Home has moved a few times since Ray Formosa lived next door to Corktown’s Tiger Stadium at the historically famous intersection of Michigan and Trumbull. In 1981, with the neighborhood in serious decline, his parents moved the family to Dearborn and donated their Detroit house to nearby Most Holy Trinity Church. In 1983, Formosa’s old house itself was moved to a vacant lot in the Corktown Historic District.
And in 1999, the Tigers’ home plate was moved to downtown Detroit, at Comerica Park.
Formosa, owner of Brooks Lumber on Trumbull, is still a neighbor of Tiger Stadium. But the stadium sits empty, growing cobwebs, and there doesn’t appear to be any immediate plan to reuse it. Meanwhile, the historic Irish neighborhood in Southwest Detroit that has been defined by the ball park for nearly 100 years is going through major changes.
Fans and proponents of the old Tiger Stadium fretted that when it shut down, Corktown would take a dive. But Kelli Kavanaugh, deputy director of the Greater Corktown Development Corporation, says just the opposite is true. Kavanaugh says that Tiger Stadium actually had a negative impact on Corktown and that the neighborhood has taken a serious upturn since its closing.
When Tiger Stadium was hosting games, the vast need for parking on game days provided a financial incentive for Corktown property owners, such as Formosa’s family, who owned three lots, to provide it, and Corktown became a sea of lots.
“For many years, parking lots held more value than housing. We lost a lot of houses and businesses” to baseball traffic, she says. In addition, the construction of Chrysler freeway and area demolition ravaged Corktown’s housing stock, she says.
The behavior of baseball fans also caused problems. Kavanaugh recalls watching television one evening in her house on Trumbull when she sensed that she herself was being watched.
“I turned around and saw an entire family looking through the window. I couldn’t hear it, but you could imagine them saying, ‘Look kids, there’s someone in this living room.’” There was no respect for the neighborhood, Kavanaugh says. People littered with abandon and urinated on front lawns.
Things began to change in 1984, when neighbors achieved a historic designation for Corktown. More recently, the city of Detroit designated Corktown’s stretch of Michigan Avenue a “traditional main street,” a designation that provides zoning variances and grants for streetscape and façade improvements. Of the 10 businesses established in Corktown since Tiger Stadium closed, six are located on Michigan Avenue and most are geared to the needs of neighborhood residents, Kavanaugh says.
Zoning changes now allow people to live above storefronts. The resulting mixed-use development is evident. Michigan Avenue is becoming more attractive.
“Within two years, Michigan Avenue will look completely different,” Kavanaugh says. “These are people living there every day. They are not big-time developers. They’re small guys who want to be part of what they see as Detroit’s bright future. They see it as a place in Detroit that’s happening right now. They see they’re not alone – there are other small businesses doing it. They’re sharing tools, they’re sharing laborers.”
As a result of all the redevelopment, mainly of housing, property values in the neighborhood have increased significantly. Houses on main Corktown streets are often snatched up quickly for prices reaching well past $100,000, while un-renovated houses have increased in value as well.
“You see infill housing. Where there were vacant lots, there are townhouses. It’s not a large surge of population growth, but it’s still a new life. They’ll keep growing the property values up, up, up, which is good,” Formosa says.
Tim McKay settled in Corktown in 1983 after living at various locations in Detroit. Now the director of economic development for the Corktown development corporation, McKay says he made the move because it was “practical.” His home was affordable and within walking distance from downtown, restaurants, bars and shops.
“They were neat houses of manageable size, affordable and a great location near expressways to go anywhere,” McKay says.
The diversity of the neighborhood is a huge draw, he adds.
“There is a balance of housing. There is a balance of income. There is a balance of racial and cultural make-up. It’s a diversity community. And it’s stable because of that.”
McKay has been a proponent of developing a 19th century worker’s row house in the neighborhood into a Corktown museum. The neighborhood has long been a destination point, not only for baseball fans, but for people who relish the Irish heritage of the area. The Gaelic League remains and American-style Irish pubs and eateries further the identity. Folks show up from far and wide for the St. Patrick’s Day parade and bar-hopping on Michigan Avenue. Kavanaugh says that descendents of Irish families that once resided in Corktown are returning.
Despite all the changes, the huge old gray stadium is a landmark in the community, along with the abandoned train station to the west. The peculiar relationship between the abandoned Tiger Stadium and the evolving Corktown is an emotional one, difficult to define. Even if the stadium was razed and the property redeveloped, it would take a generation to remove the sense of what was once there.
While some in the area wish the stadium could get taken down and houses and businesses put up in its stead, the Corktown development corporation doesn’t want the stadium or its legacy removed. The neighborhood group has proposed turning the stadium into a residential and retail development, saving the original structure and the playing field as community green space.
“I really think we’ll never reach our full potential as a neighborhood until that corner (at Michigan and Trumbull) is taken care of,” says Kavanaugh.
Corktown, for many, is a place that represents the past, a dynamic present and a promising though indeterminate future. Renovation occurring all over the community points to a potential for a major Corktown revival. And while the neighborhood’s history dates back to before Navin Field was established in 1912, its future is yet unfolding.
All photographs copyright Dave Krieger