Reviving Detroit's "Potato Patch Plan"



A seated Hazen Pingree 

overlooks Grand Circus Park

Detroit is in the midst of the worst depression in its history.  Its city treasury is almost empty.  Some 25,000 Detroit men are unemployed.  Huge swaths of land sit vacant after a predicted real estate boom instead becomes a bust.


The people elect a Republican mayor who promises to reform City government.  He promises to end corruption in city paving and sewer contracts.  He promises to reform a corrupt school board.  He dedicates himself to fighting privately owned utility monopolies by creating the municipally-owned Public Lighting Department.  He fights to reduce streetcar fares by threatening to also create a municipally owned streetcar system.  But chief among all of the new Mayor's accomplishments is a welfare program known as the "Potato Patch Plan" that launches him into national prominence.

Michigan's 24th Governor
Hazen Pingree in 1885
photo credit

Now at this point, you might be confused about exact what period in Detroit history I'm describing.  It's the year 1894 and Mayor Hazen Pingree continues his first term, serving a City deep within the grip of the Panic of 1893.  During this second summer of the panic, Mayor Pingree executes a plan which will systematically use vacant city land for gardens which will produce food for the city's poor.  He auctions his $1,300 prized horse for $387 to raise funds for the securing of 430 acres of vacant land.

The location of the Detroit's "Potato Patches"
from an 1894 government report
Image credit

The City's clergy and aristocracy vehemently opposed the program claiming that "unemployed men were too lazy to work", "they would steal one another's crops" and "potato bugs would invade the city".

A group of women heading out to a potato patch circa 1890
Photo credit

In the first year, 3,000 families applied to participate, but only 945 were accepted.  Each of these first lucky families was given a one-half acre plot.  By the end of the first year, roughly $14,000 worth of food was harvested.  In 1895 and 1896, 1,546 and 1,701 families were respectively accepted into the program.  In 1896, the value of food grown by participating families was estimated at $30,998, significantly more than the amount paid out by the City's poor commission.  The program was an unprecedented success and immediately silenced its critics.  That same year, Mayor Pingree cashed in on his political successes and won a campaign to became Michigan's 24th governor.

It seems clear that as urban agriculture grows in popularity as a way to re-activate Detroit's 4,484 acres of publicly owned vacant land, that Detroit's history can act as a guide.  Mayor Hazen Pingree has proven success.  Mayor Frank Murphy, whose 1931 Thrift Gardens program (modeled after Mayor Pingree's) has proven success.  In 2010, researchers at Michigan State University concluded that modern urban farming efforts "could supply local residents with more than 75 percent of their vegetables and more than 40 percent of their fruits—a boon for a city where many residents live in food deserts."

The difference between today's efforts and those of the past lies in their permanency.  Where in the past agriculture efforts subsided after economic conditions improved, today's urban farms may prove to be fixed in Detroit's landscape as economic conditions and population loses are unlikely to change.  But no matter what role urban farming plays in Detroit's future, Detroit's past contains stories of success that can be effectively used to silence today's critics and skeptics.

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1. Follow this link for more details on Mayor Hazen Pingree's "Potato Patch Plan."
2. Follow this link to Michigan State University's 2010 study Growing Food in the City: The Production Potential of Detroit’s Vacant Land (PDF)
3. Follow this link to more more information on Mayor Frank Murphy's "Thrift Gardens."