Yesterday was Motown and Detroit music. Today, we give the world our final gift this year: the automobile.

Detroit isn’t called the Motor City for nothing. True, other cities (and countries – notably Europe) had autos before Detroit. But it was Detroit that took the automobile to a whole new level, bringing it to the masses, and changing life for Americans and the rest of the world.

Despite the Big 3’s current uphill battle to hang onto market share in the U.S., Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are forces to be reckoned with, both domestically and abroad, and Detroit remains the auto capital of the world. Detroit’s domestic automakers are also major contributers to the local, regional, national and global economy: GM is number 3 on the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and Ford is number 5. Auto-related companies Delphi, Lear, Visteon, and Masco are in the top 200, as well. GM is the world’s largest automaker and has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years, and the Big 3’s contributions to the city of Detroit and the area of Southeastern Michigan in everything from funding arts and culture activities to proactive environmental land use is enormous.

The auto industry is more than just cars, though. From the introduction of windshield wipers to the first mile of paved concrete, Detroit and its auto industry have made the world a better place and shaped today’s society. Here’s a brief historic timeline highlighting important dates and happenings in Detroit’s auto industry from the late 1890s through 1971:

1896: Ransom E. Olds becomes first auto-manufacturer in Detroit.
1900: Olds opens the world’s first auto-plant on Jefferson and Concord (destroyed by fire in 1901).
1900: Columbia car introduced in Detroit. It features a left-side steering wheel and an engine in the front of the car, as opposed to under the driver’s seat.
1903: There are 11,000 cars, 1 million bicycles, and 17 million horses in the U.S.
1904: 2,735 Michigan workers produce 9,125 cars.
1908: Ford begins making Model T.
1908: General Motors organized.
1909: First mile of paved concrete in the world on Woodward Avenue between 6 and 7 Mile in Detroit.
1910: GM is first American auto company to offer closed bodies.
1910: There are 202 different makes of cars in the world. (Today, only four of these 202 survive: Buick, Ford, Cadillac and Oldsmobile).
1910: The phrase “traffic jam” coined in Detroit.
1911: Detroit creates the world’s first “center line”.
1914: 67,538 Michigan workers make 442,982 cars and trucks (78% of American’s total vehicle production).
1914: Henry Ford stuns the nation by offering a $5 a day wage. Before this, average per hour wages were 30 cents. The day following the announcement, 10,000 applicants show up at Highland Park Plant.
1918: First three-light traffic signal in the world put up at Michigan and Monroe in Detroit.
1920: First intersection with traffic signals in all directions in the world put up at Woodward and Fort in Detroit.
1924: Chrysler introduces world’s first V-6.
1927: 15 millionth Model T rolls off the line.
1929: Hudson Motor Car Co. in Detroit introduces first mobile home.
1930: Detroit’s population hits 1.6 million, six times what it was in 1900.
1933: “New Center News” newspaper created. Today it is known as “Detroit Auto Scene“; it is the oldest free newspaper in the nation.
1934: GM conducts first-ever vehicle rollover test.
1936: Fisher Body in Detroit introduces windshield wipers.
1937: GM recognizes UAW after first sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan.
1954: Allison Division introduces auto-transmission for trucks and buses.
1962: GM introduces the first fuel cell car in the world, the Electrovan. Astronauts on Apollo 11 use fuel-cell technology on their – and America’s – first trip to the moon.
1971: GM designs LunarRiver, making Apollo 15 astronauts the first Americans to “drive” on the moon.

How is this you ask? Fortunately the city never tore them down in a nasty thing called urban renewal. The large urban renewal that swept the nation around the 60s never occurred in Detroit because there wasn’t as much progress in the city, so the plots of land that contained skyscrapers didn’t need to be cleared for new developments.

Anywhere you look in the city, you will see a pre-depression building, whether it be the colorful Guardian Building (in my opinion the best art deco skyscraper in the wolrd), or the soon to be restored Detroit Life Building. The fine works of art contained within the city display the workmanship no longer seen today. Architects such as Albert Kahn, Gordon W. Lloyd, Louis Kamper, Daniel Burnham, Wirt Rowland, Charles Crane, and firms like Donaldson & Meier, Smith Hichman & Grylls mark a distinct mark on the city that lasts today.

While most of our pre-depression buildings are unaltered, a good amount have had their conice removed, not to modernize the building for the future, but because of strict regulations placed on any cornice in 1958. This is all because the lack of maintenance given to them because owners simply did not care for something that they considered gaudy and out of style. Soon enough the cornice from the Ferguson Building killed an older woman shopping in 1985, and the regulations went into place. Despite this, many of the buildings still take the eye of the viewer in different ways.

Along with pre-depression skyscrapers, downtown Detroit has the most theater seats in the Midwest, outside New York. This is due to the nearly half-dozen vintage theaters that exist downtown that host events. All of them are historical, and half of these are movie palaces, which were designed by C. Howard Crane.

So with this, I present to you our gift to you, our pre-depression stock of architecture. Just please don’t tear them down for any urban renewal or parking lots now, we already have enough parking!

You better hope you can get Preservation Wayne to hop onto this gift, as you can’t get a better tour or our architecture from anywhere else.

Tags: Metblogs7Gifts 7Gifts Metroblogging7Gifts 7 gifts to the world

Food-fanatic or not, Detroit’s Eastern Market is a hidden gem – a unique city staple we’re lucky to have.

Located on Russell Street near Gratiot, Eastern Market’s vendors and shops offer nutritious, inexpensive selections, plus tasty meats and cheeses, homemade breads, wine, beer, flowers, antiques and so much more.

Sure, other cities have markets – DC even has its own Eastern Market – but how many have been around since 1841?

And how many are as big as the D’s Eastern? I’m not sure if this is still true, but the 2000 edition of The Detroit Almanac says Detroit’s Eastern Market is the biggest open-air wholesale-retail market in the U.S.

Friendly competition aside, Detroit’s Eastern Market is just a flat-out cool place, one I wish everyone could enjoy. There’s something about heading to the market on Saturdays, spending a few hours with 45,000+ locals in this unique pocket of Detroit that feels like another world. It’s an experience like no other.

For pictures of Detroit’s market, check out the Flickr Eastern Market Photo Pool

Tags: Metblogs7Gifts 7Gifts Metroblogging7Gifts

Each city has its own “gift list” and Detroit’s will be published on this site. If you’d like to see what other cities are offering up to the world, check out this post on L.A.’s site – it’s got a running total of them all.