6406 Trumbull
Detroit, MI

Background

• 1875

  The City of Detroit annexes the land that encompasses the property at 6406 Trumbull increasing the city’s boundaries to the north

• 1876

  After the State transferred the ownership of Belle Isle to the City of Detroit, some began to express their desires to have a boulevard that would encircle the city and mimicking similar roadways found in Paris

• 1891

  As the City Beautiful Movement began to sweep the nation, Detroit’s Mayor Hazen Pingree breaks ground on the construction of a twelve mile stretch of roadway that would be known as Detroit’s Grand Boulevard. It was thought to be the city’s outer limits until the rapid expansion of the early 20th Century

• 1909

  The Warren Motor Car Co. building is constructed which currently sits at 1331 Holden Avenue. While the original owner Homer Warren was not able to profit from his 30 horse power 4 cylinder roadsters that he made here, a later auto related businessman by the name of Henry Leyland is rumored to have started the Lincoln Motor Co in this building.

• 1910

  Just blocks away from the Warren Motor Co building, the property located at 6404 Trumbull is built.

• 1915

  Henry Ford opens the hospital bearing his name on the edge of the city limits at Hamilton and West grand Blvd. Henry Ford Hospital is located directly to the north of Milton H Smith’s new home. It was originally a 48 patient hospital and was exclusively staffed with doctors from Johns Hopkins.

• 1927

  William Durant constructs a 15 story permanent home for the General Motors Company of which he founded. It is located on West Grand Boulevard in between Cass and Second Avenue. The building was to be named the Durant Building, but was renamed the General Motors Building. It had served as the World Headquarters for General Motors up until 2001 when it moved the last of its employees to the Renaissance Center.

• 1928

  The Fisher Brothers commission Albert Kahn to design a 30 story skyscraper to be located adjacent to the General Motors Building. The location of the building was chosen in an attempt to escape the congestion, the high price of land in Downtown Detroit, and the fact that General Motors had just bought the Fisher Body Plant.The construction of these two buildings helped fuel the unprecedented growth in Detroit and the heightened interests in the New Center Area just before the Great Depression hit

• 1953

  Construction of the first leg of the John C Lodge Freeway was under construction. The nearby I-94 connection was the first freeway to freeway interchange in the United States. The completed highway was dedicated on November 7, 1957.

• 1959

  Approximately 12 mile away from 6406 Trumbull, Berry Gordy purchases the property which will become known as Motown’s Hitsville USA.

Occupancy

• 1910

  Property at 6406 Trumbull is built. The Occupancy is unknown for the first six years

• 1916-1970

  Milton H Smith resides in this house for almost 60 years

• 1970

  Jesse Coolay purchases the home from the estate of Milton H Smith

• 2012

  The Home is deconstructed and the building materials used in its construction are put to use once again