The history behind Detroit's internationally award-winning park, Campus Martius Park
- Abigail Gaston
- Jan 11, 2019
- 5 min read
What's a good spirited story without a little history? Thanks to the Campus Martius Park's History section on their website, I was able to learn that the original purpose of the inner city Detroit space (1788) was reserved as a training grounds for a militia organization. If you are not familiar with the term "militia," let me briefly explain. Militia is a non-professional /non-official organization of warriors who engage in combat and army-like activity training's. It is a body of like-minded individuals, and although not a governed group, history has shown that militias can be called upon for action in war if needed.
Campus Martius comes from the Latin meaning, "Field of Mars where Roman heroes walked." The Detroit location was named Campus Martius because of its basic translation to "military grounds." It was mimicked after Marietta, Ohio's Campus Martius - a 180 foot walled camp that specialized in civilian defense.
Sadly, in 1805 a hellacious fire ripped through the city of Detroit, nearly destroying each development made in past years. Although incredibly tragic, the fire exposed many previous ill-faded city plans, and opportunities to design a more harmonized city layout.
Post fire, Judge Woodward (Woodward Ave is now a popular avenue that runs through the city of Detroit) was tasked with overseeing the cities planning and rebuilding. While determining what the best laid plans would be for the city, Woodward had to seek assistance from city surveyors residing in the neighboring country just across the bridge; Canada!
Through surveying efforts, the team discovered that the best Point of Origin" for the city would be placed in the heart of Campus Martius, where Woodward Avenue and Monroe Street cross.
Hard to believe by the way it looks now; however, at this time in history, the land within Campus Martius was quite unsavory in the eyes of the planning committee. It was low lying and boggy, and not ideal for building on, so it remained as the "true North" location, but pretty much left untouched due to the idea that it was not a stable or primary plot of land. That is until the mid 1800's when a decision was made to raise the property and fill it with mass amounts of dirt and other earthy sediments. This is just the beginning of the attention Campus Martius would be given by the city leading all the way up to today.
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Skip ahead to 1999 - Detroit's honorable Mayor, Dennis W. Archer (1994-2001), decides that he is going to tackle a hefty project; he is going to trailblaze the mission to revamp Campus Martius into an urban park. That said, he is not interested in creating yet another basic open space with greenery and swing-sets and a place city residents can take their dogs for an evening walk. Although those are great features for an urban population; he was interested in transforming Campus Martius into the best urban open space in the world. Now, that is a hefty task! One might even say that it is an impossible task, not me; I am a total optimist, but some may say so and I am sure they did, but they would have been wrong...
Some readers out there may remember the Detroit 300 Inc. In 2001, the city of Detroit, our Nations 10th largest city, turned 300 years old. To honor the city, planning of a major birthday bash was decided on and the Detroit 300 Inc. was formed. Detroit 300 was a committee of city officials and cultural and community leaders. Their job was to create a 3 day music festival headlined by famous Detroit natives. The planning commenced in 1999; 2 years before the actual event.
Mayor Archer had a brilliant idea to add the development of Campus Martius to the Detroit 300 agenda; the committee accepted the challenge graciously. With the birthday bash being a monumental event for the city and the redevelopment of Campus Martius being equally important, Mayor Archer and the Detroit 300 decided it would be wise to add a special task-force of 19 individuals to the legacy project; separating planning and development of Campus Martius from the birthday bash.
The Campus Martius task-force included urban planners, key stakeholders and associates, as well as city business owners and city council representatives, plus Detroit's parks and recreation department, the Greater Downtown Partnership, Detroit Downtown Development Authority, and, of course, Detroit's 300 Inc. The team also enlisted the help of 6 nationally recognized design firms. That is a lot of hands in the pot! All of these eager individuals set forth to tackle the urban space project in September of 1999.
Fast forward through a whole bunch of political and business planning hoops and hurdles to March 2001. On the 16th day of March during the last bit of his Mayoral position, Mayor Archer publicly announced the development of the Campus Martius Park. The redeveloped urban space was not going to show its fresh new face at the cities 300th birthday; however, at least the zoning, planning, and development was looking good enough to finally talk about the project publicly.
The park ended up taking many years to come to fruition. Mayor Archer exited his seat at the conclusion of 2001, but the park planning and development continued under the political office of Kwame Kilpatrick (2002 - 2008). It took another couple of years before the park was complete; however, on November 19, 2004, Campus Martius Park had its Grand Opening.
Since its Grand Opening almost 15 years ago, Campus Martius has grown into a spirited city center open air gathering space. People of all ages and different backgrounds head to Campus Martius to relax and enjoy the cool and relevant urban feel. They indulge in great eats and drinks, and enjoy all of the fun and unique activities that strategic planners continue to provide for park goers. One of these newer age additions include a beach in the middle of a big city! Who would have thought? I love it!
Campus Martius Dining:
Parc - "Contemporary Detroit Cuisine" (2018 Restaurant of the Year)
Fountain Detroit (Seasonal) - "Urban Beachside Dining"
Roasting Plant Cafe - "The best coffee from the best local farmers"
Central Kitchen + Bar - "A vibrant gastropub in Downtown Detroit"
Calexico - "Live every day like it's Taco Tuesday" (this might be my favorite statement ever!)
Texas De Brazil - "Carving a new experience"
Food Truck Friday's (seasonal)
Campus Martius Activities:
Ice skating in the winter
Beach bumming in the summer
Tree lighting at Christmas
Checking out the neat statues and monuments
Listening to musicians perform
Playing outdoor games in the summer (games like Cornhole)
Joining a broomball league on the rink during the winter
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