Detroit’s Golden Age: Looking up Woodward Avenue

Looking Up Woodward Avenue, c 1917, photo by Detroit Publishing Company

Thanks Chris Sebok for today’s find and happy birthday to Michigan!

This dry plate glass negative comes from the Detroit Publishing Company. Check out more photos from the Detroit Publishing Company archive and purchase prints from Shorpy’s!

This photo inspired mLive to put together a fantastic photographic timeline feature they titled Photos of Detroit’s Golden Age: The other side of ‘ruin porn’. It begins:

Detroit these days is not exactly the model of a great American city. While still vibrant and beautiful in several areas, the Motor City isn’t what it used to be, and we’re not here to lie or sugarcoat it.

Those abandoned buildings that have been thrust into the world’s spotlight through photo galleries by the likes of Time and Slate are real and a major part of Detroit’s landscape today.

But a few months ago, we came across a different kind of photo from Detroit (above), one that showed the city as a bustling metropolis full of people and booming businesses — in 1917.

People seemed to love it just as much as they loved those Detroit “ruin porn” photos.

Read on (and see some video) at mLive and check the comments at Shorpy’s too!