martinpon

Now that the Pontiac West Assembly plant is all but a parking lot now, I'm going to start a project in spring. A few of the automotive plants from a hundred years ago that were bought up to become part of General Motors are still standing. These include the Standard Motors and the Oakland Motor headquarters buildings. I'm going to go around and snap some shots while the buildings are still around.

The mayor's presentation is at: Mayor's City Design Presentation I've seen a lot of this stuff before at: http://www.nationaltrust.org/community/pontiac_pdi_final.pdf

For those not familiar with Pontiac, Woodward Avenue loops around the city like a giant moat separating it from the rest of the city. Until the sixties, the south end of town was known for its large theaters as the Clinton River snaked its way through the south end of town. In the 1960's, most of the south end was torn down and is now the Lot 9 parking lot and the Phoenix Center Amphitheater/Parking Garage. The Clinton River was straightened out and buried underground running through pipes. Most of the renderings I have are at another computer and I'll upload them Monday. The below picture is what is proposed for Lot 9 and for Woodward Avenue. The one-way southbound loop of Woodward would be converted to a two-way boulevard running along the west side of the city. Eventually this boulevard will meet up with Oakland Ave./Dixie Highway. Lot 9 will house a new city hall and library as well as some mixed-use commerical buildings. The Clinton River (not in this view) will be re-opened on the east side of Pontiac. The current one-way northbound Woodward Avenue will become something like a Clinton River Parkway, with office and residential buildings running along the river (pictures coming Monday) as well as a walkpath. It's unclear where the money will be coming from for this financially strapped city. I imagine the presentation was a way to garner support. The city hall idea was bantered about a few years ago before they got into so much debt and it looked like they were going to get a large sum for the sale of the silverdome. New Look for lot 9 with closeup of proposed City Hall. Proposed changes to Woodward Avenue and the Re-opening of the Clinton River:

I have some artist renderings of a proposal for downtown Pontiac if anyone is interested. They're not photos, so if there is no interest, I won't post them. It was part of a presentation the Mayor of Pontiac gave last week.

Is this thread still active? No new photos in a month.

I've lived in Pontiac 25 years and never noticed the details on the old Pontiac State Bank building shown above and on page one of this blog, until I zoomed in on the original.These full torso Indians on top of the 20 story building are fascinating. You can see the profile on the front of the building.Below it is a close up of the indian head relief over the front entrance of the same building.

Here's a shot from last Saturday's Dream Cruise in downtown Pontiac. This is Saginaw Street looking south from Huron. Note the new streetscape features. Most of the buildings on the right date from the 1880s.

Here's a better daytime shot of the streetscape. It's taken a block up from where the night time shot was taken.

Both pictures are rooftop pictures. The bottom one from the 1930s was taken from the roof of a house on Hill St. Within a couple of years, all of the houses in the center of the picture (plus the house the picture was taken from) were torn down. 20 years later, the site became what is now city hall. The top picture is a current picture taken from the roof of city hall.

Somebody asked for a panorama of Pontiac. This is from the city website, two views 70 years apart:

About 90% of Arts Beats and Eats occurs within sight of this picture. Most of the major acts perform at the Phoenix Plaza. Most of the restaurant kiosks are in the 3 blocks straight ahead. The parking lot on the left holds the carnival, kids activities and sports. The Arts and smaller venue stages are in the side streets. Here's a map of this year's festival: Arts Beats and Eats Map

Things aren't all bad for the city. They just finished up a streetscape project. This photo is from the top of the Phoenix Plaza, just after the new streetlights turned on. The nightlife isn't too bad downtown, but two things could help a lot. Get better-known groups to perform at the Phoenix Plaza, and finish work on the Strand Theater.

There are some great "then and now" photos on the city website at: City of Pontiac - Historic District Commission

Sadly, Pontiac was a victim of 1960's urban renewal. A good 1/3 of the downtown was demolished, including most of its theater district. The Clinton River, which snaked through downtown, was straightened out and buried underground in pipes. They looked at several proposals, including one from a young Pontiac native Alfred Taubman. Unfortunately, they chose the current design that bypasses downtown completely with what it now the Woodward Loop. Before 1960, everyone driving from Detroit to Flint had to drive through Pontiac. Now, nobody does. I've seen a lot of references about the size of the buildings considering the size of the city. You have to remember, at its peak, Pontiac had 86,000 residents and was the largest city in Oakland County until Southfield passed it in the 1990s and larger than Ann Arbor until 1970. When most of the large buildings were built in the late 1920's, Pontiac had just experienced a 250% population growth in 10 years. The below picture is from the 1930's. Compare it with the one below that is pretty current, and you can see how much Pontiac has lost. My dad remembered Pontiac as a place with no parking. Now it looks like it is mostly parking.