Detroit: The Early Years The American Years: The 1800’s

Detroit: The 1800’s The First American settlers arrived in Detroit in 1796, and as more followed, they included familiar names like Lt. Colonel John Francis Hamtramck and Judge Augustus B. Woodward. Detroit was incorporated as an American City in 1802 with a board of Governors, a secretary, an assessor, a tax collector and a marshal. In 1802 there were five hundred citizens (not including soldiers) and about 300 simple wooden buildings. J.F. Hamtramck Augustus Woodward

Detroit: The 1800’s The Small amount of wooden buildings became a catastrophe on June 11, 1805. John Harvey accidentally started a fire that consumed his barn. Citizens attempted to put the fire out with buckets of water from the river and by using the town fire engine. For all their efforts, the entire city, except for the Fort and one warehouse, burned down within three hours. The citizens stayed in tents and with the farmers on the outskirts of town for the next few days.

Detroit: The 1800’s Father Gabriel Richard, the priest at St. Anne’s, started to organize a relief effort gathering what clothing and food he could gather. During his effort, he was heard to have said: “Speramus meliora; resurgent cineribus” The translation is Detroit’s official motto: “We hope for something better; It will rise from the ashes.

Detroit: The 1800’s

Detroit: The 1800’s When it came time to rebuild the city, the decision was made that the building should be spread further apart, partially for fear that fire could spread again. After securing a thousand acres from the governor of the Northwest Territory, city officials decided that everyone in the city age 17 or older would be given more land, and the leftover land would be sold to raise money for a courthouse and jail. Judge August B. Woodward was in charge of designing the new city

Detroit: The 1800’s Woodward’s original plan was a complicated system of hexagons, patterned after Paris, France and Washington D.C.

Woodward’s plan was too complicated, and was later abandoned but two pieces remain: Downtown, at Grand Circus Park, the bottom half of the hexagon plan is evident. Woodward’s plan called for large lots, which lead to a tradition of Detroiters living in single homes not apartments 8

Detroit 1818 9