Historic Boston Edison

Since summer, I've been immersed within a 36-block historic Detroit neighborhood known as Boston Edison.  It  contains approximately 900 houses bordered by Boston Boulevard on the North, Edison Avenue on the South, Woodward Avenue on the east and Linwood on the West. 

The neighborhood's early development was controlled by primarily three families: the Joy, Newberry and Voigt families.  With the majority of homes built between 1905 and 1925 some of Detroit's most prominent turn-of-the century citizens lived here: Henry Ford, James Couzens (Mayor of Detroit from 1919 to 1922 and appointed U.S. Senator), W.O. Briggs (former owner of the Detroit Tigers), Sebatian Kresge (founder of the S.S. Kresge Company) and Ty Cobb (Detroit Tigers center-fielder and Major League Baseball's all-time career batting average leader) .

Working in conjunction with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, work is finishing on four (4) homes subsidized by Federal stimulus money known as the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).  Doing a little research, I found some prominent past owners of two of the homes.

1626 Boston
Clarence W. Avery
In 1918, Avery moved to 1626 W. Boston Boulevard, living there until the early 1920s.

In 1913, Henry Ford hired Clarence Avery for a summer job. A quick learner, Avery became Charles E. Sorensen's assistant.  The two focused on developing the moving assembly line. Although the originator of this idea is uncertain, Avery certainly had the biggest hand in developing it. By timing each step to maximize the speed of production, Avery and Sorensen reduced the assembly time of the Model T from 12.5 hours to 2.7.



Before                                             After

Before                                               After

Before                                                      After

Before                                                     After

 

1216 Edison
Albertus Darnell
Albertus Darnell lived at 1216 Edison from the early 1910s through the late 1940s.

When Detroit Junior College was organized in 1917, Albertus Darnell became head of its Mathematics Department. In 1923, Detroit Junior College was replaced by the City College of Detroit, and Darnell was named Assistant Dean. He continued in this position until City College merged with other institutions to become Wayne (later Wayne State) University in 1934, when he was named Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Darnell continued in this position until his retirement in 1939.



Before                                                         After

Before                                                       After

 

Before                                        After

 

------------------
For additional information go to Historic Boston Edison Association's Website