Around Cadillac Square

After eating at the new Fountain Bistro in Campus Martius, the dogs and I wandered around Cadillac Square. The dogs entertained themselves trying to trip me by lunging for chipmunks just as I was about to snap photos. I know there are security cameras there... I'm sure the people who watch them were laughing their a**es off watching me upside down in the shrubbery. And face first on the pavement. I hope they couldn't read my lips 'cause I'm pretty sure I swore at the dogs.

Where were we? Oh, yes..Cadillac Square. As you can see, it's looking pretty good this summer. The landscaping is filling out enough to add a sense of enclosure to the space. It's looking like a natural extension of Campus Martius instead of the poor step-sister. The Bagley Memorial Fountain finally has a new home that does it justice.

It dawned on me as I was taking these pictures that I used to sit on this fountain watching the Thanksgiving Parade when it was still on Woodward.

Here it is in its original home when it served as a clean, safe water source for Detroiters...for many years it had ice in its base so that two of the lion's head spigots produced ice cold water even in warm weather. (Photo from the Library of Congress)

This year, I noticed for the first time the section of the park below. It seems to be geared to local residents with pets...there are several poop scoop bag dispensers and signs about cleaning up after your pet. This little section in particular, with its pea gravel paths, reminds me of an old photo of Cadillac Square, also courtesy of the Library of Congress.

If you have a fast internet connection and computer, check out this link to the old photo at the Library of Congress Website....it's great fun to click on the bigger versions of the photo and see the details close up.

A few of the buildings in the old photo are still there.. most notably the Wayne County Building, with its restored statues, and the Reid Building. In the old photo, the Reid Building is the triangular shaped building just off the right top corner of Cadillac Square. Here it is today. The Lawyers Building, left above, is quite beautiful, and for sale if you have a million dollars or so.

Another fun fact about Cadillac Square....a petanque club has matches here on weekdays from 12-1. 

In case you're not from around here, or don't remember your Detroit history, Cadillac Square is not a product of a car marketing deal. It was named for Sieur Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of Detroit. Two years after he arrived, he brought his wife to the city from Montreal. From the Absolute Michigan website,

In early September 1701, thirty-one-year-old Marie Therese Cadillac left Montreal, Canada, in a canoe. She was traveling to join her husband, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, at his new wilderness settlement called Fort Pontchartrain du De Troit (later shortened to Detroit). Cadillac wanted his wife to come to the fort to prove that families could live there. Many people told Madame Cadillac that she should not go, but she declared, "Do not waste your pity on me, dear friends. I know the hardships of the journey, the isolation of the life to which I am going; yet I am eager to go, for a woman who totally loves her husband has no stronger attachment than his company; wherever he may be.

People moving here or living here these days often get a similar reaction. For them, I would change a few of Madame Cadillac's words,

"For a man or woman who totally loves this city has no stronger attachment than its company; wherever he or she may be."