There were a few days between going to Toledo and when I'd have to go back and do my winter bid, so I obviously used these days to spend time in Detroit.

Over on 14th Street, there's this stately home that Nailhed has always eyed and he now knew about an opening. Except, for all of the times driving along this street, and all of the excitement of what the inside might entail, it was almost entirely gutted.

The land here was originally part of the ribbon farm allotted to a Zacharie Cicotte in 1775, which was bought up from Cicotte's relatives by Peter Godfroy in the 1820s. The farm would then become known as the Godfroy Farm and 14th street was even known as Godfroy Street prior to 1867.

These ribbon farms were eventually all broken up and platted, with the Godfroy Farm being subdivided between 1864 and 1875. Some of these areas divided up into separate plots would become known by their farm name and the word subdivision, such as this house at 3704 14th Street, built in 1895, was in the Godfroy Farm Subdivision.

This house was on the market shortly after we checked it out - the interior being a blank canvas ready for your touch! - but it now seems to be off the market following a $170,000 sale in July of 2021.

The October of 2020 Google Streetview shows that the doors had been sealed with plywood, but I haven't been back since the July 2021 sale to see if anything else has changed.

After spending all of ten minutes at the 14th Street house, we set off without any plan and I was worried we might end up wasting these hours. Thankfully we instead came across this old building on 15th Street within the next ten minutes.

This wasn't exactly the holy grail of urbex though, as Nailhed accurately describes in his blog post about this day:

"Sometimes I just cruise around aimlessly until we either get tired or spot something that looks like a good place to chill for a few and drink a beer before he either has to leave town or we meet up with other friends for the night. Other times, I have a run of good luck for the several months prior to his visit and I manage to inadvertently rack up a shimmering list of superlative potential spots that tickle both of our fancies, while also representing groundbreaking new territory in the scholarly field of uRb3x, but this wasn't going to be one of those times."

LOL.

Nailhed's research found that this used to be a post office substation.

I found the more interesting part of this building's history was that it must've been abandoned in the 2000s, or abandoned since that time, since there was some great old graffiti. It's truly amazing how much someone like TURTL can cover the city and then it just turns over in time, but then, this is also exacerbated by the bloodlust for buffing graffiti possessed by Mayor Duggan.

Which all comes together to make a time capsule like this building that more special.

The post office substation on 15th worked well enough to give us time to sip on a tall can of malt liquor, but we left immediately afterwards.

This time I had a card up my sleeve though, as I was already thinking about and wondering about this bombed out ruin just five blocks to the west.

If ever there was a case of ruin porn on this site, this location may be it; but sue me, I love bullshitting with my friends in a quiet, graffiti-covered ruin near some train tracks.

This collection of buildings was the Michigan Pressed Brick Company, who manufactured "sand lime bricks", meaning the bricks were made with lime which makes them decorative and stronger.

Google Streetview shows this building still occupied in September of 2013, the entirety of the building surrounded by a 12-ft wall of graffiti buff gray, which I assume covered up the works of graffiti heads who thought the building was abandoned.

Looks like SEHV escaped that buff by painting the backside of the Michigan Pressed Brick Co., where only the passing trains would see his work.

It's pretty impressive that this place is so busy that there's a desire path going through the interior. I imagine this has to do with the private park behind the Michigan Pressed Brick Co., where people are invited to come hang out on private property, paint the purpose-built graffiti walls, and hang out as long as they clean up after themselves.

Desire paths - unplanned paths created by humans or animals as a convenient shortcut - are one of those weird things I really like in life. I think it's that if you encounter one in a city or town, it's going to bring you through an area you aren't supposed to be, but also possibly to something cool not everyone knows about, like some ruins, or a fire pit, or a bluff.

Finding a desire path in an abandoned building was one of those turduckens for me, like a lighthouse next to a skatepark, or a Taco Bell with a bottom cup-high handrail.

While the 2013 Streetview shows the main building here occupied and looking alright, the northernmost large room hasn't had a roof since before 1957 (according to historic aerial photography).

An aerial photograph from 1999 shows that the strange triangular rooms with the second story portion and the desire path were abandoned by then. The 2000s and 2010s show the roof over the lower half of the building looking increasingly worn, until a fire must've struck sometime between April 2017 and July 2017.

Anyway, the Michigan Pressed Brick Co seems like a prime candidate for Mayor Duggan's prolific demolition machine, but as far as I know, it's still sitting here with a For Sale sign glued to the front office wall.

Following that burnt out factory, Nailhed and I had dinner, but I had to call it an early night as I was about to embark on another adventure in just over 12 short hours.

If we rewind it a couple days, I was over at Donnie's and with little happening, I asked about his hearse. Surprised by the fact that I'd never been in it, we took it over to the Lion's Head Tavern in Riverside, lol.

Not gonna lie, it's a pretty sweet ride.

The next day the plan was to meet up with Steve and head over to Detroit, so by the afternoon, we were over at Detroit One Coney on Woodward, enjoying the confined alley parking in the back & the awesome logo-emblazoned cups. The deep-fried okra though? Not so much.

We'd roll over to the east side after that, looking for a place to tuck in and avoid the rain. I'd recently seen some coverage of a high school over in the far east side, which worked as we were sort of nearby.

This was an old catholic high school, which was neat in that none of us could remember exploring a school where the auditorium had confessional booths along the side. Of course this was all in darkness or the last light of day, so my lazy, non-tripod ass didn't get any pictures.

We still had a great time as we found the top of the stairs had one of those giant landings like you find in these old schools, and it worked perfectly as a spot to post up, break some balls, and peer out over the neighbourhood. Donnie said it would work perfectly in terms of seeing someone steal his car, while I argued that he should have the tracking app on his phone in case they just go for a short joyride.

He disagreed and insisted that letting insurance handle it was the only option.

I thought about how we were only 10km (6mi) east of the tunnel bus stop in case we had to walk anyhow, haha.

No one stole the car in the end & the side street was so quiet that we sunk into our own conversation more than remarking on anything happening outside.

We spent a lot of time at Warren & Lakeview, but eventually needed to resupply at the nearest liquor store - which was no 10km walk away, as First Class Liquor was within Adley Rutschman home run distance at only 400ft away.

Next up was Hec's Bar, a dive that I'd been tipped off to by a fantastic John Carlisle article.

Hec's has only been here on Van Dyke between 7- and 8-mile since 1994, but has the feeling of a much older dive. That's because Hec's was originally founded as a speakeasy at the corner of French Road and Gratiot, but once White Castle wanted the property for a new restaurant in 1994, the landlord kicked his tenant out and tore down the building. Not wanting to give up the liquor license, Bob Van Maele found another fading dive bar, purchased it, and reopened Hec's, so named because of his grandfather Hector.

Hec's wasn't as busy as the night of the article, maybe because it was a Saturday and not a Friday, but the three of us still enjoyed being buzzed in at the front door and trying to goad Steve into ordering the menu favourite, chicken gizzards. I'm still sad I forgot that the draft Budweiser is only $1 though, as we grabbed bottles instead.

We eventually ended up at this great patch of grass under the interstate, surrounded by muddy tracks and bare trees. I guess that short bit of socializing with the bartender to order a beer at Hec's was enough, lol. This was perfect though.

Fuck did I love this spot, especially as the late-night wet snow started and added to the gray, cold Detroit feel.

We'd stop one more time on Jefferson & Military before making it home around 6am. Somehow I then have a picture at the frigid Tecumseh skatepark 12 hours later, which I'll also take as a win, haha.

Good God are these fond memories of times under the local interstate.

Jesus Christ, I'm almost half excited for December now, wtf?