THE HISTORY OF THE JOHN LODGE FREEWAY
While we were recently having dinner with a friend and a regular reader of my blog the question came up when was the John Lodge Freeway built? I said to myself this could be an essay.
The John Lodge was named after a person who was the Mayor of Detroit in the 1920's. The Lodge was not the first freeway in Detroit. The first freeway was actually The Davidson freeway. The first freeway was the Davidson Freeway opened on November 25,1942. It was an east west freeway designed to eleviatethe heavy traffic on a street called Davidson that ran approximately through the middle of the city. The street and freeway ran through Detroit and Highland Park. The freeway was five and half miles long. The Davidson Freeway was actually the first depressed freeway in the United States.
Detroit had become a large city with a population of almost two million people. Many of those people who lived in the neighborhoods of the city worked and shopped downtown.
They went downtown by car or bus every day. They rode on streets such as Woodward Avenue, Second or Third streets, Hamilton and the Grand Boulevard among others to get to and from downtown every day. These streets became bumper to bumper traffic all the time. Something had to be done to alleviate the heavy traffic.
I guess someone said one day I have an idea. Lets's knock down thousands of homes and buildings through the heart of the city and dig a giant ditch. Pave the ditch with cement and whatever other materials it takes. There will be no traffic lights or stop signs and vehicles can go about fifty-five miles per hour. Let's call it a freeway and name it after a former Mayor of Detroit.
The Lodge was built in segments beginning in the early 1950's through the early 1960's. The freeway began at Jefferson and Randolph downtown not far from the tunnel to Canada. It was dedicated on November 7,1957. The freeway went as far as a street called Wyoming where it merged into a nice surface street called James Cousins. James Cousins was a kind of boulevard. Two lanes on each side of the street. there was an island down the middle with grass, trees and bushes. James Cousins ran to the outskirts of Detroit which ended at Eight Mile Road. The suburbs which did not have much of a population at that time began north of Eight Mile Road.
James Cousins ended on the Detroit side of Eights Mile Road. North of Eight Mile Road at this point was the beginning of Southfield Michigan. James Cousins became a road called Northwestern Highway ran past the brand new world famous Northland Shopping Center. Northwestern continued through Southfield,Michigan where new homes,offices and apartments were just starting to be built.
The first part of the Lodge was lined by grass and trees. The Lodge had a problem with flooding during heavy rain. Apparently, the sewer system did not have the capacity to handle heavy rain. This was a problem but must have been corrected after a while.
The second phase of the Lodge began in the late fifties at Wyoming and James Cousins. This time someone must of said let's destroy the nice street,tear down some more houses and business's , rip up the center medium with the nice trees and bushes and dig another ditch to extend the freeway. This time large cement walls were built on the side of the big ditch. These walls were supported by giant metal beams which were pounded into the ground by all kinds of big equipment. If you grew up along that James Couzens corridor between six, seven or eight mile roads you heard the very loud pounding of those beams into the ground every morning for what I believe was a couple of years
The final phase was built in the early 1960's when Northwestern Highway which began north of Eight Mile Road past Northland and into the Northwest suburbs also became a freeway.
I grew up at just off of Eight Mile and Greenfield on the Detroit Side of Eight Mile. This was the corner where Detroit met the suburbs of Oak Park and Southfield. It was all new in the early fifties and sixties. Sometimes we would jump on Northwestern and head all the way out to the Howard Johnson's at Ten Mile and Northwestern to have a ice cream cone. Howard Johnson's home of the 28 flavors.
When we started getting our drivers licenses in the early 1960's my buddies and I would say let's do something wild like drive all the way out to the end of Northwestern turn around and drive home. Northwestern Highway ends at Orchard Lake Road. Orchard Lake Road is the gate way to a place called West Bloomfield Michigan. To kids in the early 60's it felt like an adventure to drive that far. Northwestern and Orchard Lake Road seemed far away and mysterious.
The rest as they say is history, The suburbs grew. Detroit had its issues but seems to be recovering. Northland at one time the greatest shopping center in the world is gone. Things always change for the Detroit area a lot of that change started with the building of the John Lodge. I think they call it progress.
WRITTEN BY
RONNY TURETT
born in the 40's/raised in the 50's
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