Interesting Thread on Highland Park, MI - Anyone Ever Been There?

shifrbv · 02-23-07, 10:09 AM

I was shocked that this place exists and that it's so creepy. It looks like a place frozen in time. It also seems extremely sad that such a place full of promise is now reduced to this.

**WARNING - Some pictures in the link are pretty graphic and may not be suitable for those who may be viewing this while at work. **

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/...ead.php?t=8752

So...Highland Park is (ahem--WAS) an independent city within Detroit, and once upon a time a beautiful center of human achievement, largely driven by Henry Ford's philanthropic efforts in civic planning, etc, and his newly built Model-T Plant, the most gigantic, state of the art factory in the world at that time. It was here that the Assembly Line was perfected, and the “$5 day,” thus changing the industrial world, and the world of labor as we know it forever. If you ever wondered why the standard workday is 8hrs long…it’s because Henry Ford said so. This is also the site of the world’s first expressway, “The Davison,” or M-8. Highland Park might've easily been America's most promising city, with flourishing, highly affluent neighborhoods and institutions.

Today, however, it is America’s most destroyed city, and those neighborhoods have been mostly erased by arson and swallowed by vegetation.

It’s some kind of apocalyptic, post-nuclear, post-Robocop sort of surreality. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a scene from HG Well’s “The Time Machine”…or “Omega Man”…or “28 Days Later”…or any other movie about the final collapse of civilization. The deserted streets, the detritus, the farm country-like silence…the foreboding congregation of dark, hollow skyscrapers to the south…. Probly the only place in the world that could be creepier would have to be Chernobyl. It felt like we were in some kind of video game like “Resident Evil.”

aerobson · 02-23-07, 10:21 AM

Yup, unfortunately, it's as nice as the pictures. Located right in the middle of beautiful downtown Detroit.

I used to work right down the street from the Highland Park city limits. There are normal areas of the city, but it's basically just a run down forgotten area. I've given some presentations in the high school. If I remember correctly, the school had a giant polar bear statue. That might be their mascot. It was more of a holding cell rather than a high school. Sad really.

al_bundy · 02-23-07, 10:22 AM

it's toyota's fault

and it seems like detroit's government is a bunch of morons

reverie · 02-23-07, 11:43 AM

I've heard of it plenty, but never been near it in my handful of years living maybe 45 minutes from there. Really interesting, and if I wouldn't fear for my life, it looks like a place I'd have loved to explore as a kid (It's harder to do those sorts of things as an adult, instead of mischevious fun/exploration, it suddenly becomes trespassing and trouble with the police

).

Fielding Mellish · 02-23-07, 12:34 PM

Just drove through there on Tuesday.

Guess I should've stopped by for some free live ammunition.

Fincher Fan · 02-23-07, 01:34 PM

Looks creepy. What happened to it? Is it overrun with gangs or something?

aerobson · 02-23-07, 01:41 PM

It's abandoned. No gangs, but probably lots of drug dealers and vagrants. The city tried running itself independently from Detroit. It's like an island within the city limits of Detroit. They were basically mismanaged and ran out of money. All of the city service buildings you see there were just abandoned when the money ran out. I believe that most of the necessary functions have been taken over by Detroit.

MANBREASTS · 02-23-07, 06:26 PM

Highland Park should rent out it's city to hollywood to shoot horror movies.

AGuyNamedMike · 02-23-07, 06:43 PM

Something tells me this individual is going to show up in some Otter photochops soon.

Pikul · 02-23-07, 08:57 PM

Is that Nona Hendryx?

A list of famous people from Highland Park:

Tim Meadows

jonw9 · 02-23-07, 10:34 PM

Don't forget the Ghostly City Beneath the City!!

king slug · 02-23-07, 11:07 PM

It's Detroit, what do you expect?

Remember Boblo Island though? I miss that place.

auto · 02-24-07, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by king slug

It's Detroit, what do you expect?

Remember Boblo Island though? I miss that place.

haha....me too. I would love to see some pic of Boblo Island. That place was run down 20 years ago.

OldDude · 02-24-07, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by auto

haha....me too. I would love to see some pic of Boblo Island. That place was run down 20 years ago.

It was sold to a developer. The amusement park is all torn down, removed, and the whole island is VERY expensive homes. I've seen a few pictures, but never been there (since it was redeveloped) as it is WAY out of my price range.

brizz · 02-25-07, 02:43 PM

FYI: 8 mile (of eminem fame) is the northern border of Highland Park. and yes, the "city" is a shithole of frightening proportions. I went to a concert at the state fairgrounds that are in the middle of it and feared for my life the entire time.

Groucho · 02-25-07, 02:52 PM

Wow. The Wikipedia article on the subject doesn't talk about this at all. Indeed, here's the one and only photo they have:

Brain Stew · 02-25-07, 03:00 PM

Kinda like Centralia, PA. They had an underground mine fire and now it is a ghost town.

iggystar · 02-25-07, 06:51 PM

Man do I miss Boblo, that place used to be so much fun!!!!

The actual article won't come up for me.....

Someone feared for their life at the State Fair? LOL! Which is not in Highland Park by the way. And Highland Park is not in downtown Detroit either. You suburbanites need to stop commenting on a place you pass through once in blue moon.

It's a place that has seen much better days, but there isn't a ghost town quality, I don't feel like I'm an extra in 28 Days Later when I shop or travel through there, because there are still businesses there on the main street Woodward. A Hollywood Video, big grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS (where I worked at for a few weeks). As a matter fact a there have been quite a few new stores which just opened. It's located just south of a really expensive and exclusive neighborhood called Palmer Woods.

Sorry, it's not as depressing as you might want to make of it.

crazyronin · 02-25-07, 07:03 PM

C.H.U.D.s need a place to live too.

OldDude · 02-25-07, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brizz

FYI: 8 mile (of eminem fame) is the northern border of Highland Park. and yes, the "city" is a shithole of frightening proportions. I went to a concert at the state fairgrounds that are in the middle of it and feared for my life the entire time.

No. 6 Mile (McNichols) is the northern boundary. The Fairgrounds and 8 Mile are all part of Detroit. Detroit totally surrounds Highland Park. Actually, from 6 Mile to 8 mile isn't all that bad. Detroit, south of Highland Park, in my estimation is about the same, not much better, not much worse than Highland Park.

But iggystar is right, I don't pass through there much (also right that Palmer Woods is a MUCH nicer area.)

Heat · 02-26-07, 12:04 AM

I was born about fifteen miles from there and spent 3+ years in the area. I really don't remember if I was ever driven through Highland Park though.

shifrbv · 02-26-07, 09:51 AM

Sorry, it's not as depressing as you might want to make of it.

because there are still businesses there on the main street Woodward. A Hollywood Video, big grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS (where I worked at for a few weeks).

I've never been to the place, but if it went from being a town with a state of the art automobile factory to one where the public offices are boarded up and in ruins, and the main jobs are working at Hollywood Video or Rite Aid or CVS, that seems pretty depressing to me.

OldDude · 02-26-07, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shifrbv

[i] I've never been to the place, but if it went from being a town with a state of the art automobile factory to one where the public offices are boarded up and in ruins, and the main jobs are working at Hollywood Video or Rite Aid or CVS, that seems pretty depressing to me.

That describes Detroit about as well as Highland Park.

jonw9 · 02-26-07, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldDude

That describes Michigan about as well as Highland Park.

Fixed!

iggystar · 02-26-07, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shifrbv

Sorry, it's not as depressing as you might want to make of it.

because there are still businesses there on the main street Woodward. A Hollywood Video, big grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS (where I worked at for a few weeks).

I've never been to the place, but if it went from being a town with a state of the art automobile factory to one where the public offices are boarded up and in ruins, and the main jobs are working at Hollywood Video or Rite Aid or CVS, that seems pretty depressing to me.

A state of the art automobile factory that has been gone since before I (or my mother) could remember...you cannot miss what you personally never had!

These businesses exist, they might not be high post, but to paint this city as some Road Warrior wasteland is simply inaccurate. It's a struggling little city, but it's not a ghost town and it's a place to shop, it's not as depressing to me. Sorry it doesn't have an Ambercrombie & Fitch located next to the Starbucks.

02-23-07, 10:09 AM	#1
shifrbv Banned Join Date: Feb 2000 Posts: 966	Interesting Thread on Highland Park, MI - Anyone Ever Been There? I was shocked that this place exists and that it's so creepy. It looks like a place frozen in time. It also seems extremely sad that such a place full of promise is now reduced to this. WARNING - Some pictures in the link are pretty graphic and may not be suitable for those who may be viewing this while at work. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/...ead.php?t=8752 So...Highland Park is (ahem--WAS) an independent city within Detroit, and once upon a time a beautiful center of human achievement, largely driven by Henry Ford's philanthropic efforts in civic planning, etc, and his newly built Model-T Plant, the most gigantic, state of the art factory in the world at that time. It was here that the Assembly Line was perfected, and the “$5 day,” thus changing the industrial world, and the world of labor as we know it forever. If you ever wondered why the standard workday is 8hrs long…it’s because Henry Ford said so. This is also the site of the world’s first expressway, “The Davison,” or M-8. Highland Park might've easily been America's most promising city, with flourishing, highly affluent neighborhoods and institutions. Today, however, it is America’s most destroyed city, and those neighborhoods have been mostly erased by arson and swallowed by vegetation. It’s some kind of apocalyptic, post-nuclear, post-Robocop sort of surreality. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a scene from HG Well’s “The Time Machine”…or “Omega Man”…or “28 Days Later”…or any other movie about the final collapse of civilization. The deserted streets, the detritus, the farm country-like silence…the foreboding congregation of dark, hollow skyscrapers to the south…. Probly the only place in the world that could be creepier would have to be Chernobyl. It felt like we were in some kind of video game like “Resident Evil.” Last edited by shifrbv; 02-23-07 at 10:12 AM.

02-23-07, 10:21 AM	#2
aerobson Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 521	Yup, unfortunately, it's as nice as the pictures. Located right in the middle of beautiful downtown Detroit. I used to work right down the street from the Highland Park city limits. There are normal areas of the city, but it's basically just a run down forgotten area. I've given some presentations in the high school. If I remember correctly, the school had a giant polar bear statue. That might be their mascot. It was more of a holding cell rather than a high school. Sad really. __________________ Xbox Live Gamertag: CzarCastic 8-Bit Brigade Check us out!

02-23-07, 11:43 AM	#4
reverie DVD Talk Gold Edition Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Michigan Posts: 2,425	I've heard of it plenty, but never been near it in my handful of years living maybe 45 minutes from there. Really interesting, and if I wouldn't fear for my life, it looks like a place I'd have loved to explore as a kid (It's harder to do those sorts of things as an adult, instead of mischevious fun/exploration, it suddenly becomes trespassing and trouble with the police ). __________________ "I'm thinking we'll rise again." -Malcolm Reynolds SERENITY You Can't Stop The Signal

02-23-07, 12:34 PM	#5
Fielding Mellish DVD Talk Gold Edition Join Date: May 2000 Location: A secret rebel stronghold in the Republic of San Marcos Posts: 2,285	Just drove through there on Tuesday. Guess I should've stopped by for some free live ammunition. __________________ "Thirty Helens Agree."

02-23-07, 01:34 PM	#6
Fincher Fan DVD Talk Ultimate Edition Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Rampaging across DVDTalk. Posts: 4,046	Looks creepy. What happened to it? Is it overrun with gangs or something? __________________ *"You couldn't molest the audience more than to promise Legends of the Fall* and Driving Miss Daisy then to unleash this on them. They'd just been gang-raped."** - Director David Fincher on the test screenings of Seven.

02-23-07, 10:22 AM	#3
al_bundy DVD Talk Hero Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: in da cloud Posts: 26,196	it's toyota's fault and it seems like detroit's government is a bunch of morons

02-23-07, 01:41 PM	#7
aerobson Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 521	It's abandoned. No gangs, but probably lots of drug dealers and vagrants. The city tried running itself independently from Detroit. It's like an island within the city limits of Detroit. They were basically mismanaged and ran out of money. All of the city service buildings you see there were just abandoned when the money ran out. I believe that most of the necessary functions have been taken over by Detroit. __________________ Xbox Live Gamertag: CzarCastic 8-Bit Brigade Check us out!

02-23-07, 06:26 PM	#8
MANBREASTS Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Michigan Posts: 340	Highland Park should rent out it's city to hollywood to shoot horror movies.

02-23-07, 06:43 PM	#9
AGuyNamedMike DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Fairbanks, Alaska! Posts: 13,609	Something tells me this individual is going to show up in some Otter photochops soon. __________________ Groucho - What if, like, we were all living in a mouse neuron man, and what if some mouse neuron in our universe had a universe it. Whoa. Dr Mabuse - You mock, but Sutherland got some fine young stuff off that kind of thing so don't sell it short.

02-23-07, 08:57 PM	#10
Pikul DVD Talk Special Edition Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 1,654	Is that Nona Hendryx? A list of famous people from Highland Park: Tim Meadows

02-23-07, 10:34 PM	#11
jonw9 DVD Talk Hall of Fame Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: On the banks of the Red Cedar Posts: 9,861	Don't forget the Ghostly City Beneath the City!! __________________ "Damn straight! Today the mad scientist can't get a doomsday device, tomorrow it's the mad grad student! Where will it end?!" - Professor Hubert Farnsworth

02-23-07, 11:07 PM	#12
king slug Banned Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 371	It's Detroit, what do you expect? Remember Boblo Island though? I miss that place.

02-25-07, 02:43 PM	#15
brizz DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: kck Posts: 22,595	FYI: 8 mile (of eminem fame) is the northern border of Highland Park. and yes, the "city" is a shithole of frightening proportions. I went to a concert at the state fairgrounds that are in the middle of it and feared for my life the entire time. __________________ Pavel Datsyuk on his coach saying he gives teammates extra room on the ice: "I think he meant that I am really small," Datsyuk explained. "So when I, a small slim person, am on the ice, there is more room for bigger guys. Maybe he said that to cheer me up that I look skinny!"

02-25-07, 02:52 PM	#16
Groucho DVD Talk Godfather Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Posts: 62,129	Wow. The Wikipedia article on the subject doesn't talk about this at all. Indeed, here's the one and only photo they have: __________________ Xbox Live: Runner Groucho PSN: RunnerGroucho "The Borg is a species" -- Tracer Bullet (Citation)

02-25-07, 03:00 PM	#17
Brain Stew DVD Talk Hall of Fame Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 8,572	Kinda like Centralia, PA. They had an underground mine fire and now it is a ghost town. __________________ "And if you don't underestimate me, I won't underestimate you." - Bob Dylan

02-25-07, 06:51 PM	#18
iggystar DVD Talk Platinum Edition Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: detroit, MI, USA Posts: 3,472	Man do I miss Boblo, that place used to be so much fun!!!! The actual article won't come up for me..... Someone feared for their life at the State Fair? LOL! Which is not in Highland Park by the way. And Highland Park is not in downtown Detroit either. You suburbanites need to stop commenting on a place you pass through once in blue moon. It's a place that has seen much better days, but there isn't a ghost town quality, I don't feel like I'm an extra in 28 Days Later when I shop or travel through there, because there are still businesses there on the main street Woodward. A Hollywood Video, big grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS (where I worked at for a few weeks). As a matter fact a there have been quite a few new stores which just opened. It's located just south of a really expensive and exclusive neighborhood called Palmer Woods. Sorry, it's not as depressing as you might want to make of it. __________________ Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

02-26-07, 12:04 AM	#21
Heat DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Central Illinois Posts: 16,437	I was born about fifteen miles from there and spent 3+ years in the area. I really don't remember if I was ever driven through Highland Park though.

02-26-07, 09:51 AM	#22
shifrbv Banned Join Date: Feb 2000 Posts: 966	Sorry, it's not as depressing as you might want to make of it. because there are still businesses there on the main street Woodward. A Hollywood Video, big grocery store, Rite Aid, CVS (where I worked at for a few weeks). I've never been to the place, but if it went from being a town with a state of the art automobile factory to one where the public offices are boarded up and in ruins, and the main jobs are working at Hollywood Video or Rite Aid or CVS, that seems pretty depressing to me.