Woodward Avenue holds Detroit’s heartbreaks, triumphs

The place isn't quite what it used to be.

In some stretches, it's littered with abandoned buildings, busted windows and businesses that gave up the fight. Here, the wind gently rocks stoplights that flash amber signals 24 hours a day with few cars in sight.

In other stretches it is the place to be, with the neon lights of neighboring Royal Oak or Ferndale drawing couples deep into the night.

Take a trip down Woodward Avenue here in Detroit, and you are bound to see a little of everything.

Poverty. Prosperity. But, mostly, mile after mile of automotive history.

Once a sign of turn-of-the-century urban progress, America's historic boulevard typifies today's urban sprawl: a 27-mile spine of road that connects decaying sections of the Motor City to the ever-expanding northern suburbs of Wayne and upscale Oakland County.

Woodward is not quite what it used to be, but each year on one August weekend it is what it was meant to be.

On Aug. 15, for the 15th consecutive year, the car buffs and car crazies will line the boulevard by the millions to watch the classics cruise the avenue. From Detroit through Highland Park, Pleasant Ridge, Huntington Woods and all the way to Pontiac, the Woodward Dream Cruise is one of the world's largest festivals of car culture featuring hot rods, antique and collectible vehicles.

They will all come to say thanks and admire the people who love the machines.

After all, this is still Woodward Avenue.

So much went on here. So much still goes on here.

It is 300 years of automotive history in one strip. It is the world's first mile of concrete road, paved between Six and Seven Mile Roads in 1909, followed by the first painted centerline and then the world's first electronic traffic light at Woodward and Michigan in 1920.

It is the birthplace of street tests, where automobile engineers drove new models and cruised in the 1950s and 1960s.

The first urban highway in the United States, the Davison Limited Expressway, was built in 1941 and intersects Woodward Avenue. Some say German engineers used the Davison as inspiration for the world famous Autobahn.

And on July 24, 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, his 9-year-old son, his brother, 100 soldiers, 100 natives and two priests landed at the foot of Woodward to establish a French settlement. Its name? Detroit.

The story of Woodward Avenue, named after Judge Augustus Brevoot Woodward, one of Detroit's early city planners, is purely American. It was created out of a desire for economic prosperity in a climate of innovation and individual freedom.

Judge Woodward believed roads leading out of the downtown should use a hexagon pattern, with wide boulevards and avenues.

In the early 1900s at the onset of the automobile industry, the roadway was asphalt over wooden blocks in downtown Detroit but was dirt and mud in other areas. As the auto industry grew and the mud became deeper, the public demanded better roadways. They got one.

Constructed in three months at a cost of nearly $14,000, the new stretch of paved roadway on Woodward near Henry Ford's new Model T plant drew international attention. Concrete, the planners said, was more durable, cleaner and easier to maintain.

Seven years later, the entire road was paved. Three years later, a three-color traffic light was even installed on the avenue.

Progress was being made and Detroit was known as the "Paris of the Midwest."

The auto industry would grow up on Woodward's "Boulevard of Dreams."

Ford built his first car at his home, four blocks west of Woodward. The assembly line for the Model T was conceived two blocks east of the street. By 1921, General Motors moved its headquarters to an office complex one block west of Woodward. In 1925, Chrysler would set up shop in Highland Park, three blocks east of the strip.

In 1920, Woodward and Michigan was the nation's busiest intersection with an average of 18,000 cars a day. In 1925, the intersection of Woodward and State was busier than Times Square.

By the 1950s, "Woodwarding" became the craze as teenagers gathered at drive-ins, showcasing their muscle cars up and down the street.

It's a tradition that was rekindled 15 years ago, although in a more official, carnival-like way. In fact, the "Dream Cruise" is one of Metro Detroit's most anticipated August events. Covering 16 miles, it attracts more than 1 million people from around the world and a whopping 40,000 vintage vehicles.

For one weekend, Woodward is Woodward again. Dreamers can dream. And cars are once again king.

Jason Stein is a feature writer with Wheelbase Communications. He can be reached on the Web at www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html. Wheelbase Communications supplies automotive news and features to newspapers across North America.