Poletown East’s History

1800s

• Originally part of Hamtramck Township, modern Poletown East was settled by French farmers, which gave way to the first wave of German immigration, followed by Polish and Kashubian immigrants.

• By the turn of the century, Polish immigrants had become the dominant ethnic group here, with anchors like St. Albertus leading the way.

Early 1900s

• This was further intensified by the construction of the Packard Plant (1903) and Dodge Main (1910), which eventually employed as many as 40,000 workers each at their respective peaks.

• In addition to automobile factories, cigar manufacturers played a major part in employment as Detroit continued to grow.

• The peak of Poletown East's historical footprint was in the 1940s, as the seeds of deindustrialization, the construction of the highways, and large population shifts to the suburbs were sown in the 1950s.

Mid 1900s

• In the 1950s, Detroit's Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, predominantly Black neighborhoods and entertainment districts, were systematically destroyed in the name of urban renewal, and many of those residents moved north to Poletown East.

• By the 1960s, there were numerous Black-owned businesses along thoroughfares like Chene Street, and the neighborhood had become increasingly multiethnic, with Polish, Black, Albanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Middle Eastern, and other communities living alongside one another.

Late 1900s

• Despite city investment in the 1970s, the 1980s dealt another devastating blow when the GM Poletown Plant (called Factory ZERO today) was built, followed by the construction of the Detroit Incinerator.

• According to research completed by the University of Michigan, 4,200 people, 1,500 homes, 144 businesses, and 16 churches were relocated from Poletown in 1981 to make way for the GM plant.

• The plant's construction completely cut off Poletown East from Hamtramck; before then, Chene Street, the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, angled after it crossed Grand Boulevard and converged with Joseph Campau to run directly into Hamtramck’s central business district.

• The $438 million Detroit Incinerator was the brainchild of the cities of Detroit and Highland Park and created the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority.

• The incinerator opened in 1989 and coated the neighborhood with the smell of burning trash, and some research shows it may have caused thousands of Detroiters to develop asthma and cancer.

• Moving into the 1990s, little investment occurred in Poletown East, which existed as an island between highways and polluting industry.

2000s

• Largely thanks to grassroots organizing, there has been renewed investment and activity in the neighborhood over the last 15 years.

• The 27.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway was announced in the 2010s, with its route running directly through the neighborhood.

• The Detroit Incinerator was shut down in March 2019 and demolished over the following years.

• Urban farming has taken root in the neighborhood, with multiple farms in the neighborhood.

• Arboretum Detroit, a community-based nonprofit, created an arboretum in the neighborhood that spans vacant lots, alleyways, parks, and gardens.

• The seeds were sown for our nonprofit in 2025, and we became an entity in early 2026 to make our neighborhood a better place to live for residents and honor all the history that still exists here.