New National Authentic Map of Detroit and Environs [Ford River Rouge Overprinting]

“Lincoln Park is the very heart of Detroit’s new South-West Side Soon to be the World’s Greatest Manufacturing Center”

This 1924 map, produced by the National Lithograph Company for real estate developer C.W. Treadwell, is a fascinating “sales pitch” disguised as a city plan. It captures Detroit at the height of the “Rouge Boom,” when Henry Ford’s massive new factory complex was dramatically reshaping the entire region.

To make their housing lots in Lincoln Park look like a perfect investment, Treadwell commissioned a bold red overprint to link their Dix Avenue Manor subdivision directly to the city’s most powerful industrial hubs. By drawing a large circle around the neighborhood, the map suggests that anyone living there would be at the literal center of the world, with easy access to jobs at the new Ford plant, salt mines, manufacturing plants, and more – all helpfully listed in the lower right.

The map also acts as a vision for the future of Detroit’s traffic thoroughfares. It highlights the city’s famous “spoke” roads and a proposed cross-town highway designed to funnel workers straight to the Ford River Rouge gates. Electric streetcar lines, soon to be outdated due to the prevalence of the automobile, are shown in dashed red. An expanding urban footprint, with subdivisions in adjacent Oakland County, is an evident incentive for the developing road network.

But there’s more to the Motor City than just the car industry! An interesting network of outdoor areas are colored in green. These include cemeteries, golf courses, Fort Wayne, Belle Isle, and the connecting boulevards. Realistically, there was a paucity of green space in the city, though Rouge Park, just north of Dearborn Township, offers a verdant respite!