2690 East Forest Avenue
Duplex Dwelling
This address includes 2690 and 2694 East Forest Avenue.
For ages, the origin of this structure in Poletown East has puzzled me. Unfortunately, this structure is currently being prepped for demolition, so it’ll bite the dust before I can sort it out in the real world.
According to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, nothing was on this parcel in 1897. That’s surprising to me, as the structure resembles those built in the 1880s, not those from around 1900. It’s possible that it was constructed then; however, it would have been an odd construction for the time.
By the 1921 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, there were three structures on this parcel, including the one that still stands there today. Or, will stand there for a few more days at the most. In addition to this structure, there was a two-story building with two flats and a single-story storefront. Today, zoning would likely only allow one structure to be built here.
Devin from Detroit Jalopies thinks that there’s a chance that this structure was moved here from somewhere else, and I buy into that idea. He believes that it may have even been two tiny structures that used to stand where St. Luke’s Baptist Church is today.
In 1909, an Albert Kahn-designed Spietz & Worch Company factory was built at the present-day location of the church. This company was a branch of the United Cigar Manufacturing Company. If you look at the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, there were multiple structures in its path, including two small, single-story dwellings that look almost identical in size to the two duplex halves that make the structure pictured here. I genuinely don’t have a clue if that’s what happened, but it’s a fun theory either way.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the Library of Congress
In measuring this structure by hand this week, each unit would have been roughly 570 square feet. According to Zillow, the average square footage for a Duplex in America is 900 square feet. Each of these duplexes is approximately 63% of that.
Whoever lived here was likely quite poor because of how tiny these homes were. I guess you could say they liked minimalism, but this is about as small as you can get in Detroit.
Residential dwellings aren’t often in the paper unless somebody commits a crime, is born, or dies. Likely, a lot more things happened at these addresses than what I’ll present here.
In October 1908, Mrs. Louise Granzin, a 75-year-old resident of the right duplex, was trying to stop an argument between her sons, Henry and Paul, when a large white bulldog owned by Henry Bukowski “attacked her and chewed savagely at the aged woman until she fell to the ground.” She was taken to her son’s home, where Dr. H. B. Williams looked after her.
In March 1910, Richard Granzin, listed as a resident of the right-side duplex, had a son.
John Swetnich, a one-year-old who lived in the left duplex, died in August 1916 from marasmus, which is essentially dying from malnutrition, enforcing the idea that people who lived in these homes were impoverished.
Stefan Ovetnich, a left duplex resident, had a baby boy in November 1916. Likely, this or the previous newspaper article misprinted his last name.
In October 1931, Wazyl Nezwezky’s Reo Truck was stolen from the yard at the address of the right-side duplex. Wazyl lived at 2160 Farnsworth, according to the paper.
In April 1935, Julia Watts, listed as a resident of the right duplex, died at 66.
Dorothy Boyer, of the left-side duplex, had a baby girl in November 1941.
According to the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, the structure was still there, unchanged. The former cigar factory to the west had become a Briggs Manufacturing Company Warehouse. Briggs made bodies for Ford and Chrysler. In 1951, Chrysler purchased Briggs. I’m uncertain when the structure was demolished; however, St Luke’s Baptist Church of Detroit changed its paperwork with the state in August 1979 with this as their address, so it was before then.
In May 1968, Albert Alexander, a 69-year-old resident of the left duplex, died.
This structure has been in deplorable shape for as long as I can remember. The back side is collapsing, though the main structure doesn’t appear to be in that awful of shape. In peeking at the foundation, it’s clear someone has done some work here in recent decades, as it doesn’t look in that bad of shape, and the support piers look more modern.
Regardless, I’ll miss seeing this one when I roll down East Forest. It always felt like this little house was looking out over the prairie of the former school sites across the street, a view that likely didn’t look that different when it was built.
Goodbye, old friend.
