Delray

01 / The story of this place

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Delray, in far southwest Detroit where the Rouge River meets the Detroit River, was platted as Belgrade in 1836 and renamed Del Rey in 1851 by a resident who had served in the Mexican-American War, after Molino del Rey in Mexico. It became a village in 1897 and was annexed by Detroit on April 1, 1906. From 1898 the Michigan Malleable Iron Company and other plants drew Hungarian workers, many of them from Cleveland, Toledo and South Bend, and by 1911 the Detroit Free Press was calling Delray a Hungarian colony of some 5,000 people. The district grew to about 24,000 residents by 1930. Its landmarks were its churches: Holy Cross Catholic parish (1905), Hungarian Reformed congregations organized from 1904, and the Szent János Greek Catholic church. Refugees of the 1956 revolution brought new life, but pollution, the expansion of the sewage treatment plant and the construction of Interstate 75 in the mid-1960s pushed families to Downriver suburbs such as Allen Park and Taylor. By 2010 fewer than 2,800 people remained. Delray is also where the Gordie Howe International Bridge to Canada lands; it opened on July 27, 2026.

1. Platted as Belgrade in 1836; renamed Del Rey in 1851
2. Annexed by Detroit on April 1, 1906
3. Called a Hungarian colony of about 5,000 by the Detroit Free Press in 1911
4. Population peaked at about 24,000 around 1930
5. U.S. landing of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, opened July 27, 2026