Boston–Edison Historic District

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Developed beginning in the early 1900s along Boston Boulevard, Edison Avenue and the surrounding streets, the Boston-Edison district became one of Detroit's most prestigious residential neighborhoods, distinguished from many of the city's other elite enclaves by its lack of racial or religious restrictive covenants. Henry Ford built a large brick-and-limestone house on Edison Avenue in 1907 and lived there with his wife Clara until 1915, when they moved to their Fair Lane estate in Dearborn. Decades later, Motown founder Berry Gordy bought an Italianate mansion built in 1917, now known as the Motown Mansion, and other notable residents over the years included boxer Joe Louis, automaker James Couzens, labor leader Walter Reuther and baseball star Ty Cobb. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places and remains a functioning residential neighborhood, with many of its grand early-twentieth-century houses still lived in today.

1. Developed in the early 1900s without the racial covenants common in other elite Detroit districts
2. Henry Ford lived on Edison Avenue from 1907 to 1915
3. Berry Gordy's Motown Mansion, an Italianate house built in 1917, still stands here
4. Also home over the years to Joe Louis, Walter Reuther and Ty Cobb