 degrees Saturday just fine. In fact, I was outside for almost 5 hours straight. But anything less than ten degrees is just awful.

BTW, I was walking out of Compuware today and I noticed that there were people on the marquee of the National Theater. The door to the place was wide open! What is going on there? It is something renovation-related, or something related to the Winter Blast festival?

[Brother Ray]

BTW, I was walking out of Compuware today and I noticed that there were people on the marquee of the National Theater.  The door to the place was wide open!  What is going on there?  It is something renovation-related, or something related to the Winter Blast festival?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No idea, my friend. My best guess is that it's related to the Winter Blast. Camera crews maybe????? Hmmmmm......

[Allan]

At second glance, it looks like it was definately winter blast related. It kind of seemed like maybe they were going to hang signs from the marquee, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out - it was way too cold!

[Allan]

It turns out that I was right. They covered the marquee with a sign. I can't remember what it's a sign for though, LOL.