Challenging the Marshes
By mid-point in the 19th century, great changes had begun. Newcomers resented adapting their every activity to the weather, and they went to work to challenge the Grosse Pointe mud. In 1851, a plank toll road was built out from Detroit, and town people began to think about having summer cottages in the Grosse Pointes. Immediately after the Civil War, residences for year-round use were built by several prosperous Detroiters, one of the houses as far out as present Lochmoor Boulevard. According to a booklet published by the Kenneth L. Moore Company, "From 1850 to 1900 the lumbermen took away the woods and wealthy Detroit businessmen took away the lake front. The early settlers do not appear to have benefited greatly from either operation."
The descendants of one of the early families profited handsomely from the times, as a result of William B. Moran's curiosity and determination. He took numerous soundings around the Grand Marais northeast of Fox Creek and found solid clay a few feet down. In 1874, he secured government help in draining the marsh south of Jefferson, a project which eventually made available some 900 acres of private lots. In 1876, Charles and William Moran each donated a strip of land to the government, and the "lighthouse road" (Alter Road) was cut through. Excess dirt was thrown up for dikes to make a new straight channel for Fox Creek.
In 1876, the Protestants, who had been meeting regularly since about 1865, built a church on Kerby property near the southwest corner of Kerby Road and the lake. This was the forerunner of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church. By 1886, the Plank Road was extended by a "typical dirt road" from Alter to "Fisher's" road. Depending upon road conditions, a trip to Detroit took two to five hours. Farther inland a lane was emerging: Kercheval Avenue takes its name from the French "path of the horse."
Launches and yachts were as indispensable to newer residents as canoes had been to the Indians and habitants. One launch, owned by a dozen families, operated to and from Detroit on a regular morning and evening schedule.
English-Speaking Newcomers
Well before the end of the century, the building of simple little summer havens had evolved into competition among some of the new people, and the "glory days" for lakeshore houses had begun. The newcomers were Detroiters in comfortable-to-affluent circumstances who, between the Civil War and the 1930s, would transform this community. Some of the displaced farmers opened little businesses to fill the needs of new and old neighbors, or found a variety of work at the great estates. Others moved to new farms inland or farther to the northeast.
The East Detroit and Grosse Pointe Railway opened in May 1888, running along Mack Avenue, turning down St. Clair to Jefferson, and terminating at Jefferson and Fisher Road. Residents were alarmed lest the tracks be extended along the shore, and in 1891 Grosse Pointe Boulevard was opened as a "back road" for the Jefferson Avenue Railway. The Detroit-Mt. Clemens Interurban, which began operations September 21, 1898, also served Grosse Pointe.
Farmer and Hall wrote in 1886, "The St. Paul Congregation is primarily French from the families of habitants located here about. Until a few years ago all sermons were in French, but the experiment of preaching in English is now being tried." It was in about 1884 that graves in the churchyard of St. Paul's were moved to a new cemetery on Moross Road.
By 1881, the Protestant population was large enough for church services to be held in winter as well as in summer. In 1893, Grosse Pointe Memorial Church moved to its present site. Unaffiliated in the early years, in 1920 the church became Presbyterian and built the current structure in 1927.
In 1885, the newly established Convent of the Sacred Heart opened a private school for "young ladies" on a tract of land adjoining the St. Paul property. Two years after opening their convent school, the nuns started a free school for the children of St. Paul's parish, an arrangement which continued until 1928. The present St. Paul's Church was built in 1898.
