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The Detroit Athletic Company has sold Detroit sports memorabilia one block from the former Tiger Stadium site since 1985. Behind the facade's white stucco lie two Victorian-era buildings constructed twelve years apart. Together they originally consisted of three ground-floor commercial spaces with two apartments above. The histories of each of the commercial spaces are detailed separately below. 526 (1740) Michigan Avenue The east (right) half of the building, originally addressed as 526 Michigan Avenue, was the first to be built. Above: Michigan Avenue west of Harrison, some time between 1881 and 1884. (Courtesy Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library) Below: The same block as it appears today. The west (left) half of the store had not yet been built when the 1880s photos was taken. The permit to construct this building was issued May 24, 1878. The following day the Detroit Free Press noted, "A brick building for a store is to be built at the corner of H

Hope everyone celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday weekend. Ours was made extra special by the fact that my daughter Mélanie waked three tiny steps from the hearth to me. She did so naturally, I almost didn't realize what she'd done until my uncle commented on it. She also had a great time playing with one cousin's golf balls, which made great toys, and another cousin's kitten [who beat a prudent retreat to high places]. I've always tended to avoid the chaos of shopping on Black Friday {the day after Thanksgiving that kicks off the U.S. holiday retail season). This year, thanks to a friend who babysat, I spent the afternoon at a matinee of Skyfall. But the day had an extra significance for me. It was the release date for His Spanish Bride , my e-novella about the wedding of Malcolm and Suzanne, the central couple in my series. Because Malcolm and Suzanne's marriage marks the start of their adventures not the culmination, this meant going back i

Just a couple of things I wanted to address quickly. First of all, I am aware that the recent comments feature on the sidebar has not been working for the past week or so. Unfortunately this is a third-party gadget, and there appears to be some sort of an issue with it currently. Since this isn't exactly a current events blog (actually, pretty much the opposite), there can be comments made at any time on any of the 180+ posts on here. For this reason, I know the recent comments feature is an important way to keep up with any new information coming into the blog. Because of that, until the gadget is fixed (which hopefully will be soon, since there's no other decent alternative), I'll try to add any new comments here on this post. Secondly, for those who haven't checked it out yet, I did come up with a new feature for the MCH History Blog Facebook page . Twice, so far, I've posted a This Day in Mill Creek Hundred History feature. While I don't have enough stuff to

All the Thanksgiving posts about things for which we are grateful got me thinking about the books that have made an impact on me in various ways over the years.  Some of these go way back; others are more recent. They all have one thing in common: they opened up new worlds and new eras for me. In the spirit of thanksgiving, here are some of the books for which I am deeply grateful: E.L. Konigsberg's A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver . Someone-- possibly my parents-- gave this to me when I was six. I hadn't realized until then that there was such a thing as historical fiction (before that, I was all about fairy tales), but that was all it took to get me hooked. Eleanor of Aquitaine was my heroine-- until I encountered Queen Victoria. Jean Plaidy's Victoria Victorious . The reign of Eleanor of Aquitaine ended when my father gave me Victoria Victorious when I was eight. That launched a fascination with all things Victorian (we will not discuss the hookskirt I tried

The So-Called (by me) 25 Foote Road Originally this was supposed to be a very short post answering a simple question and revealing the historical background of a small road-related anomaly I had always wondered about. I happened to stumble upon the answer one day, so I thought I'd write a quick post. The more I dug into the answer, though, the more complicated (and interesting) the associated family became. What started as one site turned into three, all in different branches of the same family. The tricky part came in trying to sort out -- and tie together -- these separate branches. I think I've done a decent job of it now, with the only major speculation confined back to an early generation in the 18th Century. As with all posts, I'd welcome any more information that anyone might have. The gateway into this whole topic was the small piece of roadway you see above. Many of you probably recognize it --it's on McKennan's Church Road, at the southern end of the Delca

The Hoydens hope everyone here in the U.S. has a happy Thanksgiving and that our friends and followers elsewhere will forgive us for being quiet this week as we all prepare for--and recover from--this food-centric holiday. Here’s my favorite dish to prepare. It never fails to make the guests happy, especially if you have a vegetarian or two attending your feast! MUSHROOM BREAD PUDDING Ingredients 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 large yellow onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/2 pound assorted wild mushrooms, chopped 1/2 pound cultivated crimini mushrooms, chopped 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon (optional) 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill (optional) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley Salt and pepper to taste 5 large eggs 1 cup whole milk 2/3 cup heavy cream 6 cups trimmed and cubed ( 3/4-inch cubes) day-old French or Italian bread (5 to 6 ounces) INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter pan. Heat 2 tablespoons of the bu

For what it's worth, I finally got around to setting up a Facebook page for the blog . I'm not really sure exactly how I'll use it just yet. Certainly I'll post on there whenever a new post goes up on the blog. I might also add additional content, like some pictures that didn't get into the blog posts. I could also put requests on there if there's specific information that I'm looking for. Maybe intermediate status updates on posts, too. In any case, maybe it'll make it a little easier for interested people to find the blog. Please feel free to share it, or like it, or comment on it, or whatever the deuce people do with these things. As much as I'm comfortable with blogging and the internet in general, Facebook is new to me, and I'm still trying to figure the dang thing out. Anyway, something new. Yea!

Susanna Fraser! Susanna's third Regency-set historical, An Infamous Marriage , is out this week. Here's the back cover copy: Northumberland, 1815 At long last, Britain is at peace, and General Jack Armstrong is coming home to the wife he barely knows. Wed for mutual convenience, their union unconsummated, the couple has exchanged only cold, dutiful letters. With no more wars to fight, Jack is ready to attempt a peace treaty of his own. Elizabeth Armstrong is on the warpath. She never expected fidelity from the husband she knew for only a week, but his scandalous exploits have made her the object of pity for years. Now that he's back, she has no intention of sharing her bed with him—or providing him with an heir—unless he can earn her forgiveness. No matter what feelings he ignites within her… Jack is not expecting a spirited, confident woman in place of the meek girl he left behind. As his desire intensifies, he wants much more than a marriage in name only. But winning his

Map from the Diamond State Land Development Company In the last post, we took a look at Hockessin's John G. Jackson (1818-1897), a man of varying interests who became involved in quite a number of different fields and businesses during his lifetime. One particular venture, though, was only very briefly mentioned in passing. It's something I'm sad to say I don't really have a whole lot of information about, but it interested me enough that I thought it merited its own post. In fact, most of what I know came from just one picture and its associated caption, included in Joseph Lake's wonderful 1976 book Hockessin: A Pictorial History . (Seriously, it's a great book. If you ever see it anywhere, get it.) Probably the biggest reason there's not a lot of information about the venture is that it never got very far off the ground, or past the planning stage. Still, there are a few vestiges of it remaining today, if you know where to look. The business venture in qu

The book I'm working on, Crimson Joy, is set in a small West Sussex market town during Advent and Christmas. So I've been reading about Regency Christmas customs. They're really really cool . My favorite is the Christmas pudding. Christmas pudding is a boiled bread pudding full of dried fruit and apples, spices, and brandy. As anyone who's read Lauren's The Mischief of the Mistletoe knows, the mixture was then made into small round balls and wrapped in muslin. In the Victorian era, the custom shifted to putting the pudding in a bowl, covering it and steaming it, then inverting it onto a plate and flambéing it. But in the Regency they were still in the tying-muslin-wrapped-balls-onto-a-broom-handle-and-boiling-them-in-the-washtub phase. (And actually, I took a British Christmas cooking class at my local co-op, and the instructor said her mother used to make them that way in Australia in the 60s. She also said, "I know they're shelf-stable because once they w

Buildings were demolished between 1938-1939 to allow Michigan Avenue's expansion. Courtesy Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University. If you drive down Michigan Avenue often, you have probably noticed that every surviving 19th century building on it lies on the north side of the street. This is the result of a massive road-widening project that occurred in the late 1930s that entailed the condemnation of property on the avenue's south side. Half of the Victorian-era buildings on Corktown's main commercial thoroughfare were lost in this one event. Old Chicago Road Michigan Avenue was once so narrow that it would probably be unrecognizable to a visitor from the present day. At only 66 feet wide, it was only a little more than half of its current width of 120 feet. (That is, the full right-of-way, including sidewalks.) The sidewalk on the south side of old Michigan Avenue would have roughly coincided with today's left-hand turn lane in the middle of the road. Th