Jefferson-Chalmers

01 / The story of this place

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Jefferson-Chalmers sits at Detroit's far east edge, where Jefferson Avenue meets Alter Road and Grosse Pointe Park. It was marshland around Fox Creek until draining got going in the 1870s, joined Detroit in 1907, and filled in fast once auto plants opened nearby. Its main street is the eight-block Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District, the only intact commercial strip left on East Jefferson, with 1910s and 1920s storefronts and the shuttered Art Deco Vanity Ballroom, where the bands of Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman once played. South of Jefferson, canals wind between the houses toward the river, which is why the best way to see it is from the water. In 2016 the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it a National Treasure, the first in Michigan.

1. Walk the Jefferson-Chalmers Historic Business District between Eastlawn Street and Alter Road and look for the Aztec-inspired details on the Vanity Ballroom.
2. Paddle the canals and the Detroit River on a guided kayak tour with Detroit River Sports, May through October.
3. Visit the Fisher Mansion, Lawrence P. Fisher's 1920s showplace on the Grayhaven Canal, now the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center.
4. Spot the 1930 Fox Creek Backwater Gates building on Jefferson, which still controls the creek's water level.
5. Take in the Gothic Revival and Tudor churches along Jefferson Avenue and Manistique Street.