Everyone's wearing things like hats, and scarves, pants, hoodies & fingerless gloves so that they can continue smoking, working & manuevering with their hands/fingers while keeping warm at the same time. Ah, The Working Class.
We know a little about The Working Class and we know they are Detroit,
But what about The Wildlife? The Recreations, parks & wait a minute,... Detroit has an Island?
Well I'm glad you asked because YES. There is an island in Detroit, in fact there are three.
Let's start with the Historical Belle Isle, Once known as "Hog Island"; Located in The Detroit River. It's connected to the rest of the city by the MacArthur Bridge* off of Jefferson and East Grand Boulevard.
**The MacArthur Bridge is a bridge that spans the Detroit River between Detroit, Michigan and Belle Isle. The bridge, which features nineteen total arches across 2,193 feet (668 m), provides main access to Belle Isle. Completed in 1923 for $2,635,000 USD, it replaced a mostly wooden bridge that accidentally caught fire and was destroyed in 1915. The bridge, once known as the Belle Isle Bridge, was later renamed the Douglas MacArthur Bridge after General Douglas MacArthur in 1942**
So Belle Isle, known as "Wah-na-be-zee"(Swan Island) to the Chippewa and Ottawa Native American tribes; today Belle Isle reflects the late 19th century movement. This movement in which was to create metropolitan parks, begun in Paris and emulated in America by landscape architects like Frederic Law Olmsted. <---The Same guy who brought us Central Park in New York City. ( Ownership of the Island passed through many hands after the seige of Detroit by Chief Pontiac, From the French to the British and Finally into American Settlers posession. Detroit finally acquired the island, whose name had changed from Hog Island to Belle Isle in the middle of the century, in 1879. After Olmsted's landscape design was completed, other buildings were slowly added to the island. The most famous structure on Belle Isle is obviously the Aquarium and Horticulture Building.
Inspired by the Naples aquarium, the firm of Nettleton & Kahn designed a building with a highly articulated brickwork facade, copper roof, and a huge interior space to hold the great aquariums, here where diverse marine habitats are displayed. The Horticulture building, also known as The Conservatory,(my favorite) includes a fernery, a tropical plants sections, and is surrounded by three acres of formal gardens, lily ponds and greenhouses.
Another noted building is the Belle Isle Casino, designed by Albert Kahn in 1908. Once said to be the finest casino in the United States, ornate towers frame the building's four corners, and verandas provide picnickers with shelter. A beautiful public park of memorials, fountains, athletic fields, manmade lagoons, and dramatic buildings, Belle Isle is a green oasis near the city's center, and is only a trip over the bridge away.
The park was a unique social center in decades when Detroit was growing at a boisterous rate. The island served as a meeting place, and entertainment and recreation center. In 1972, park administration made a decision to modernize the inside the island's Casino (opened in 1908 and designed by Albert Kahn).
Marilyn Tuchow (native Detroiter, frequent visitor to Belle Isle and active in preservation) happened upon the renovation work in progress at the Belle Isle Casino. To quote Marilyn: "Someone got the idea to modernize the restaurant in the Casino. Downstairs...there had been marvelous, wonderful marble counters...a lot of the early soda fountain-type counters and accouterments. One day, I found workmen sledge-hammering to destruction of property."
That shattering impact of a sledgehammer on the marble countertops within the casino brought the Friends of Belle Isle into existence. A preservation group, that was set to save the island. Their first step was to do an inventory of the Island. Everything had to be documented: bridges, structures, picnic areas, topography, pavilions, plant materials, animal population and drinking fountains. Next an application for the island was sent to the National Register of Historic Places.
DETROIT YACHT CLUB
The DYC clubhouse is a restored 1920s Mediterranean-style villa that is the largest yacht club in the United States.
BELLE ISLE AQUARIUM
Registry would give it some validity, because local f--k politicians didn’t seem to understand that they had anything that was valuable. It would make it possible to gain state and local historical status for the park, which would provide further protection and conservation.
Belle Isle was placed on the National Registry in 1973, and the Friends of Belle Isle then began forming and challenging city policy on the island.
The big problem with Belle Isle then, now and ongoing is getting people to understand that Belle Isle in not a vacant lot standing there for somebody to build on. Its reason for being was that it was open space; by having few structures and having a natural landscape, it made it a place where all people from the city could find recreation and relief from city tension. FOBI’s plan would emphasize the complete nature of the island closing it to opportunistic, development.
The Friends of Belle Isle formed in 1973, with Marilyn Tuchow as FOBI's first president. It is a nonprofit, grassroots organization dedicated to preserving and maintaining the unique island park. The Friends of Belle Isle has been a longtime defender and advocate for the island park. While sometimes at odds with the city, the Friends often have worked with city officials on programs and projects benefiting the island.
Such Projects like :
--->The Michigan Alliance for Environmental & Outdoor Education (MAEOE) in partnership with, Michigan Technological University and the Belle Isle Nature Zoo have received $10,000 in funding from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium to implement a year-long initiative for Detroit and Pontiac teachers titled Bringing Environmental Education to Urban Schools.
--->The Greening Of Detroit - Greening of Detroit
--->Belle Isle Botanical Society - BIBSOCIETY
--->The Recovery Project - www.ncadd-detroit.org
---> Fitness & Nutrition Hosted By The Surgeon General
Okay okay, so we've got all the informational stuff out of the way, how it started, who did what,...now what about the curse of Belle Isle? What about the Nain?
Interested yet?
Until next time kiddies, we'll end here and begin there.
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