Austin Organs, Inc. , is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Hartford, Connecticut . The company is one of the oldest continuously-operating organ manufacturers in the United States. The first instruments were built in 1893 with the Austin Patent Airchest, and many remain in fine playing condition to this day.
130-751: The Austin Organ Company was formally organized in 1898 by John Turnell Austin in Boston, Massachusetts, although it traces its beginning to 1893 with the first instruments Austin built at the Clough & Warren Company in Detroit, Michigan . In 1899 the company moved to Hartford. Austin was from England and had come to the United States in 1889. Austin's father Jonathan had a hobby of organ building. When son John made his way to Detroit he found work at
260-509: A Dream " speech in Washington, D.C., two months later. While the civil rights movement gained significant federal civil rights laws in 1964 and 1965, longstanding inequities resulted in confrontations between the police and inner-city black youth who wanted change. I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on
390-407: A cohesive community, who gradually were superseded as the dominant population after more Anglo-American settlers arrived in the early 19th century with American westward migration. Living along the shores of Lake St. Clair and south to Monroe and downriver suburbs, the ethnic French Canadians of Detroit, also known as Muskrat French in reference to the fur trade, remain a subculture in the region in
520-1146: A concentration of economic power , industrial workers organized the Congress of Industrial Organizations , a coherent agricultural cooperative movement, and the Progressive politics led by Wisconsin's Governor and Senator Robert M. La Follette . State universities, professional social work, and unemployment and workers' compensation were some of the region's permanent contributions to American social policy. The Great Lakes region has produced globally influential breakthroughs in agricultural technology, transportation and building construction. Cyrus McCormick 's reaper, John Deere 's steel plow, Joseph Dart ( Dart's Elevator ), and George Washington Snow's balloon-frame construction are some of innovations that made significant, global impact. The University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University figured prominently in developing nuclear power . Automobile manufacture developed simultaneously in Ohio and Indiana and became centered in
650-452: A depression in the upland area, independent of the overlap of Palaeozoic strata. The western half of the basin occupies a trough of synclinal structure. The Great Lakes receive the drainage of a small peripheral land area, enclosed by a water-parting from the rivers that run to Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the north and to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The three lakes of
780-464: A direct relationship between unfair housing practices and educational segregation, as the composition of students in the schools followed segregated neighborhoods. The District Court held all levels of government accountable for the segregation in its ruling. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed some of the decision, holding that it was the state's responsibility to integrate across the segregated metropolitan area. The U.S. Supreme Court took up
910-827: A distinctive historical, economic, and cultural identity. A portion of the region also encompasses the Great Lakes megalopolis . State and provincial governments are represented in the Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers , which also serves as the Secretariat to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Compact and the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement . The Great Lakes region takes its name from
1040-807: A fabled Northwest Passage to Asia generated sporadic but intense competition among the three most powerful northwest Europe imperial nations to control the territory. A century and a half of naval and land wars among France, The Netherlands and Britain resulted finally in British control of the region, from the Ohio River to the Arctic, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Beyond the region, North American claims remained disputed among Britain, France, Spain and Russia. Britain defeated France decisively at
1170-554: A fall of 326 feet (99 m) (160 feet (49 m) at the cataract) in 30 miles (48 km), is thought to have been of recent origin, as an older river would have a mature valley. The original valley that is thought to have connected the two depressions through the Niagara Escarpment is thought to have been at the present route of the Welland Canal , and to have been completely filled with glacial drift . The same
1300-612: A federally subsidized, extensive highway and freeway system around Detroit, and pent-up demand for new housing stimulated suburbanization ; highways made commuting by car for higher-income residents easier. However, this construction had negative implications for many lower-income urban residents. Highways were constructed through and completely demolished neighborhoods of poor residents and black communities who had less political power to oppose them. The neighborhoods were mostly low income, considered blighted, or made up of older housing where investment had been lacking due to racial redlining, so
1430-540: A majority of black people in Detroit resorted to living in all-black neighborhoods such as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley. At this time, white people still made up about 90.4% of the city's population. White residents attacked black homes: breaking windows, starting fires, and detonating bombs. In the 1940s the world's "first urban depressed freeway" ever built, the Davison , was constructed. During World War II ,
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#17327807284501560-538: A mixed-use office and retail complex, opened in 1977. This group of skyscrapers was an attempt to keep businesses in downtown. Young also gave city support to other large developments to attract middle and upper-class residents back to the city. Despite the Renaissance Center and other projects, the downtown area continued to lose businesses to the automobile-dependent suburbs. Major stores and hotels closed, and many large office buildings went vacant. Young
1690-487: A reconfiguration of downtown's main intersection as a new park, was opened in 2004. The park has been cited as one of the best public spaces in the United States. In 2001, the first portion of the International Riverfront redevelopment was completed as a part of the city's 300th-anniversary celebration. Great Lakes region 14,755,211 (Canada) The Great Lakes region of Northern America
1820-568: A rented workshop on Mack Avenue. During this growth period, Detroit expanded its borders by annexing all or part of several surrounding villages and townships. In 1903, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company . Ford's manufacturing—and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant , Horace and John Dodge, James and William Packard, and Walter Chrysler —established the Big Three automakers and cemented Detroit's status in
1950-554: A result of industrialization, the population became more concentrated into urban areas. In part to balance democratic representation against the economic and political power of these corporations, the region hosted industrial labor organization, consolidated agricultural cooperatives and state educational systems. The Big Ten Conference memorializes the nation's first region in which every state sponsored major research, technical-agricultural, and teacher-training colleges and universities. The Congress of Industrial Organizations grew out of
2080-672: A strong, established Lutheran tradition (as established by populations from Nordic and Germanic countries), but this tradition has become more diversified in recent years. Large professional sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) have team franchises in several cities in
2210-533: Is a binational Canadian – American region centered around the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Minnesota , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario . Canada's Quebec province is at times included as part of the region because the St. Lawrence River watershed is part of the continuous hydrologic system. The region forms
2340-518: Is marked with diversity, having both local and international influences. Detroit gave rise to the music genres of Motown and techno , and also played an important role in the development of jazz , hip-hop , rock , and punk . A globally unique stock of architectural monuments and historic places was the result of the city's rapid growth in its boom years. Since the 2000s, conservation efforts have managed to save many architectural pieces and achieve several large-scale revitalizations , including
2470-596: Is named after the Detroit River , connecting Lake Huron with Lake Erie . The name comes from the French word détroit meaning ' strait ' as the city was situated on a narrow passage of water linking the two lakes. The river was known as le détroit du Lac Érié in French, which means ' the strait of Lake Erie ' . In the historical context, the strait included the St. Clair River , Lake St. Clair , and
2600-541: Is quoted as saying, "Thank God for Michigan!" George Armstrong Custer led the Michigan Brigade during the Civil War and called them the "Wolverines". The city's tensions over race, and nationally, the draft led to the Detroit race riot of 1863 , in which violence erupted, leaving some dead and over 200 Black residents homeless. This prompted the establishment of a full-time police force in 1865. During
2730-740: Is true for the St. Lawrence , where there may not have been an original valley. The Ontarian River that was a precursor to Lake Ontario is thought to have drained westward, and the St. Lawrence drainage to have been created by subsidence due to the weight of the ice sheet. Paleo-Indian cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Prior to European settlement, Iroquoian people lived around Lakes Erie and Ontario , Algonquian peoples around most of
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#17327807284502860-668: The 26th-most populous city in the United States. The Metro Detroit area, home to 4.3 million people, is the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area and the 14th-largest in the United States. A significant cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive background. In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit . During
2990-765: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759, and the Treaty of Paris (1763) that ended The Seven Years' War , known in America as the French and Indian War ceded the entire region to the victor. Indian Reserve is the historical term for this largely uncolonized area set aside in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for use by Native Americans , who already inhabited it. The British government had contemplated establishing an Indian barrier state in
3120-1012: The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group . The CME Group, in addition, owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX), and the Dow Jones Indexes ., as well as headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of
3250-572: The Chicago Tribune , it was the 3rd most costly riot in the United States. On August 18, 1970, the NAACP filed suit against Michigan state officials, including Governor William Milliken , charging de facto public school segregation. The NAACP argued that although schools were not legally segregated, the city of Detroit and its surrounding counties had enacted policies to maintain racial segregation in public schools. The NAACP also suggested
3380-458: The Detroit area of Michigan . Henry Ford 's movable assembly line drew on regional experience in meat processing , agricultural machinery manufacture, and the industrial engineering of steel in revolutionizing the modern era of mass production manufacturing. Chicago -based Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck companies complemented mass manufactures with mass retail distribution. Chicago , Detroit , and Cleveland carry important roles in
3510-457: The Farrand & Votey Organ Company . While servicing organs for Farrand, Austin worked with tracker and slider chests and some of the nascent electric mechanisms. He developed what would be named the "Universal Air Chest System". This is an airtight chamber with the chest action on the ceiling of the chamber. A feature of this system was that the chest could be entered from below while the organ
3640-605: The Georgian Bay from Lake Huron . From there, it heads westward through the land-arm between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and southwestward into the narrow points dividing Green Bay from Lake Michigan. Finally, it fades away with the thinning out of the limestone and is hardly traceable across the Mississippi River . The arrangement of the Great Lakes closely matches the course of the lowlands worn on
3770-539: The Great Lakes Basin , defines a unit of sub-national political entities defined by the U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario encompassing the Great Lakes watershed, and the states and province bordering one or more of the Great Lakes. The Palaeozoic strata are parts of a great area of similar layers hundreds of feet in thickness. These strata decline gently southward from the great upland of
3900-801: The Great March on Detroit ) Longstanding tensions in Detroit culminated in the Twelfth Street riot in July 1967. Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in U.S. Army troops. The result was 43 dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, mostly in black residential and business areas. Thousands of small businesses closed permanently or relocated to safer neighborhoods. The affected district lay in ruins for decades. According to
4030-496: The Laurentian Highlands of eastern Canada. The visible upland area of today was a small part of the primeval continent with the remainder of it still buried under a Palaeozoic cover. The visible part was the last part of the primeval continent to sink under the advancing Palaeozoic seas. This district may be considered an ancient coastal plain. The weaker layers are worn down in sub-parallel belts of lower land between
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4160-521: The Mound Builders . By the 17th century, the region was inhabited by Huron , Odawa , Potawatomi , and Iroquois peoples. The area is known by the Anishinaabe people as Waawiiyaataanong , translating to 'where the water curves around'. The first Europeans did not penetrate into the region and reach the straits of Detroit until French missionaries and traders worked their way around
4290-550: The Potowatomi , Ojibwe and Huron, launched Pontiac's War in 1763 and laid siege to Fort Detroit but failed to capture it. In defeat, France ceded its territory in North America east of the Mississippi to Britain following the war. When Great Britain evicted France from Canada , it also removed one barrier to American colonists migrating west. British negotiations with the Iroquois would both prove critical and lead to
4420-741: The Royal Proclamation of 1763 , which limited settlements below the Great Lakes and west of the Alleghenies . Many colonists and pioneers in the Thirteen Colonies resented and then defied this restraint, later becoming supporters of the American Revolution . By 1773, after the addition of the Anglo-American settlers, the population of Detroit was 1,400. During the American Revolutionary War,
4550-967: The original thirteen . Five states evolved from its provisions: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The northeastern section of Minnesota, from the Mississippi to St. Croix River , also fell under ordinance jurisdiction and extended the constitution and culture of the Old Northwest to the Dakotas . The surge of settlement generated tension culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Britain, fearing that fast American settlement could lead to annexation of its western provinces, countered with The Constitution Act of 1791 , granting limited self-government to Canadian provinces and creating two new provinces out of Canada: Lower Canada (today's Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario). Settlement and economic expansion on both sides accelerated after
4680-575: The " Big Three " auto manufacturers— General Motors , Ford , and Stellantis North America ( Chrysler )—are all headquartered in Metro Detroit. It houses the Detroit Metropolitan Airport , one of the most important hub airports in the United States. Detroit and its neighboring Canadian city Windsor constitute the second-busiest international crossing in North America, after San Diego–Tijuana . Detroit's culture
4810-574: The "Paris of the West" for its architecture, grand avenues in the Paris style, and for Washington Boulevard, recently electrified by Thomas Edison . The city had grown steadily from the 1830s with the rise of shipping, shipbuilding, and manufacturing industries. Strategically located along the Great Lakes waterway, Detroit emerged as a major port and transportation hub. In 1896, a thriving carriage trade prompted Henry Ford to build his first automobile in
4940-663: The "vice president" or "secretary", and Laura Smith Haviland the "superintendent". Numerous men from Detroit volunteered to fight for the Union during the Civil War, including the 24th Michigan Infantry Regiment . It was part of the Iron Brigade , which fought with distinction and suffered 82% casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. When the First Volunteer Infantry Regiment arrived to fortify Washington, D.C. , President Abraham Lincoln
5070-482: The 155 people on board, as well as two people on the ground. In 1993, Young retired as Detroit's longest-serving mayor, deciding not to seek a sixth term, with Dennis Archer succeeding him. Archer prioritized downtown development, easing tensions with its suburban neighbors. A referendum to allow casino gambling in the city passed in 1996; several temporary casino facilities opened in 1999, and permanent downtown casinos with hotels opened in 2007–08. Campus Martius ,
5200-482: The 1825 opening of The Erie Canal , an astonishingly successful public venture that effectively integrated markets and commerce between the Atlantic seaboard and the region. The region on both sides of the border became a vast research and design laboratory for agricultural machinery and techniques. Owner-operator family farms transformed both demographics and ecology into a vast terrain of farmlands, producing primarily wheat and corn. In western New York and northeast Ohio,
5330-565: The 1920s the city had become a stronghold of the KKK", whose members primarily opposed Catholic and Jewish immigrants but also practiced discrimination against Black Americans. Even after the decline of the KKK in the late 1920s, the Black Legion , a secret vigilante group, was active in the Detroit area in the 1930s. One-third of its estimated 20,000 to 30,000 members in Michigan were based in
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5460-455: The 21st century. The Great Fire of 1805 destroyed most of the Detroit settlement, which had primarily buildings made of wood. One stone fort, a river warehouse, and brick chimneys of former wooden homes were the sole structures to survive. Of the 600 Detroit residents in this area, none died in the fire. The legacy of the fire of 1805 lives on in many aspects of modern Detroit heritage. The cities motto, "Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus"
5590-485: The American Revolution, the region was contested between Britain and rebellious American colonies. Hoping for favorable claims of territorial control in an eventual peace treaty with Britain, American adventurers led by Kentucky militia leader George Rogers Clark briefly occupied village settlements, including Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Vincennes unopposed, with passive support from Francophone inhabitants. In
5720-573: The American auto industry. Detroit manufacturers such as Packard and Hudson merged into other companies and eventually disappeared. At its peak population of 1,849,568, in the 1950 Census , the city was the fifth-largest in the United States. In this postwar era, the auto industry continued to create opportunities for many African Americans from the South, who continued with their Great Migration to Detroit and other northern and western cities to escape
5850-475: The Atlantic seaports and the U.S. interior. In Wisconsin , the inner lowland is a knob of resistant quartzites, known as Baraboo Ridge, rising from the buried upland floor through the partly denuded cover of lower Palaeozoic strata. This knob or ridge can be thought of as an ancient physiographic fossil, as it is an ancient monadnock having been preserved from destructive attacks of weather by burial under sea-floor deposits. It has been recently re-exposed through
5980-474: The Austin nameplate. Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( / d ɪ ˈ t r ɔɪ t / dih- TROYT , locally also / ˈ d iː t r ɔɪ t / DEE -troyt ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan . It is the largest U.S. city on the Canadian border and the county seat of Wayne County . Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 census , making it
6110-1112: The Big Five, have their global operational headquarters in Toronto. Outside of Chicago and Toronto, many other cities are host to financial centers as well. Major bank headquarters are located in Ohio including Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, and KeyCorp in Cleveland. Insurance companies such as Anthem in Indianapolis, Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, American Family Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin, State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois, and Progressive Insurance and Medical Mutual of Ohio in Cleveland. The Great Lakes region has
6240-450: The Detroit River carried 67,292,504 tons of shipping commerce through Detroit to locations all over the world. For comparison, London shipped 18,727,230 tons, and New York shipped 20,390,953 tons. The river was dubbed "the Greatest Commercial Artery on Earth" by The Detroit News in 1908. The prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 resulted in the Detroit River becoming a major conduit for smuggling of illegal Canadian spirits. With
6370-405: The Detroit River. [REDACTED] Kingdom of France 1701–1760 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Great Britain 1760–1796 [REDACTED] United States 1796–1812 [REDACTED] United Kingdom 1812–1813 [REDACTED] United States 1813–present Paleo-Indians inhabited areas near Detroit as early as 11,000 years ago including the culture referred to as
6500-422: The Federal Reserve). Toronto is an international centre for business and finance. Generally considered the financial capital of Canada, Toronto has a high concentration of banks and brokerage firms on Bay Street, in the Financial District. The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the world's seventh-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. The five largest financial institutions of Canada, collectively known as
6630-417: The Great Lakes, the British continued to supply not only their own troops but a wide alliance of Native American nations through Detroit, Fort Niagara , Fort Michilimackinac , and so on, until these posts were turned over to the United States following the Jay Treaty (1794). During the Confederacy Period of 1781–1789, the Continental Congress passed three ordinances whose authority was unclear regarding
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#17327807284506760-415: The Indian population. The ordinance prohibited the establishment of state religion and established civic rights that foreshadowed the United States Bill of Rights . Civil rights included freedom from cruel and unusual punishment , trial by jury , and exemption from unreasonable search and seizure . States were authorized to organize constitutional conventions and petition for admission as states equal to
6890-505: The Iroquois League, with whom they were at war in the 1630s. The Huron and Neutral people held the north side of Lake Erie until the 1650s, when the Iroquois pushed them and the Erie people away from the lake and its beaver -rich feeder streams in the Beaver Wars of 1649–1655. By the 1670s, the war-weakened Iroquois laid claim to as far south as the Ohio River valley in northern Kentucky as hunting grounds, and had absorbed many other Iroquoian peoples after defeating them in war. For
7020-464: The Peace of Paris (1784) Britain ceded what became known as the Northwest Territory , the area bounded by Great Lakes, Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and the eastern colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, to the fledgling United States. Britain, which may have entertained ambitions to repossess the area if America failed to govern it, retained control over its forts and licensed fur trade for fifteen years. By well-established trade and military routes across
7150-518: The South. Whites, including ethnic Europeans, feared black competition for jobs and scarce housing. The federal government prohibited discrimination in defense work, but when in June 1943 Packard promoted three black people to work next to whites on its assembly lines, 25,000 white workers walked off the job. The 1943 Detroit race riot took place in June, three weeks after the Packard plant protest, beginning with an altercation at Belle Isle . A total of 34 people were killed, 25 of them black and most at
7280-400: The South; they were outnumbered by southern whites who also migrated to the city. Immigration brought southern and eastern Europeans of Catholic and Jewish faith; these new groups competed with native-born whites for jobs and housing in the booming city. Detroit was one of the major Midwest cities that was a site for the dramatic urban revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) beginning in 1915. "By
7410-788: The St. Lawrence, Mohawk, and Hudson rivers provided outlets for commercial corn and wheat, while The Ohio River let agricultural products from western Pennsylvania and southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois journey downstream to New Orleans. Mining, primarily soft metals of copper, zinc, and lead; and timber to supply rapidly expanding sawmills that supplied lumber for new settlements. Agricultural and industrial production generated distinctive political and social cultures of independent republican producers, who consolidated an ideology of personal liberty, free markets, and great social visions, often expressed in religious terms and enthusiasms. The region's alliance of antislavery with free soil movements contributed troops and agricultural goods that proved critical in
7540-425: The Union's victory. The Homestead and Morrill Acts , donating federal land to extend the agrarian economic franchise, and support state universities, modeled western expansion and education for all future states. The British-Canadian London Conference of 1866 , and subsequent Constitution Act of 1867 analogously derived from political, and some military, turmoil in the former jurisdiction of Upper Canada , which
7670-409: The basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin ... I have a dream this evening that one day we will recognize the words of Jefferson that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I have a dream ... —Martin Luther King Jr. (June 1963 Speech at
7800-455: The case February 27, 1974. The subsequent Milliken v. Bradley decision had nationwide influence. In a narrow decision, the Supreme Court found schools were a subject of local control, and suburbs could not be forced to aid with the desegregation of the city's school district. "Milliken was perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of that period", said Myron Orfield , professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School . "Had that gone
7930-421: The center of the flag of the city. From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan as a territory and as a state. William Hull , the United States commander at Detroit, surrendered without a fight to British troops and their Native American allies during the War of 1812 in the siege of Detroit , believing his forces were vastly outnumbered. The Battle of Frenchtown was part of a U.S. effort to retake
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#17327807284508060-415: The city's access to the Canada–US border made it a key stop for refugee slaves gaining freedom in the North along the Underground Railroad . Many went across the Detroit River to Canada to escape pursuit by slave catchers. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 African-American refugees settled in Canada. George DeBaptiste was considered to be the "president" of the Detroit Underground Railroad, William Lambert
8190-403: The city's population declined to less than 10 percent of the state's population. During the same time period, the sprawling metropolitan area grew to contain more than half of Michigan's population. The shift of population and jobs eroded Detroit's tax base. In June 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a major speech as part of a civil rights march in Detroit that foreshadowed his " I Have
8320-412: The city, and U.S. troops suffered their highest fatalities of any battle in the war. This battle is commemorated at River Raisin National Battlefield Park south of Detroit in Monroe County . Detroit was recaptured by the United States later that year. The settlement was incorporated as a city in 1815. As the city expanded, a radial geometric street plan developed by Chief Justice Augustus B. Woodward
8450-486: The city. It was defeated after numerous prosecutions following the kidnapping and murder in 1936 of Charles Poole, a Catholic organizer with the federal Works Progress Administration . Some 49 men of the Black Legion were convicted of numerous crimes, with many sentenced to life in prison for murder. By 1940, 80% of Detroit deeds contained restrictive covenants prohibiting African Americans from buying houses they could afford. These discriminatory tactics were successful as
8580-467: The company and formed "Austin Organs, Inc." They re-established the factory in Hartford although in more modest facilities that were adjacent to their old plant. The first instrument produced by the re-organized company was given Opus 2000. During the Second World War , the company contributed to the war effort by constructing gliders. As of 2020 the company still builds instruments at the same four-story edifice located at 156 Woodland Street. In March 2005
8710-446: The company closed when annual revenue fell below $ 150K per year after a payment dispute regarding an installation. Weeks later a business partnership was formed by the owner of an organ service and repair company and a long-time Austin employee. They purchased the company, restructured its operations, and recalled several company veterans. As of 2019 Austin was building eight new instruments per year. Over 2600 organs have been built with
8840-399: The company struggled with high overhead, decreased new business, and cash flow. By 1935 the company announced that it would close after fulfilling existing contracts, with its last instrument as Opus 1885. The company vacated its factory building, sold some assets and put others into storage. In February 1937 the nephew of the company founder and a long-term employee purchased what remained of
8970-443: The corresponding geological formation of the Great Lakes Basin , a narrow watershed encompassing the Great Lakes, bounded by watersheds to the region's north by the Hudson Bay , to the west by the Mississippi , and to the east and south by the Ohio . To the east, the rivers of St. Lawrence , Richelieu , Hudson , Mohawk and Susquehanna form an arc of watersheds east to the Atlantic . The Great Lakes region, as distinct from
9100-449: The early 20th century as the world's automotive capital. The growth of the auto industry was reflected by changes in businesses throughout the Midwest and nation, with the development of garages to service vehicles and gas stations, as well as factories for parts and tires. Because of the booming auto industry, Detroit became the fourth-largest city in the nation by 1920, following New York City , Chicago , and Philadelphia . In 1907,
9230-406: The erosion of its cover. The occurrence of the lake basins in the lowland belts on either side of the Niagara escarpment is an abnormal feature. Glacial erosion has formed them through the glacial drift obstructing the normal outlet valleys and to crustal warping in connection with or independent of the glacial sheet. Lake Superior is unlike the other lakes. The greater part of its basin occupies
9360-550: The establishment of the United States as an independent country, Britain ceded Detroit and other territories in the region under the 1783 Treaty of Paris , which established the southern border with its remaining colonial provinces in British North America , later Upper Canada . However, the area remained under British control, and its forces did not withdraw until 1796, following the 1794 Jay Treaty . By
9490-461: The establishment of their brand names as purveyors of consumer goods. The region's natural features, cultural institutions, and resorts make it a popular destination for tourism. Advantages of accessible waterways, highly developed transportation infrastructure, finance, and a prosperous market base make the region the global leader in automobile production and a global business location. Henry Ford 's movable assembly line and integrated production set
9620-744: The field of architecture. Chicago pioneered the world's first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building designed by William LeBaron Jenney . Engineering innovation established Chicago from that time on to become one of the world's most influential epicenters of contemporary urban and commercial architecture. Equally influential was the 1832 invention of balloon- framing in Chicago which replaced heavy timber construction requiring massive beams and great woodworking skill with pre-cut timber. This new lumber could be nailed together by farmers and settlers who used it to build homes and barns throughout
9750-712: The government encouraged retooling of the American automobile industry in support of the Allied powers , leading to Detroit's key role in the American Arsenal of Democracy . Jobs expanded so rapidly due to the defense buildup in World War II that 400,000 people migrated to the city from 1941 to 1943, including 50,000 blacks in the second wave of the Great Migration, and 350,000 whites, many of them from
9880-402: The hands of the white police force, while 433 were wounded (75% of them black), and property valued at $ 2 million (worth $ 30.4 million in 2020) was destroyed. Rioters moved through the city, and young whites traveled across town to attack more settled blacks in their neighborhood of Paradise Valley . Industrial mergers in the 1950s, especially in the automobile sector, increased oligopoly in
10010-489: The highways were presented as a kind of urban renewal. These neighborhoods (such as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley) were extremely important to the black communities of Detroit, providing spaces for independent black businesses and social/cultural organizations. Their destruction displaced residents with little consideration of the effects of breaking up functioning neighborhoods and businesses. In 1956, Detroit's last heavily used electric streetcar line , which traveled along
10140-532: The indigenous and loyalist raids of 1778 and the resultant 1779 decisive Sullivan Expedition reopened the Ohio Country to even more westward emigration, which began almost immediately. By 1778, its population reached 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in what was known as the Province of Quebec since the British takeover of former French colonial possessions. After the American Revolutionary War and
10270-504: The influence of union leaders in the city such as Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters and Walter Reuther of the UAW. Detroit, like many places in the United States, developed racial conflict and discrimination in the 20th century following the rapid demographic changes as hundreds of thousands of new workers were attracted to the industrial city. The Great Migration brought rural blacks from
10400-407: The influx of black Detroiters to white neighborhoods, believing that their presence would lead to neighborhood deterioration. This perpetuated a cyclical exclusionary process that marginalized the agency of black Detroiters by trapping them in the unhealthiest, least safe areas of the city. As in other major American cities in the postwar era, modernist planning ideology drove the construction of
10530-655: The largest European settlement between Montreal and New Orleans , both also French settlements, in the former colonies of New France and La Louisiane , respectively. During the French and Indian War (1754–63)—the North American front of the Seven Years' War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of France —British troops gained control of the settlement in 1760 and shortened its name to Detroit. Several regional Native American tribes, such as
10660-591: The largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy , but successfully exited in December 2014. Detroit is a port on the Detroit River, one of the four major straits that connect the Great Lakes system to the St. Lawrence Seaway . The city anchors the third-largest regional economy in the Midwest and the 16th-largest in the United States. It is also best known as the center of the U.S. automotive industry , and
10790-710: The largest city in Canada and the fourth largest city proper in North America behind Mexico City , New York City and Los Angeles. Cities along the Great Lakes have access to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway , making them international ports. Chicago is the largest economic and financial center. Chicago was named the fourth most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. The 2017 Global Financial Centres Index ranked Chicago as
10920-539: The largest economic units on Earth (with a $ 6-trillion gross regional product). This region also contains what area urban planners call the Great Lakes Megalopolis , which has an estimated 59 million people. Chicago is emerging as the third megacity in the United States , after the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, with a metro population approaching ten million. Toronto is
11050-407: The late 19th and early 20th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region . The city's population rose to be the fourth-largest in the nation by 1920, after New York City , Chicago , and Philadelphia , with the expansion of the automotive industry in the early 20th century. One of its main features, the Detroit River , became the busiest commercial hub in
11180-535: The late 19th century, wealthy industry and shipping magnates commissioned the design and construction of several Gilded Age mansions east and west of the current downtown, along the major avenues of the Woodward plan. Most notable among them was the David Whitney House at 4421 Woodward Avenue , and the grand avenue became a favored address for mansions. During this period, some referred to Detroit as
11310-417: The length of Woodward Avenue, was removed and replaced with gas-powered buses. It was the last line of what had once been a 534-mile network of electric streetcars. In 1941, at peak times, a streetcar ran on Woodward Avenue every 60 seconds. All of these changes in the area's transportation system favored low-density, auto-oriented development rather than high-density urban development. Industry also moved to
11440-491: The majority of the black community: with overall lower incomes and facing the backlash of discriminatory housing policies, the black community was limited to lower cost, lower quality housing in the city. The surge in the black population augmented the strain on housing scarcity. The livable areas available to the black community were limited, and as a result, families often crowded together in unsanitary, unsafe, and illegal quarters. Such discrimination became increasingly evident in
11570-594: The middle group: Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie stand at practically the same level. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected by the Straits of Mackinac with the Mackinac Bridge spanning the straits. Lake Huron and Lake Erie are connected by the St. Clair River and Detroit River , with the small Lake St. Clair between them. The land northeast of the rivers is undergoing a slow elevation. The Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with
11700-510: The model and standard for major car manufactures. The Detroit area emerged as the world's automotive center, with facilities throughout the region. Akron, Ohio became the global leader in rubber production, driven by the demand for tires. Over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped annually through the Great Lakes. According to the Brookings Institution , if it stood alone as a country, the Great Lakes economy would be one of
11830-405: The next hundred years, virtually no British or French action was contemplated without consultation with the Iroquois or consideration of their likely response. On July 24, 1701, the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac , with his lieutenant Alphonse de Tonty and more than a hundred other settlers, began constructing a small fort on the north bank of the Detroit River. Cadillac named
11960-401: The nineteenth century Grange , which in turn generated the agricultural cooperatives that defined much of rural political economy and culture throughout the region. Fraternal , ethnic, and civic organizations extended cooperatives and supported local ventures from insurance companies to orphanages and hospitals. The region was the political base, and provided much leadership political parties in
12090-411: The other way, it would have opened the door to fixing nearly all of Detroit's current problems." John Mogk, a professor of law and an expert in urban planning at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, says, Everybody thinks that it was the riots [in 1967] that caused the white families to leave. Some people were leaving at that time but, really, it was after Milliken that you saw mass flight to
12220-453: The pattern of American centralized industrial consolidation and eventual global dominance. The region hosted the world's greatest concentrations of production for oil, coal, steel, automobiles, synthetic rubber, agricultural machinery, and heavy transport equipment. Agronomy industrialized as well, in meat processing, packaged cereal products, and processed dairy products. In response to disruptions and imbalances of power resulting from so vast
12350-484: The policies of redlining implemented by banks and federal housing groups, which almost completely restricted the ability of blacks to improve their housing and encouraged white people to guard the racial divide that defined their neighborhoods. As a result, black people were often denied bank loans to obtain better housing, and interest rates and rents were unfairly inflated to prevent their moving into white neighborhoods. White residents and political leaders largely opposed
12480-690: The political protocols by which American states south of the lakes would enter the union as political equals with the original thirteen colonies. The ordinance, adopted in its final form just before the writing of the United States Constitution , was a sweeping, visionary proposal to create what was at the time a radical experiment in democratic governance and economy. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery , restricted primogeniture , mandated universal public education , provided for affordable farm land to people who settled and improved it, and required peaceful, lawful treatment of
12610-661: The portion of the reserve west of the Appalachian Mountains , and bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes . Britain's claims were intensely disputed by a confederation of Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion , which induced major concessions to still sovereign Indian nations; and by the Iroquois Confederacy , whose six member nations- Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , Seneca and Tuscarora -never conceded sovereignty to either Britain or, later, The United States. During
12740-604: The rapid growth of industrial workers in the auto factories, labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor and the United Auto Workers (UAW) fought to organize workers to gain them better working conditions and wages. They initiated strikes and other tactics in support of improvements such as the 8-hour day/40-hour work week , increased wages, greater benefits, and improved working conditions . The labor activism during those years increased
12870-500: The region became the global epicenter of motorized land vehicles, including cars, trucks and jeeps, as well as a major supplier of engine, transmission, and electrical components to the wartime aeronautics industry. Despite extreme labor shortages, the region increased mechanization, and absorbed large numbers of women and immigrant labor, to increase its food production. Navigable terrain, waterways, and ports spurred an unprecedented construction of transportation infrastructure throughout
13000-494: The region losing the majority of funding for rapid transit. The city then moved forward with construction of the elevated downtown circulator portion of the system, which became known as the Detroit People Mover . The gasoline crises of 1973 and 1979 affected auto industry. Buyers chose smaller, more fuel-efficient cars made by foreign makers as the price of gas rose. Efforts to revive the city were stymied by
13130-493: The region's coal and iron mines; steel, automobile and rubber industries; and breakthrough strikes and contracts of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The role of government also grew during the early 20th century. In the rural areas, most people obtained food and manufactured goods from neighbors and other people they knew personally. As industry and commerce grew, goods such as food, materials, and medicines were no longer made by neighbors, but by large companies. During World War II ,
13260-567: The region's governance on the American side. The Land Ordinance of 1784 established the broad outlines of future governance. The territory would be divided into six states, which would be given broad powers of constitutional instituting, and admitted to the nation as equal members. The Land Ordinance of 1785 specified the manner in which land would be distributed in the Territory, favoring sale in small parcels to settlers who would work their own farms. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined
13390-511: The region. Blue collar industry traditionally represent in the Great Lakes region. In the United States, it is a stronghold of the Democratic Party although in recent years many states in Great Lakes region have become swing states . In Ontario , it has long been divided between rural and urban districts, with many rural ridings voted more conservative, and larger urban and Suburban areas voting Liberal or NDP. The Great Lake region
13520-439: The region. The region's greatest institutional contributions were major corporate, labor, educational and cooperative organizations. It hosted some of the most influential national and international corporations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century monopoly age, including John Deere Plow, McCormack Reaper, New York Central and Erie railroads, Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel, International Harvester and Standard Oil. As
13650-626: The region. The region is a global leader in advanced manufacturing and research and development, with significant innovations in both production processes and business organization. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil set precedents for centralized pricing, uniform distribution, and controlled product standards through Standard Oil, which started as a consolidated refinery in Cleveland. Cyrus McCormick 's Reaper and other manufacturers of agricultural machinery consolidated into International Harvester in Chicago. Andrew Carnegie 's steel production integrated large-scale open-hearth and Bessemer processes into
13780-573: The rest, and a variety of other indigenous nation-peoples including the Menominee , Ojibwa , Illinois , Pottawatmie , Huron , Shawnee , Erie , Fox , Miami , Meskwaki and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). With the first permanent European settlements in the early seventeenth century, all these nation-peoples developed an extensive fur trade with French, Dutch, and English merchants in the St. Lawrence, Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and Hudson's Bay, respectively. The prospects of fur monopolies and discovery of
13910-417: The restoration of several historic theaters and entertainment venues, high-rise renovations, new sports stadiums, and a riverfront revitalization project. Detroit is an increasingly popular tourist destination which caters to about 16 million visitors per year. In 2015, Detroit was given a name called " City of Design " by UNESCO , the first and only U.S. city to receive that designation. Detroit
14040-470: The settlement Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit , after Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain , Secretary of State of the Navy under Louis XIV . Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit was founded on July 26 and is the second-oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in the United States. France offered free land to colonists to attract families to Detroit; when it reached a population of 800 in 1765, it became
14170-400: The side towards the upland, and a long gentle slope on the other side. Its relief is seldom more than 200 or 300 feet (91 m) and is generally small. Its continuity and its contrast with the associated lowlands on the underlying and overlying weak strata make it an important feature. The escarpment would lie straight east–west if the slant of the strata were uniformly to the south. However,
14300-603: The single lowland is continued under the name of the Mohawk Valley . This is an east–west longitudinal depression that has been eroded on a belt of relatively weak strata between the resistant crystalline rocks of the Adirondacks on the north and the northern escarpment of the Appalachian Plateau ( Catskills - Helderbergs ) on the south. Early in U.S. history, this provided a vital economic route between
14430-478: The strata are somewhat warped and so the escarpment's course is strongly convex to the north in the middle, gently convex to the south at either end. The escarpment begins where its determining limestone / dolomite begins, in west-central New York . There, it separates the lowlands that separate Lake Ontario from Lake Erie . It curves to the northwest through the Ontario province to the island belt that divides
14560-498: The strict Jim Crow laws and racial discrimination policies of the South. Postwar Detroit was a prosperous industrial center of mass production. The auto industry comprised about 60% of all industry in the city, allowing space for a plethora of separate booming businesses including stove making, brewing, furniture building, oil refineries, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and more. The expansion of jobs created unique opportunities for black Americans, who saw novel high employment rates: there
14690-418: The struggles of the auto industry, as their sales and market share declined. Automakers laid off thousands of employees and closed plants in the city, further eroding the tax base. To counteract this, the city used eminent domain to build two large new auto assembly plants in the city. Young sought to revive the city by seeking to increase investment in the city's declining downtown. The Renaissance Center ,
14820-404: The suburbs, seeking large plots of land for single-story factories. By the 21st century, the metro Detroit area had developed as one of the most sprawling job markets in the United States; combined with poor public transport, this resulted in many new jobs being beyond the reach of urban low-income workers. In 1950, the city held about one-third of the state's population. Over the next 60 years,
14950-434: The suburbs. If the case had gone the other way, it is likely that Detroit would not have experienced the steep decline in its tax base that has occurred since then. In November 1973, the city elected Coleman Young as its first black mayor. After taking office, Young emphasized increasing racial diversity in the police department, which was predominantly white. Young also worked to improve Detroit's transportation system, but
15080-404: The tension between Young and his suburban counterparts over regional matters was problematic throughout his mayoral term. In 1976, the federal government offered $ 600 million (~$ 2.5 billion in 2023) for building a regional rapid transit system, under a single regional authority. But the inability of Detroit and its suburban neighbors to solve conflicts over transit planning resulted in
15210-403: The turn of the 19th century, white American settlers began pouring westwards. The region's then colonial economy was based on the lucrative fur trade , in which numerous Native American people had important roles as trappers and traders. Today the flag of Detroit reflects its both its French and English colonial heritage. Descendants of the earliest French and French-Canadian settlers formed
15340-473: The twenty-fourth most competitive city in the world, behind Toronto, also in the Great Lakes region, at seventh. The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first ever standardized "exchange traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . As a world financial center it is home to major financial and futures exchanges , including the Chicago Stock Exchange ,
15470-465: The two belts of weaker strata on either side of the Niagara escarpment. Lake Ontario, Georgian Bay and Green Bay occupy depressions in the lowland on the inner side of the escarpment. Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan lie in depressions in the lowland on the outer side. When the two lowlands are traced eastward, they become confluent after the Niagara limestone has faded away in central New York, and
15600-485: The upland and the belts of more resistant strata, which rise in uplands . Illustrations of this type of forms are found in the district of the Great Lakes . The chief upland belt or escarpment is formed by the firm Niagara limestone/dolomite , which takes its name from the gorge and falls cut through the upland by the Niagara River . The Niagara Escarpment has a relatively strong slope or enfacing escarpment on
15730-551: The western prairies and plains. Wisconsin-born, Chicago-trained Sullivan apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright designed prototypes for architectural designs from the commercial skylight atrium to suburban ranch house. German-born Pennsylvania immigrant John A. Roebling invented steel wire rope, a pivotal part of suspension bridges he designed and whose construction he supervised in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Buffalo, based on earlier successful canal aqueducts. His most famous project
15860-466: The world's most efficient and profitable mills. The largest, most comprehensive monopoly in the world, United States Steel , consolidated steel production throughout the region. Many of the world's largest employers began in the Great Lakes region. Mass marketing in the modern sense was born in the region. Two competing Chicago retailers— Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck —developed mass marketing and sales through catalogues, mail-order distribution, and
15990-432: The world—carrying over 65 million tons of shipping commerce each year. In the mid-20th century, Detroit entered a state of urban decay which has continued to the present, as a result of industrial restructuring, the loss of jobs in the auto industry, and rapid suburbanization . Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the 1950 census , Detroit's population has declined by more than 65 percent. In 2013, Detroit became
16120-677: Was a 103% increase in the number of blacks employed in postwar Detroit. Black Americans who immigrated to northern industrial cities from the south still faced intense racial discrimination in the employment sector. Racial discrimination kept the workforce and better jobs predominantly white, while many black Detroiters held lower-paying factory jobs. Despite changes in demographics as the city's black population expanded, Detroit's police force, fire department, and other city jobs continued to be held by predominantly white residents. This created an unbalanced racial power dynamic. Unequal opportunities in employment resulted in unequal housing opportunities for
16250-498: Was coined by Father Gabriel Richard as he looked out at the ruins of the city in the fire's aftermath. The city seal, designed by J.O. Lewis in 1827, directly depicts the Great Fire of 1805. Two women stand in the foreground while on the left, the city burns in the background and a woman weeps over the destruction. The woman on the right consoles her by gesturing to a new city that will rise in its place. The city seal also forms
16380-587: Was criticized for being too focused on downtown development and not doing enough to lower the city's high crime rate and improve city services to residents. High unemployment was compounded by middle-class flight to the suburbs, and some residents leaving the state to find work. The result for the city was a higher proportion of poor in its population, reduced tax base, depressed property values, abandoned buildings, abandoned neighborhoods, and high crime rates. On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed near Detroit Metro airport, killing all but one of
16510-721: Was followed, featuring grand boulevards as in Paris . In 1817, Woodward went on to establish the Catholepistemiad , or University of Michigania in the city. Intended to be a centralized system of schools, libraries, and other cultural and scientific institutions for the Michigan Territory, the Catholepistemiad evolved into the modern University of Michigan. Prior to the American Civil War ,
16640-505: Was renamed and organized in the new dominion as the province of Ontario . Like the provisions of the ordinance, Ontario prohibited slavery, made provisions for land distribution to farmers who owned their own land, and mandated universal public education . Industrial production, organization, and technology have made the region among the world's most productive manufacturing centers. Nineteenth-century monopolies such as International Harvester, Standard Oil, and United States Steel established
16770-584: Was the Brooklyn Bridge . Contributions to modern transportation include the Wright brothers ' early airplanes, designed and perfected in their Dayton, Ohio mechanics' workshops; distinctive Great Lakes freighters , and railroad beds constructed of wooden ties and steel rails. The early nineteenth century Erie Canal and mid-twentieth century St. Lawrence Seaway expanded the scale and capacity of massive water-born freight. Agricultural associations joined
16900-469: Was turned on; this allowed for servicing of the organ keying action. The modern (current) chest design was further developed in 1913, and has been refined over the years. In 1905 the company began building electric consoles; these have also been refined over the years. The Austin Organ Company reached its peak in the 1920s when it was delivering more than 80 instruments each year. In the Depression years
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