Famous people's places / Detroit – West Side
Herman Gardens
Closed – archive entry · 2002
Sprawling west-side Detroit public housing project, once the nation's largest, where future TV judge Greg Mathis grew up in the 1960s before it was demolished in the 2000s.
01 / The story of this place
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Herman Gardens opened in 1943 at the southeast corner of Joy Road and the Southfield Freeway as wartime housing, and at 2,144 units it was, at the time it was announced, the largest public housing project in the country, built to house workers streaming into Detroit's defense plants. Generations of west-side families lived there over the following decades, including future judge and talk-show host Greg Mathis, who grew up in Herman Gardens from 1964 to 1970 before the neighborhood's later troubles pushed his family out. The complex declined through the 1970s and 1980s as drug activity and disinvestment took hold, and the Detroit Housing Commission began tearing buildings down piecemeal starting in the 1980s. The last structures came down between 1998 and 2002. The mixed-income Gardenview Estates development opened in phases on the site starting in 2009 and stands there today.
- Opened in 1943; announced as the nation's largest public housing project
- 2,144 units at Joy Road and the Southfield Freeway on Detroit's west side
- Judge Greg Mathis grew up here from 1964 to 1970
- Fully demolished by 2002; Gardenview Estates opened on the site from 2009
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 1
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Greg Mathis born 1960 · judge, television arbitrator, author
Lived here
West Side public housing project where he lived as a boy; it was demolished in the 2000s.
Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
Events at this place
Published events automatically linked from our event guide. Times are local to the venue.
We have no published upcoming events linked to this place yet. That does not mean the venue has no events; check its official calendar too.
Source and former website ↗