In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, doctors had discovered that large numbers of deaths in industrial cities were the result of tuberculosis, a respiratory disease closely linked to poverty, overcrowding, and malnutrition. Middle-class fears that tuberculosis could spread resulted in significant expenditures in Detroit, but that money largely ignored the problems of vulnerable populations...
The booming Detroit industries of the early twentieth century brought enormous demand for more workers as more and more industries pushed their way into neighborhoods such as Delray. Low real estate prices and rents attracted poor immigrants from around the world. Around 1910 Romanians, Serbs, Turks, Armenians, Austrians, Hungarians, and others flooded into the area. But the low cost of living translated...
At the turn of the 20th century, Delray was defined by heavy industry and smoke stacks. Because of where they lived, residents were trapped in the middle of an industrial playground and subjected to poor housing policies. In 1909, Dr. Leo H. Herbert, the founder of the Detroit Tuberculosis Sanatorium, along with other renowned physicians of the time, spoke out against Detroit’s neglect of Delray’s...
Edgar Allan Poe spent his final months in poverty, tormented by grief, drowning his depression in alcohol and poetry. In May 1849, in his small New York cottage, he wrote what was to be his last completed poem, “Annabel Lee,” in which he returned to the themes that had haunted him for much of his life. The poem, set long ago in a kingdom by the sea, describes the speaker’s undying love for the...