When the French government granted rights
to land in the Detroit area in the first one-third of the 18th century,
they created ribbon farms.
These were narrow farms that had a short frontage along the Detroit River and
then extended for a long distance inland; that is, they resembled ribbons.
In
the late 18th century, the Macomb family acquired the farm that contains what
is now the Cass Corridor. Lewis Cass was appointed territorial governor
after
1805, an, in 1818, he purchased the Macomb Farm. This area is still known
to some Detroit historians as the Cass Farm area. Lewis Cass, after serving
as
territorial governor, was appointed Secretary of War by President Jackson.
He died in 1866 and three years later, his two daughters divided the farm.
Mary
Cass Canfield named a street for her late husband.
In 1871, prosperous Detroit attorneys, physicians, dentists and architects
began building elaborate homes in this area, primarily in the Queen
Anne and High
Victorian style. This Historic District illustrates very clearly the housing
tastes of those Detroit families who became prosperous in the first
decade of
the city's industrial history. This is, I believe, the only still intact
block in Detroit of homes from the 1870s.
This block of Detroit did not survive the city's economic and demographic
changes very well, and by 1967, many of the homes were dilapidated. In
1969, the Canfield-West
Wayne Preservation Association was organized to foster the restoration
of these beautiful homes. In 1970, this became Deetroit's first historic
district,
and
in 1971, it was listed on the National Register. In 1997, the West Canfield
Historic District was expanded to include two Victorian commercial buildings
and one Queen Anne style residence on West Third.
Architectural style: Queen Anne and Gothic
Date Completed: 1870s and 1880s.
State Historical Register: P4470 and P26167; West Canfield Historic District
listed November 6, 1970 and Boundary Increased September 22, 1997
Historical markers, erected Augusted 29, 1990, are at the
intersections
of Canfield with Second and Third
National Register: Listed May 27, 1971