History of Woodbridge Housing

Woodbridge is a historical neighborhood with a diverse population situated 2 miles from downtown Detroit. The original street-car suburb, Woodridge started out as a mix of upscale housing and working-class cottages. This mix has persisted as the residents went from farmers to industrialists and now students to professionals and politicians. The land developed in segments and reflects the history of the City in which it resides. Neighborhood boundaries have been shaped by outside forces, but ultimately it’s been the residents leading the stabilization and regrowth of the turn-of-the-century neighborhood. 

In 2021, Woodbridge Neighborhood Development worked with Woodbridge neighbor Mark Jones, a GIS specialist and history buff, to document the historic transformation of the built environment of the Woodbridge neighborhood from the arrival of French settlers to the present day.

The purpose of this exercise is to provide a reference point for an area experiencing new development. By understanding the neighborhood's past, we can better plan for its future. We acknowledge that the history of the built environment does not tell the whole story of the neighborhood but is an integral part of it. The information in the story map is based on publicly available historical and reference materials, as well as the perspectives of the individuals involved in creating the document. Woodbridge Neighborhood Development welcomes suggestions for content corrections, additions, deletions, and general comments that will improve the accuracy or usability of this StoryMap.

We invite you to scroll through the StoryMap and click on the maps and archival material included within.

The Woodbridge neighborhood is located on the land known as Waawiiyaatanong, the contemporary and ancestral land of the Three Fires Confederacy. We acknowledge this land was colonized via the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 between the United States government and the Ojibwa, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot nations. This statement of acknowledgment honors these tribal nations’ past, present, and future stewardship of these lands.

By 1920, the neighborhood was filled. This map was created using 1921 building footprints obtained from Sanborn maps. The Sanborn maps had building uses and heights.

Navigate 1921 Woodbridge by holding the left mouse button and dragging in any direction.

The 1920's were defined by rapid population growth; the City of Detroit increased population by nearly 575,000 residents. This is the largest increase in the City's history. In response, Woodbridge began to demolish older housing for higher density apartment complexes and expanded their public services.

The population of Woodbridge peaked in the 1930s. During this period, the large houses in Central Woodbridge and Woodbridge Farms (Hodges Brothers subdivision) began to be divided into smaller housing units. This radically changed the class structure of the neighborhood and the upper-class residents moved to the newly built Boston-Edison, Grand Boulevard, and North Woodward (including University District, Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest) neighborhoods.

By 1949, the area for the Jeffries Housing Projects and M-10 had been condemned and buildings vacated, but not entirely demolished. However, demolitions escalated and by 1953 the first Jeffries residents moved in and the footprint for M-10 was cleared.

While the original vision of University City was never fully realized, the demolitions took a toll on the urban fabric and the psyche of Woodbridge neighbors which is still evident within this community and others throughout the city. Land cleared for the Jeffries Projects, multiple expressways, and schools combined with large-scale condemnations and structure removal cleared nearly 220 acres of land within Woodbridge.

After urban renewal concluded in Woodbridge, a fraction of the original housing remained. Using 1949 Sanborn maps, it's estimated that the eleven projects described above demolished 1,559 housing structures, 20 apartment complexes, 176 commercial buildings, 24 manufacturing buildings, 5 churches, and 2 schools. Some of their history is saved in resources such as  Virtual Motor City ,  Burton Historical Collection  , and  Detroit Historical Society .

In the midst of large-scale urban renewal, social unrest was boiling over. The 1967 Uprising started at 12th St. (now Rosa Parks) and Clairmount Ave., about two miles north of Woodbridge. Arson and looting occurred on commercial corridors, including Grand River Ave., Warren Ave., Canfield St., and 12th St. In the map below, the darker area is where the major disturbances occurred, starting July 23, 1967. The lighter grey is where the disturbances spread.

The neighborhood has seen an uptick in investment over the past two decades. The construction of Woodbridge Estates on the site of the Jeffries Housing project was a transformational development in terms of adding significant new housing stock. People moving back to Detroit or into Detroit for the first time are buying homes and improving them; Woodbridge is a major beneficiary due to its desirable location and attractive historic housing stock. More recently, Woodbridge is experiencing new infill construction and some larger 1 - 2 acre new townhome/condo developments, helping to reverse the multi-decade population decline.

There has been a lot of growth and destruction over the history of Woodbridge, but the resilient neighborhood has entered another period of growth. For more information about the proposed developments within Woodbridge, please see our  Development Projects page .