Yes, yes.
Detroit.
Here’s the image–“Detroit’s like a bombed-out city with a new ballpark”–and that’s wrong.
There are two new ballparks.
I know what you’re thinking: Is this a joke? Didn’t we already do Cleveland? Why would anyone choose Detroit as a weekend destination when Gary is so close?
Well, get ready, folks . . .
The first reason is obvious: Dearborn is 10 miles west.
Dearborn is home to The Henry Ford, the umbrella designation for a cluster of knockout attractions that includes the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour and other things, and we’ll talk about those.
But don’t dismiss Detroit.
Among the ruins of this once-mighty city (with a population down around 900,000, it now ranks 11th in the country, just behind a techno-suburb called San Jose.) are some very cool things.
It’s also far from moribund.
Hit Greektown–a downtown restaurant/bar pocket impacted only slightly (and acceptably) by its casino–and you’ll sense a city with a winner’s swagger. It’s a reasonable walk from there to Comerica Park, home of the Tigers since 2000 and wonderful enough to blunt objections even from baseball-tradition-loving travel writers. (Ford Field, domed new home of the NFL Lions, is next door.)
The old ballpark, Navin-Briggs-Tiger Stadium (since 1912), is still standing, by the way, in whitewashed splendor at Michigan and Trumbull, posing for photos and waiting for someone to figure out what to do with it.
“It’s kind of in limbo,” says Peter Zeiler of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., a public/private agency that watchdogs city development. Attempts to save the entire structure by converting it into something went nowhere, he says, “but we gave it a run.”
Just flattening the thing isn’t a real good option because Detroit already has plenty of flattenings. This would be a very special vacant lot: This is ground where Cobb, Cochrane and Kaline romped. And this will give you chills: On this very ground–then Bennett Park, before it was enlarged onsite–the Cubs won their last two World Series, in 1907 and 1908. (The deciding games were both won 2-0. But you knew that.)
So even if they redevelop the land for condos, townhomes or the mother of all miniature golf courses, there will be a remnant.
“Maybe,” said Zeiler, “the dugouts.”
The city retains much of the cultural life of the 1950 Detroit of 1.85 million: symphony, opera, the magnificent Fox Theatre for shows and concerts, the magnificent Fisher Theatre for Broadway musicals, a first-rate art museum featuring Diego Rivera murals, other things. There may be some intervening grit, but some of it (e.g., the long-shut Book Cadillac Hotel, a spectacular ghost whose restoration might actually happen) is, in its way, fascinating.
What no one else anywhere has is the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, largest of its kind in the world and an absolute stunner.
There is much in its galleries of achievement and courage, but the moment that really sticks: emerging from the dark life-size hold of a slave ship, with its stacked bodies and groans of misery, into a sunny, colonial-style Annapolis courtyard–in time to witness a slave auction.
Then there’s the Motown Historical Museum.
This is where it happened: the Motown Sound. The Supremes, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye. The Jacksons. Martha and the Vandellas. So many more. A place of Miracles.
All recorded in a little studio in a Detroit neighborhood bungalow. All preserved. The piano. The drum set. On the walls, photos from the sessions: Diana Ross leaning against this piano.
“The first echo chamber,” says guide Kris Hembrick, “was actually in the bathroom. But that didn’t work out too well, because people had to use the bathroom . . . “
The second one, in the attic, worked. It’s still there. And music. Sweet music.
“You see the full range of emotion,” says Theresa Robinson, director of museum services. “People–they spontaneously break into dance. That’ll never cease to amaze me . . . “
Sure, there are downsides in Detroit. Woodward Avenue, still site of the city’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, is essentially a shell. Where Hudson’s, the signature department store, stood is a slab covering underground parking; other storefronts are just fronts.
“You’re never going to see department stores on Woodward again,” Zeiler concedes. The best-case future: small-scale shops, with residential lofts above them.
“You could easily fit in a Gap, an Urban Outfitters, a Banana Republic,” he says. The lofting, Zeiler says, has already begun. “In the last eight months, we have opened up about 450 new lofts in the central business district alone. Of those 450, they’re probably running about 80 percent occupancy. They’re filling up as fast as we can build them.”
An upside, down Woodward: the 2-year-old Compuware Headquarters Building, a 16-story beauty that, on its street level, has a Ben & Jerry’s, Border’s Books and a Hard Rock Cafe. Right there: Campus Martius, new, a garden/park with a fountain, music and, some nights, movies. More construction is happening, adding to a base of architectural variety that includes two Daniel Burnham survivors, a bunch of fine 1920s skyscrapers (some in better shape than others) and the five-tower Renaissance Center, now GM’s headquarters and finally successful after some shaky times.
And a nice riverfront, where festivals happen.
What’s missing, of course, is people. The run to the fringes began in earnest in the 1960s and continues. Away from the lively pockets–the ballparks, Greektown–or when the townspeople aren’t celebrating some kind of sports championship (Pistons, Red Wings), the central city can feel kind of desolate. But with properly adjusted blinders, for weekend visitors it’s just not that bad.
“If we can just get people here and show them what a great time it is,” says Laura Coniglio, of the city’s convention and visitors bureau, “we can change people’s minds.”
Dearborn, with The Henry Ford, needs no such hype. It is, and has been, one of the Midwest’s singular attractions, and with reason.
Briefly:
The Henry Ford Museum. A collection of vehicles, appliances, machinery and memorabilia like no other west of the Smithsonian. Here, under one roof, are power generators, old TV sets showing everybody’s favorite Maypo commercial, a 1960 McDonald’s sign, the bus Rosa Parks rode into civil rights history and the limousine in which John Kennedy was killed.
Among the available souvenirs: a $63 scale model of that Lincoln Continental, complete with occupants (yes, Jackie in the pink pillbox hat). “I got that for my son,” said a saleswoman. “He loves it.”
Greenfield Village. A sprawling historical park (bring good shoes) featuring reconstructed and genuine buildings representing ordinary and extraordinary Americana. The Wright Brothers’ bike shop, where they built that famous airplane, was lifted right out of Dayton, Ohio, and planted here. Here, too, is an 1840 courthouse, once in what’s now Lincoln, Ill., where the namesake president practiced law. “Even the plaster is the original plaster,” said interpreter Cindy Hudson. “They took it off, chopped it up, reground it and put it back on the wall.”
Edison’s workshops are fabrications, but alongside two genuine Georgia slave houses you might see Madelyn Porter hold crowds spellbound as orator Sojourner Truth. “I had an audience several times with Mr. Lincoln. . . . Oh, I’ve lived a life. . . .”
Ford Rouge Factory Tour. This isn’t your basic brewery tour. Little more than a year old, the tour’s two films set the mood: one a first-rate documentary of the development of Ford’s company (including a straightforward chapter on labor strife in the 1930s), the second a 360-degree thrill ride (you’ll feel the heat of the steel mills). Then there’s the factory, which, if it’s operating, will be assembling Ford F-150 pickups. You will be enthralled, even before you’re told secrets by folks on the observation decks. “Now, this is really scary,” explained Herb Mentzer. “You got four bolts. If you put in three and somebody says something to you and you turn away and you forget and go to the next car, the wrench knows you didn’t put the fourth bolt in. The wrench will stop the line.” Be warned.
It takes two days to give everything the attention it deserves. If there’s time left over, the Automotive Hall of Fame (just what it sounds like) is right down the road.
Better: Only months old, Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum, set in the heart of America’s largest Arab American community (490,000 in Michigan, most here in the southeast), is a timely reminder that Ellis Island wasn’t just the entry point of Irish, Italians and Eastern Europeans. From the oral histories: “We could see the Statue of Liberty. The morning was beautiful. We all cried. `Here we are now in New York’ . . . “
Dearborn. Detroit. A shared experience.
And that’s no joke.
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DETROIT/ DEARBORN
Population
Detroit 900,198
Dearborn 97,775
Claim to fame
Detroit is a cultural center, great sports town and creator of the Motown sound; Dearborn is home of Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum and the Arab American National Museum. Together, they’re the hub of America’s automobile industry.
Nearby
Windsor (Canada), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), two Great Lakes (Huron and Erie) and one near-great (St. Clair).
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A WEEKEND IN DETROIT AND DEARBORN
GETTING THERE
Interstate Highway 94 (or I-90 into I-94) all the way. About 280 miles; with the inevitable roadwork, figure 5 hours. Nice option: Amtrak has three daily trains between Chicago and Detroit (about 5 1/2 hours); one inbound and two outbound stop at Greenfield Village. Fare is $50 round trip. Recent round-trip airfares out of O’Hare (American, Northwest, United) and Midway (Northwest) were about $125; flight time is about an hour, and it could take you nearly that long to drive from the airport to central Detroit. All fares are subject to change.
STAYING THERE
There are good hotels in downtown Detroit, though most are geared for the business/convention crowd (and therefore may cut rates drastically on weekends). A few particularly useful lodgings for leisure travelers (and all rates are subject to change): two right by the People Mover (see below)–a Courtyard by Marriott (from $139) and a Holiday Inn Express (from $88); the Atheneum Suite Hotel (from $189) in the heart of Greektown; and the Hilton Garden Suites, convenient to Greektown and Comerica Park (from $129). But if the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village is the priority, and especially for families, best bet is probably Dearborn. Among the finer choices: The Dearborn Inn, a lovely, historic Marriott property (from $119 weekends; much higher during the week). Just north of the museum complex on Michigan Avenue and convenient: a Hampton Inn (from $109), Quality Inn (from $79) and Village Inn (from $60). Well-positioned on I-94 (though construction makes things a little sloppy) and side-by-side in neighboring Allen Park: the Best Western Greenfield Inn (from $89) and a Holiday Inn Express (from $99). And for a bargain taste of the good life: the Dearborn Ritz-Carlton drops to $139 on weekends (that’s about a $100 break), with attractive museum-ticket packages as well.
DINING THERE
Much of the restaurant world followed the money into the suburbs, but don’t dismiss Detroit as a food town. There’s the usual core of big-ticket places that serve the expense-account crowd; hottest (but unsampled) is probably Coach Insignia, atop the 72-story Renaissance Center.
For the rest of us, there’s Greektown, site of one of downtown’s three casinos and which isn’t all Greek anymore. Two that are: Cyprus Taverna (go with the lamb) and (I’m assured) Pegasus Taverna. Same area: Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen Cafe, a big, lively and fun Cajun (plus sushi!) just reopened after a fire; and the spiffy, jazz-infused Sweet Georgia Brown (specialty: fried lobster). For something you won’t find in Chicago, seek out the Cadieux Cafe, a holdout in what was the nation’s largest Belgian enclave, basically a neighborhood bar with 25 Belgian beers, lots of mussels and, of course, featherbowling. Two outlets of the local Andiamo empire of quality Italian restaurants are in Detroit (in the Ren Center) and Dearborn. Also in Dearborn, home to a huge Middle Eastern community, two of the many La Shish restaurants (another local empire); the less-adventurous will like Kiernan’s, a standard steakhouse with an Irish accent, and Cheli’s Chili Bar, owned by the ex-Blackhawk (a second outlet opens downtown soon).
And don’t leave Detroit without trying a Coney dog, a civic specialty (despite the Brooklyn name): chili, mustard and raw onions over a hot dog.
They’re everywhere, but two classic downtown Coneys, side-by-side: Layafette and, next door, American.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONLY ONE MEAL
The Roma Cafe (3401 Riopelle, Detroit; 313-831-5940) has been serving red sauce Italian in the old Eastern (produce) Market area since 1890, and by the same family since 1920. This is a city-lover’s restaurant–it feels like 1947–and the stories it could tell . . .
KID-FRIENDLINESS
Extraordinary. For kids old enough to know a little history, the Henry Ford alone (the Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, Rouge Factory Tour) is worth the trip, especially with some advance planning and time to do them leisurely. Add the African American Museum and a ballgame, and you have a weekend for the ages.
YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Detroit People Mover travels in a loop within the central city that connects the Renaissance Center, Joe Louis Arena (Red Wings hockey) and Greektown, and gets close to Comerica Park. It doesn’t go everywhere you’ll want to go, but at 50 cents a ride, can be handy. . . . Canada is just across the river, and Windsor has its pleasures (shopping, dining, a big casino with entertainment, others). Bring two government-issued IDs (passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, etc.). Information: www.visitwindsor.com. . . . Patience: I-94 through much of Detroit is under reconstruction and a mess, with reduced lanes–but it’s passable. Same with Michigan Avenue, a major link between Detroit and Dearborn. Chicagoans, of course, will take it in stride. . . . Worth every penny: Prices at The Henry Ford: the Ford Museum ($14, $10 for kids 5-12), Greenfield Village ($19, $14) and Ford Rouge Factory tour ($14, $10) are priced separately, but combo tickets bring that down a bit. With limited capacity and heavy demand, advance purchase of tickets for the Ford Rouge Factory Tour is essential. Call 313-982-6001 or use the Web site: www.thehenryford.org. . . . More at the Ford: “Behind the Magic: 50 Years of Disneyland,” which promises a look behind the secrets of Disney’s pioneer theme park, debuts at the Ford Museum on Sept. 23 before touring nationally next year. Tickets will be $24, $20 for kids, which includes museum admission. . . . Sweet music: Motown Historical Museum admission: $8 and worth it, especially if you’re a grownup. Free parking next door. . . . Do not miss the Museum of African American History. . . . Detroit’s zoo, with a good rep, is especially proud of its new Arctic exhibit. . . . This year’s Ford Detroit Jazz Festival is Sept. 2-5, downtown. . . . Next year’s Super Bowl XL (that’s XL as in 40, not extra large) will be here, at Ford Field, on Feb. 5. The Lions (then in Pontiac) last hosted in 1982 (49ers 26, Bengals 21), and the football writers weren’t thrilled to be here then either. For tickets: Be a corporate sponsor. Or befriend one. . . . Meanwhile, there’s baseball at Comerica: For Tigers tix, call 248-258-4437; www.detroittigers.com. Or wait till you get here (sellouts hardly happen). Prices start at $5, but bring strong binocs; upgrade at least for the $12 Upper Reserved; best deal between the bases: $25 Club seats. Not a weekend, but the White Sox hit town for four games, Sept. 26-29. . . . The Detroit Lions (Ford Field) and Red Wings (Joe Louis Arena) also play downtown. The Pistons’ home is the Palace at Auburn Hills in the northern ‘burbs, near Pontiac. . . . Planning ahead: The NCAA Final Four will be here in 2009, the NCAA hockey finals a year later. . . . If you must: The three Detroit casinos are downtown but scattered. Changes are coming.
INFORMATION
For Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford, 800-835-5237; www.thehenryford.org.
For Detroit, contact the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, 800-338-7648; www.visitdetroit.com.
— Alan Solomon
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asolomon@tribune.com
