Mariners Church
Mariners Church was built in 1849 to provide for the spiritual well-being of sailors on the Great Lakes. Sailors could not only worship there, but also eat, sleep and bathe there. Knowing that the church could not sustain itself on the tithes of sailors, whose incomes were generally modest, the church was designed from the outset to generate rents from stores located on its ground level. The row of windows at the front of the church used to be storefronts. Among other things, a grocery store and tailor once occupied this space (see photo).Mariners Chuch once stood in the middle of Hart Plaza, on the corner of Woodward Avenue and what was then Woodbridge St (which no longer passes through the plaza). When work on developing the plaza began in the 1950s, the city intended to condemn and tear-down the church. However, a private fundraising campaign managed to raise enough money to relocate the church. It took 4 years to move the 3000 ton building 880 feet to its present location. They had enough money left over from the relocation to add a bell tower and stained glass to the church. When they relocated Mariner's Church, they uncovered a tunnel from the days the church served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. An article in the Detroit Free Press explained how the tunnel was used:"The procedure was designed to look as ordinary as possible. In the years before the Emancipation Proclamation, a wagon full of what looked to be free black laborers would on occasion pull up to Mariners' Church at its old location on Woodward Avenue close to the Detroit River. The group would dismount and start carrying goods back and forth from the wagon into the church sub-basement. Had a spectator at the corner of Woodbridge and Woodward watched carefully...he or she might have noticed that at some point all the workers disappeared into the church — and never came out. What that witness couldn't know was that a door hidden in the sub-basement opened to a tunnel that led to the Detroit River and formed one of the last links in the Underground Railroad. Once they'd pushed through the shrubbery that hid the tunnel's mouth, women, children and men bent on escape would get into boats and push off for Canada and freedom."Mariner's Church is notable for another reason. It is immortalized in Gordon Lightfoot's ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," about the sinking of a giant ore freighter on Lake Superior. The events at the center of that song took place on November 10, 1975. The next day, the Bishop of Mariner's Church rang the church bell 29 times for each life lost in the wreck. As Lightfoot describes it:In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,In the maritime sailors' cathedralThe church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine timesFor each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
Hart Plaza
Hart Plaza is a primary gathering place for Detroiters, and frequently serves as a venue for summer festivals, concerts and events. The plaza is located appoximately at the site where Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed in 1701 and founded the settlement that eventually became the City of Detroit.The plaza is named after the late US Senator Philip A. Hart and was opened in 1975. Senator Hart was known as the "Conscience of the Senate" and helped shape much of the civil rights legislation that came out of Congress in the 1960s. One of the three Senate Office Buildings in Washington DC is also named after Senator Hart.As you face the river from the plaza you are looking south toward Canada. The Detroit area is the only place in the U.S. where Canada lies to our south.Push deeper into Hart Plaza to see Transcending (a monument to the labor industry), the Dodge Fountain (a monument to auto industry executives) and a monument to the underground railroad.
Transcending, The Legacy of the Labor Movement
Transcending, The Legacy of the Labor Movement. The San Antonio Peace Center did a great write-up of this artwork, so I just repeat it here: "The shining arch rising 63 feet above the ground the Labor Legacy Landmark, “Transcending,” is designed to celebrate the history and contributions of labor. Dedicated in 2003 and funded through donations from union members, it is the work of local sculptors David Barr and Sergio De Giusti. From afar, the notched, rounded arch resembles the ubiquitous symbol of labor—the gear. The circular form is a symbol of inclusion. The bottom of the gear appears to merge into the earth. Barr explains: “The world drives industry and labor, and industry and labor drive the world.” There is a small gap at the top of the arch, symbolizing how far labor has come and how far it still has to go. At night the arch is made whole by lights projecting from the two disconnected ends. The arch rests on a circular, raised dais, and is partially encircled by seven granite boulders all split symmetrically in two. The boulders’ polished surfaces are adorned with De Giusti’s bronze reliefs which depict the sacrifices and achievements of labor. The piece also includes a twisting marble path. A tile at the beginning of the path is engraved with the words, “Labor’s achievements are America’s strength,” and subsequent tiles enumerate those achievements: “Free public education,” “Human rights,” “Equality for women.” Other tiles feature historical labor-related quotes such as “Without struggle there is no progress” (attributed to Frederick Douglas), and Martin Luther King’s words, “The arc of history bends toward justice.” At the spiral’s center are two boulders: one displaying chains and the other displaying hands."For a deep dive into the background of this artwork and the labor movement in Michigan, see: http://mlhs.wayne.edu/files/050821_LaborsLegacy.pdf
Dodge Fountain
Japanese architect Isamu Noguchi received a $2 million commission to design the most prominant feature of Hart Plaza -- the fountain. It is intended to honor the legacy of Horace E. Dodge, Sr. and his son for their contributions to Detroit and the auto industry. (Noguchi also consulted on the overall design of the plaza.) Many see a retro-futurist take on a UFO in the fountain's design, while others have compared it to "an inverted wing-nut." Noguchi used early computer technology to program the fountain's 300 water jets to perform a series of thirty-three different spray patters. This was pretty impressive for a mid-1970s creation.Noguchi also designed the Pylon, a stainless steel spire sculpture at the entrance to Hart Plaza. According to Wikipedia, "The sculpture, which stands 120 feet (37 m) tall with a 7 square feet (0.65 m2) base, is a double helix that appears to make a quarter turn between the bottom and the top.The design for the pylon was inspired by the double helix of DNA."
The Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad
The Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad. Edward Dwight sculpted this piece, which was dedicated in 2001 as part of Detroit centennial celebration. Historians estimate that up to 45,000 slaves passed through Detroit on the underground railroad. At first, Michigan was a destination for freedom seekers, and by the mid-1830s, there was a modest population of former slaves living here who aided other former slaves to escape to freedom. However, Canada became a safer sanctuary after slavery was abolished there in 1834. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made Canada all the more attractive. That's because the Act made it possible for slave catchers (or any white person) to claim that an African American was a runaway slave pending the decision of a special court that required only the testimony of one white person. The Fugitive Slave Act also barred the accused from defending themselves. This caused many runaways to leave their homes in Detroit and relocate to Canada. There is a companion piece to this statue located across the Detroit river in Windsor that depicts a former slave raising his arms to celebrate his emancipation while a Quaker woman offers assistance to a woman and her child as another child looks back toward Detroit.
One Woodward Avenue
Before you leave the Dodge Fountain take a moment to turn your back to the Detroit River and look across Jefferson Avenue at the skyscraper known as One Woodward Avenue.This mid-century modern building is the work of architect Minoru Yamazaki. Yamazaki is known among architects as the designer of the original World Trade Center in New York City, which was destroyed in the attacks of September 11, 2001. One Woodward Avenue was completed in 1963, just three years before construction on the World Trade Center began, and elements of the Detroit building were apparent it World Trade Center's design (see photo of World Trade Center)Yamazaki is known among urban planners for a different work. He designed the infamous Pruit-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis, MO, which became a symbol for urban decline and the mismanagment of public housing across the nation. Pruitt-Igoe was demolished just 20 years after it was built.
Joe Louis Fist
This 8,000 pound sculpture was a gift to the City of Detroit from Sports Illustrated magazine in 1986. It commemorates a 1938 boxing match between Black Detroiter Joe Louis and White German boxer Max Schmeling. The match is considered one of the most famous boxing matches of all time and is remembered as one of the major sports events of the 20th century.To appreciate the significance of the fight, you have to transport yourself back to the 1930s. Boxing was second only to baseball as America's national passtime. Joe Louis rose to prominence on a string of 27 boxing victories, often defeating White opponents. His success put him on track to vie for the world championship in a match-up against the reigning champion, James Braddock.Louis' success made him a sensation among African Americans. As Langston Hughes wrote:"Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of black Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions—or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too."Before reaching the World Championship title bout, however, Louis was slated to fight Schmeling in June 1936. Although a former world heavyweight champion, Schmeling was not considered a threat to Louis. Schmeling had won his heavyweight championship in 1930 on a technicality, after his opponent was disqualified for hitting Schmeling with a low blow. Moreover, Schmeling was considered past his prime at age 30. Accordingly, in the weeks leading up to the fight, Louis is said to have spent more time golfing than training. Schmeling, meanwhile, trained intently. When Louis and Schmeling finally met in Yankee Stadium, Schmeling defeated Louis in the 12th round.Louis nevertheless went on to fight James Braddock for the world championship. Louis won that fight, but declared afterwards: "I don't want to be called champ until I whip Max Schmeling." Schmeling, meanwhile, became Adolf Hitler's poster boy for the superiority of the Aryan race and was a national hero in Germany.After trading taunts for months, Louis and Schmeling finally met for a rematch in June, 1938. Louis trained intently for this bout, which was fought in front of a crowd of 70,000 people in Yankee Stadium. A record 70 million people tuned-in on the radio to listen to the fight.The fight lasted 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Louis knocked Schmeling down 3 times, after which his trainer threw in the towel. Schmeling only managed to land two punches in the entire fight.Louis' victory over Schmeling made Joe Louis America's first African American national hero. As Louis' son would later explain, "What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black. By winning, he became white America’s first black hero.”
Spirit of Detroit Statue
Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority commissioned Marshall Fredericks in 1955 to create a sculpture for the city to represent hope, progress, and the “spirit of man.” The 26 foot bronze sculpture was completed in 1958 and covered with acid to oxidize the metal, giving it a green hue. It the time, it was the largest cast bronze statue created since the Renaissance. The statue’s left hand grips a gilded sphere emanating rays that symbolizes divinity, while its right hand holds a family, which symbolizes all human relationships.When the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997, The Spirit of Detroit donned the team jersey in celebration. It has since worn multiple outfits for special occasions. However, due to concern over damage to the statue, city policy now provides that it will only wear a jersey if the team wins a national championship, and $25,000 is donated to the maintenance and preservation of the statue.
The Guardian Building
Coming
