From Axum to Hart Plaza

Part 5 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac makes his way along the Detroit River (known to the French as the strait of Lake Erie) searching for a point to land. It's 1701 and he chooses a position where the channel is about one-half-mile wide and his cannon stand "one gunshot across" the river. On this spot he founds Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit.

Fort Pontchartrain in 1701

For the next hundred years, the small fur trading settlement and military garrison would struggle to thrive, withstanding occupation by the French, the British (who take control in 1760 during the French Indian war), Native Americans (who lay siege to the Fort in 1763 during Pontiac's Rebellion) and finally the Americans (through the Jay Treaty of 1796). In fact, in 1805 the entire city burned to the ground except for a river warehouse and a few brick chimneys. In a period of peace between the French and British, the French actually voted to abandon the fort. The order was thankfully never executed. However, Cadillac's dream of displacing Fort Michilimackinac and trading posts to the north as the capitol of fur trade all but died particularly because of its inaccessibility both by land (connections to Toledo were frequently in passable) and water (lake Erie was considered by many more dangerous than the Atlantic).

Detroit riverfront in 1820

But the fortunes of the settlement suddenly changed because of two events in the early 1800s. First, in 1818 the first steamboats began to regularly appear on Lake Erie. Now scheduled trips from Buffalo to Detroit could be achieved (something that sailing vessels driven by the wind had never been able to accomplish). Second, the Erie Canal was completed in 1825 by the state of New York. The canal linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie and the port towns of the Great Lakes. The canal, along with the Great Lakes steamers, offered an inexpensive water route by which to move settlers and their possessions westward and the fruits of their labor eastward to market.

Detroit Fire of 1805

Woodward's Detroit Plan

1807

Shortly after the fire of 1805, Woodward laid-out a new plan for the City, modeled after Pierre Charles L'Enfant's plan for Washington DC. The land was sub-divided and in 1818 first offered either for sale or as compensation to those who lost property in the fire. Detroit's population swelled and its economy transformed itself from fur-trade, to agriculture and to finally manufacturing. By the late 1800s, major manufacturing facilities occupied the Detroit riverfront. In 1870 came Parke-Davis, in the 1890s came the Frederick Stearns Company, in 1888 came the Globe Tobacco manufacturing facility and in 1860 came the Detroit Dry Dock Engine Works (where Henry Ford would work as a young engineer). 

The Detroit Riverfront circa 1950
Pre-Civic Center Development

By the early 1900s, Henry Ford's automobile industry became king. It drew tens of thousands of new residents, particularly workers from the south, making Detroit the US's fourth largest city. At the same time, tens of thousands of European immigrants located in the city. But the requirement that industry be centrally located along the Detroit riverfront was no longer necessary. Railroad, truck and air transportation, if not equaled, outpaced water travel. By the end of World War II, the old riverfront industries begin to abandon the Detroit riverfront.

 

Hart Plaza

In 1947, Eliel Saarinen and his son Eero, developed a master plan for a new Detroit civic center which incorporated restoring public access to the riverfront. Construction began in 1950 with the Veterans Memorial Building (Today's Ford/UAW Building). The Saarinens' original vision for the waterfront was "as a predominantly green sweep of lawn and naturalistic tree clusters gently terracing to the river." The actual hard surfaced 14 acre plaza deviates considerably from this vision. 

Isamu Noguchi's Pylon

But despite these changes, in 1975, on more or less the site at which Cadillac landed, Philip A. Hart Plaza opened. Named for the late U.S. Senator Philip Hart, it marks the intersection of the southernmost terminus of Detroit's main north-south boulevard, Woodward Avenue, and the Detroit river front. Although Isamu Noguchi's Horace Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain is the center piece of the plaza, a second Noguchi piece known as the Pylon stands at the intersection. Set on a low rectangular plinth, the obelisks rises 120 feet in joined polished steel sections, subtly making a quarter turn as it reaches it full height. Its bright and reflective surface mimics the cylindrical towers of the Renaissance Center (now GM World Headquarters) that form the Pylon's backdrop.  

A stelae field in Axum

The tradition of marking places of significant importance with obelisks can be traced to many cultures. One of the oldest traditions can be found in Axum, Ethiopia. Here you will find remnants of what Ethiopians call "hawilt/hawilti" or stele. It is here you will find what is believed to be an ancient burial ground for the royal class of the Kingdom of Aksum, where tombs are marked by a field of more than 120 stone carved stelae dating back to 300-500 AD. Each stelae are carved from a single piece of granite and stand as high as 82 feet (the tallest stelae of 108 feet appears to have fallen shortly after it was erected).

The rounded peak

False door at the base

But what is most interesting about these stelae is how they are carved. For like the Noguchi Pylon which dances in the horizon with its neighboring modern skyscraper, these Aksumite stelae are themselves meant to represent ancient skyscrapers up to thirteen stories in height. Although actual Aksumite buildings probably never exceeded a maximum of three stories, they are accurate representations of how taller structures would have been built. The stellae have representative stone doors carved at their feet simulating wooden ones, some even incised with locks. Further up the monoliths, false four-holed windows have been hewn into the rock. Timber, used widely for structural support, is recalled by the false square beam-ends that project as if serving a functional purpose through the stelae "walls." The stelae terminate in rounded peaks marked with fixing holes that once held nails, possibly intended to fasten symbolic icons.

So if you find yourself gazing up at the Pylon in Hart Plaza while enjoying one of its many festivals and/or celebrations, remind yourself of the ancient Ethiopian tradition of building stone carve obelisks known as stele that represent possibly humankind's first attempt to build skyscrapers.

The Queen of Sheba and Prince Hall

Part 4 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)

Metropolitan Detroit
Prince Hall Masonic Temple

You've probably driven by it many times. A non-descript building that seems to blend in with its aging neighbors at the corner of Gratiot and McDougal Avenues. But on its front a sign reads, "Metropolitan Detroit Prince Hall Masonic Temple". And it's this small sign that signifies the building's connection with both African-American and African history.


Prince Hall

To explain the story of Prince Hall, one must go back to 1775, when a group of fourteen free-by-birth African-Americans were made Masons by an Irish Military Lodge. Now Mason in this context is meant to refer to Freemasons and in 1784, the Grand Lodge of England chartered African Lodge No. 459 in Boston with Prince Hall as its first Worshipful Master.

Freemasons opened lodges throughout the US, reaching Michigan in 1864.  In 1873, Michigan Prince Hall masons sought recognition from their white counter parts, the Grand Lodge of Michigan. Their request would go unanswered.  It would take almost a half a century for  Prince Hall masons to receive this recognition.  Even today, only 41 out of 51 State Grand Lodges formally recognize them.

In reality, there is very little difference between the two types of Freemasons.  And by no means are Prince Hall lodges exclusively African-American.  Both use the imagery of stone mason tools, as used to construct King Solomon's Temple, to convey moral and ethical lessons on "Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth." To both, King Solomon's Temple is the "most stable and the most magnificent structure that ever existed." All masonic temples are designed with features that can be directly traced to King Solomon's Temple.

Model of King Solomon's Temple

King Solomon would complete construction of his Jerusalem Temple around 950 BCE. Its remains are believed to be located beneath what is today the “Dome of the Rock” where Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad rose to heaven.  It was within this original Temple that the Ark of the Covenant was stored.  The ark is said to contain the stone tablets engraved by God with the ten commandments.
 

The Queen of Sheba travelling
to Jerusalem

One of the best known stories of the Hebrew Bible as well as the Qur'an and Ethiopia's Kebra Negast is that of Queen Sheba's visit to King Solomon. Most believe she was a ruler of the kingdom of Seba that included parts of today's Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen. She is said to have been drawn to the King because of the fame of his wisdom and wealth.

Our Lady Mary of Zion
Home of the Ark of the Covenant

It is the Ethiopian account that ends with King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba having a son, Menelik I. He would return to Ethiopia as the first king of Aksum.  Menelik I's rein would begin the world's longest continually ruling monarch. Lasting 2900+ years, finally ending in 1974.  He and the Queen of Sheba are believed to have brought home to Ethiopia the Ark of the Covenant, which to this day is said to remain in Axum's Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. It remains closed to public view and guarded by a single priest.

Dongar Palace

The Queen of Sheba built a palace in 1000 BCE.  Excavated in 1952, the remains of this palace, which is believed to have also held the Ark of the Covenant, lies just outside of Axum at Dongar.  And like Detroit's Prince Hall Masonic Temple, blends into its surrounding, giving little clues of its historical and religious significance. It sits waiting for someone to revitalize its forgotten regality.

  So the next time you pass by 3100 Gratiot Avenue, give yourself a moment to glance at the Prince Hall Masonic Temple and to recognize the significance of its African-American history and its connection to the Queen of Sheba's palace in Axum, Ethiopia.

From Abu Simbel to Brewster-Douglass Homes

Part 3 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)

Brewster High-Rise
under construction

During the 1930s, the US was deep within the grip of the Great Depression. And for African-Americans living in Detroit, the effects were most severe. Jim Crow laws limited where they could live, and migration of African-Americans from the south exacerbated overcrowded living conditions.

The Supremes at
Brewster-Douglass

Eleanor Roosevelt, deeply affected by her firsthand experience of New York City’s tenement slums, and a lifetime advocate of African-American civil rights, came to Detroit to break ground on the first publicly funded housing development dedicated to African-Americans (Jefferies Homes further west was built for whites).

Vacant Brewster Homes

Begun in 1935 and completed over the next two decades, Brewster-Douglass Homes would surge to between 8,000-10,000 residents. Counted among its famous residents are: Dianna Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Lily Tomlin and Smokey Robinson. As part of an expansion in 1952, ground was broken on six 14-story high-rise

Vacant Brewster High-Rises

apartment buildings. Today, the project is partially abandoned. Half reborn in the 1990s as the new Brewster Homes. The other half left vacant, best recognized by four of the remaining high rise towers that loom over an equally vacant site.

But in 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt’s action continued a tradition of first ladies fighting for causes alongside their Presidential husbands. The list of causes is long and includes Lady Bird Johnson’s pioneering environmental protection, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s healthcare system reforms and Michelle Obama’s fight against childhood obesity.

Painting of Nefertari

Thousands of years earlier, another first lady aided her husband’s rule over one of the world’s greatest empires. Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1279 BC – 1213 BC. By his side ruled one of the best known Egyptian queens, Nefertari. And though we may not know the specific details of her contributions, it is clear that she played a significant role in both state and religious

Nefertari with Ramses II at both sides

affairs. Her importance is reflected in her titles: “The One for Whom the Sun Shines”, “The Lady of all the Lands”, “The Great King’s Wife” and “The Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt”. She is known to have corresponded with and offered gifts to the Queen of the Hittites, Egypt’s rival to the north. A people with whom Ramses II would carve in stone what is the world’s oldest surviving international peace treaty.  Though she would give the king 10 of his 100+ children, it would be the child of one his other wives that would eventually succeed him.

Approaching Abu Simbel
 from Lake Nasser

At Abu Simbel, her influence is forever carved in stone. She is the only queen whose statue stands equal to Ramses II. Rising over Egypt’s southern border, it served as a warning of Egypt’s power to its enemies. And like the Taj Mahal built some 2500 years later, it also serves as a display of Ramses II’s love for his favorite wife.

The interior of Nefertari's Temple

Discovered in 1814 near today’s border between Egypt and Sudan, it is composed of two temples. The first is a cliff temple where four 60 foot high statues of Ramses II decorate its façade. Inside, some 14 rooms penetrate almost 200 feet back into solid rock. Five hundred feet away a second temple is dedicated to Nefertari. Within its façade also are carved colossal statues of Ramses II and Nefertari rising some 30 feet into the sky.

Because of threats from flooding due to the construction of Aswan Dam on Lake Nasser, the entire complex between 1963 and 1968 was sawed out of rock, and reassembled some 200 feet higher. The construction feat would rival the engineering of the original structure. The success of the project allows one of the greatest queens of Egypt to continue to live forever at Abu Simbel.

From Meroë to the Senilac Peroglyphs

Part 2 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)
 
Some 1,000 years ago, a Native American sat down next to a slab of sandstone near the Cass River just outside what was to be Bad Axe, Michigan and began carving. Undiscovered until a brush fire revealed his work in 1881, the carvings depict swirls, lines, handprints, flying birds, and bow-wielding men. Known as the Senilac Petroglyphs, the artist’s tribe remains unknown. Archaeologists theorize that the site was a tribal meeting place, making the site for some, mystical and sacred. Damaged by natural weathering and graffiti, our time to discover their true purpose is limited.

Thousands of miles away, deep within the African country of Sudan, along the Nile River’s 5th and 6th cataracts, lies what is considered to be the world’s largest archaeological site. What remains are remnants of a completely unstudied civilization. And like the petroglyphs of Sanilac, Michigan, they are in danger of being lost forever.

The center pieces of the ruins are pyramids. But these pyramids share distinctly different characteristics from their more well know cousins to the north in Giza, Egypt. And incredulously, they outnumber them by some 200 spread over three complexes. Their style is unique and undeniably African.

They are built of stepped courses of horizontally positioned stone blocks and range from approximately 19 to 98 feet in height, but rise from fairly small foundation footprints that rarely exceed 26 feet in width, resulting in tall, narrow structures inclined at approximately seventy degrees. Most also have offering temple structures abutting their base. By comparison, Egyptian pyramids of similar height generally had foundation footprints that were at least five times larger and were inclined at angles of between forty and fifty degrees. These Sudanese pyramids use smaller blocks, and unlike the Egyptians, are monuments over tombs.

So who were these people who were such prolific pyramid builders? There is very little that archaeologists can acknowledge. Our understanding is limited due to our inability to decipher their unique language, Meroitic Script. But what we do know is that from about 760 BC, the Nubians of the Kush Empire invaded and conquered Egypt beginning the period of the Black Pharaohs. They made Meroë (pronounced mayor-way) their capitol. They built Jebel Barkel (or Napata) as a sign that Egypt belongs to Nubia. And for their Kings and Queens, who ruled equally, they built these distinctly Nubian pyramids. Their kingdom would last longer than the Egyptians and would end with their defeat by another African empire, the Kingdom of Axum in 656 BC.

So as one gazes at these desert ruins, I hope one is inspired to understand a forgotten and unstudied people. And like me, realize that there is a rich and distinctively African history that remains to be studied. A history that can refute notions as expressed by the philosopher David Hume,

I am apt to suspect the Negroes and in general all the other species of Men (for there are four or five different kinds) to be naturally inferior to whites. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white, nor even any individual eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufacturers amongst them, no arts, no sciences.

Our history remains to be discovered, not ignored, in Meroë.

Timbuktu and the Detroit Public Schools

Part 1 of 13 in our journey for Timbuktu to Kalamzoo
(connecting landmarks in Michigan and African history)

Half of all Detroit public schools will be closed by 2014. 59 schools were closed in 2010 and another 70 schools were announced to be closed in 2011. Student enrollment has been halved over the last decade, falling 83,336. [1] Schools are being closed so quickly, that they are not fully emptied and sealed as if frozen in time. The School District’s graduation rate is 62.27%.[2]

It seems unlikely that this condition would find similarity with a city thousands of miles away along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, just north of the Niger River within the West African country of Mali. Present day Timbuktu (or Timbuctoo) is a city of 54,000 that has long since succumbed to political and economic decline. But at its peak during the 15th and 16th centuries (under rule of the Songhay empire), 25,000 students (one quarter of its population) studied at its universities. It was the center of the Islamic intellectual world, and the site of one the world’s first universities (Sankoré Madrasah or Sankoré University).[3]

The salt comes from the north, the gold from the south and the money from the whites, but the stories of God…these we find at Timbuktu.[4]

An author,Granadan born Hasan ben Muhammed al-Wazzan-ez-Zayyati, but known to Europeans as Leo Africanus, would write about his travels to Timbuktu in 1510 in his book Descrittione dell'Africa (Description of Africa). His own biography is just as fascinating, which includes being sold into slavery, being baptized and freed by Pope Leo X, and possibly serving as the basis for Shakespeare’s character Othello.[5]

In Timbuktu there are numerous judges, scholars and priest, all well paid by the king, who show great respect to men of learning. Many manuscript books coming from Barbary are sold. Such sales are more profitable than any other goods.[6]

His descriptions fascinated Europeans, but it wouldn’t be until 1828 that the first European would live to return and provide their own firsthand account (Frenchman René Caillié). By that time, the City had long been ravaged by decline.

What remains are no fewer than 700,000 manuscripts on a multitude of topics that have been taught at Timbuktu since near its beginning. For 400 years, these Arabic manuscripts have been passed from family to family as proof of its former glory. Their topics include, but are not limited to astronomy, law, mathematics and history. Scholars are just beginning to uncover their unstudied Black African secrets.

But for all the monument that have been reduced to rubble and for all the other terrible cruelties visited upon the African people, the denial of their fundamental equality of intellect has been, perhaps, the most long lastingly destructive. It is this denial of the mind of Africa that the legacy of Timbuktu refutes with devastating finality.[7]

Funding from the Malian government, UNESCO, Arab governments and international foundations fund the Timbuktu Manuscript Project which is attempting to preserve and catalogue these volumes.

Today, the word Timbuktu is synominous with places that are impossible to reach. Perhaps as Detroit attempts to reinvent itself and the world begins to recognize Timbuktu’s legacy, a City can be inspired to reform its educational system and more importantly inspire its youth to reach their full potential.

--------------------------------------------------
[1] CNN Money Article dated February 22, 2011 by Ben Rooney, Michigan Approves Plan to Close Half its Schools.
[2] Detroit Free Press Article dated January 16, 2012 by Kristi Tanner, Database: Dropout and graduation rates for Michigan public schools.
[3] Said Hamdun & Noël King (edds.), Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. London 1975, pp. 52-53.
[4] Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, Wonders of the African World, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999, p. 143-144.
[5] Verde, Tom (2008), A Man of Two Worlds, Saudi Aramco World (January/February 2008): 2–9.
[6] Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi’s Ta’rikh Al-Sudan Down to 1613 and other Contemporary Documents, trans. John Hunwick (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1999), 280-281.
[7] Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, Wonders of the African World, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999, p. 146.

Filling the Historical Void

THIS BLOG WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN FEBRUARY 2012

About two years ago, I finished reading Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s, Wonders of the African World and Basil Davidson's, The Lost Cities of Africa. In two weeks of reading, I learned more about the architectural history of Africa than in my seven years earning degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning. I am deeply affected by at best ignorance and at worst blatant denial of this history. I find it almost criminal that not one architectural history course felt African architecture (excluding the pyramids) even worthy of a passing mention.

In order to celebrate Black History month, I'd like to do my part to fill the void of ignorance. It's a history that I hope appeals to everyone, since the principals of good building are not culturally or ethnically exclusive. And as the saying goes, those that do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.

It therefore seems appropriate to start with the City of Timbuktu. It's the story of the world's first university. It's a story that runs juxtaposed to the problems of almost every urban school district, where schools are being closed due to attrition, where schools are chronically plagued with low state test scores and graduation rates. Could revealing the intellectual power of Timbuktu motivate young African-Americans to demand more from our broken public school systems? One can only hope.

Below is our itinerary. We will disembark at Timbuktu, weave our way along the Nile river, through the Sudan, along the east African coast passing through Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. We'll pick up again along the west African coast to find the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali and the Ashante architecture of Ghana. We'll visit South Africa and one of the worlds most unique resorts, Sun City. And we'll end our trip in Ghana, the first African nation to declare its independance from colonial power.  I hope you enjoy the journey.

From Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
1. Timbuktu and the Detroit Public Schools
2. From Meroe to the Senilac Petroglyphs
3. From Abu Simbel to Brewster-Douglass Homes
4. The Queen of Sheba and Prince Hall
5. From Aksum to Hart Plaza
6. From Lalibela to Sacred Heart
7. From Zanzibar to the Shrine of the Black Madanna
8. From Kilwa Kisiwani to Highland Park
9. The Spirit of the Great Zimbabwe and the Memorial to Joe Louis
10. From the Detroit Bungalow to the Ashanti Traditional Home
11. From The Great Mosque of Djenne to Muhammad’s Temple No. 1
12. From Sun City to Motor City
13. From Accra to Kalamazoo

For a comprehensive list of African heritage sites as determined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) go to: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list

Taking Comfort in Wayne County's Hines Park

I was recently part of a team asked to analyze the condition of more than 20 comfort stations that are linked like a necklace along Hines Drive.  Similar to Fairmount Park in my home town of Philadelphia, the park follows the Middle Rouge River as it weaves more than 15 miles south towards the Detroit river starting in Northville and ending in Dearborn Heights.  It's an amazing park system with an equally amazing history.

Upper Hines Park
Image credit: Mobile Maplets

Lower Hines Park
Image credit: Mobile Maplets

The vision of the park became focused during the turn of the 20th century and was guided by the "Good Roads Movement."  This movement led to the creation of  Wayne County's first road commission.  It's first commissioners would include Cass Benton, Henry Ford, and Edward Hines (who the park was re-named for in 1937).

As with many of the landmarks in Southeastern Michigan, the park came to fruition partly through the partnership Mr. Ford forged with his fellow road commissioners. Per an agreement between Mr. Ford and the commission, road improvements and land acquisitions were made between 1920 and 1933 as part of Mr. Ford's experiment with village industries.  By 1944, all the lands and mills associated with the experiment were turned over to the county and incorporated into the park.

During the Great Depression, more park land was acquired and many of the comfort stations were built as part of President Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration or W.P.A.   Many highlight distinctive architectural styles which feature corbeling brick, limestone keystones and quoins, steeply pitched slate roofs and their original leaded windows.

Below are photos of some of the more memorable comfort stations:

Plymouth Riverside
Patterned after a train station, this structure features intricate brick and stone detailing, leaded windows and a slate roof.  Per the stone marker that sits prominently at the base of it west elevation chimney, the building was completed in 1930.

Gunsolly Mills
Built on the former site of a carding mill used by Henry Ford's family, the exterior of this small, symmetric, comfort station has been restored to included copper gutters, copper roof flashing and copper snow guards.

Cass Benton
Situated on land gifted to the park by one of the first Wayne County Road Commissioners, Cass Benton, this Tudor styled station sits hidden along one the parks tree covered trails.

Haggerty
Named after one of Wayne County's early Road Commissioners, John Haggerty, the building was completed in 1937 by Jesse Merle Bennett.  The Tudor styled building was meant to launch the concept of the round the clock travel center.  Original plans called for the building to be occupied by a 24 hour attendant.

Inkster

Kinloch 

Though not located directly along the Middle Rouge River, these almost identical comfort stations feature Tudor detailing.  In particularly, the walls are decorated with multi-colored glazed, corbeled brick.

Kinloch has been serving the picnic and play areas that line the Lola Valley Creek in Redford Township since 1933.

Inkster sits along the lower Rouge River within the heart of the City of Inkster.

Newburg Pointe
The lake was originally constructed as a millpond around 1819.  In 1935, the old cider mill was demolished by Henry Ford and replaced with a new "Village Industry Plant". In 1997, the entire pond was drained, decontaminated and restocked with fish.  The Tudor style building was built in 1935 and continues to also serve as a canoe livery.

Perrin

These almost identical comfort stations include round leaded windows, slate roofs and once featured copper cupolas topped with spires.  Perrin's original construction drawings date to 1955.

Warrendale

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Sources:
Nancy Darga, "Historic Summary of Wayne County Parks", http://www.co.wayne.mi.us/dps/dps_parks_resources_history.htm

Gary Thomson, "Henry Ford", http://cruisinhines.com/graphics/hfstory.pdf

MDOT, "Hine Drive / Old M-14", http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9620_11154_11188-29293--,00.html

"Wayne County Department of Public Services," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_County_Road_Commission