Every time I drive through Corktown in downtown Detroit, I feel like I've entered a paradigm shift. In the sensory overload that is the Motor City, Corktown is a patch of serenity. For anyone looking for a unique real estate opportunity, this little hamlet should not be overlooked.
Corktown Properties calls this historical Irish neighborhood "the city's best-kept secret" for several good reasons. Corktown isn't just a quaint, picturesque suburb. It's a residential, social, and cultural anachronism -- a self-contained village that exists right in the heart of the city. Corktown is an oasis nestled in the belly of urban sprawl. It's bordered by I-75, the Lodge Freeway, Rosa Parks Boulevard, and Bagley and Porter streets.
Corktown was so named because it was settled by Irish from County Cork. It's Detroit's most elderly neighborhood and one of the oldest in the entire state of Michigan. Detroit's Eighth Ward was primarily Irish, and that heritage is reflected in Corktown's churches, social groups, restaurants, and pubs. Architecture is in the Federal and Victorian townhouse style. Homes are painted in bright colors to reflect a Victorian Arts and Crafts decor. Homes are small street-level walkouts with pocket-sized porches and postage-stamp front lawns. Some boast tiny urban gardens.
Corktown isn't just an old preserved city. It reflects the new-millennium artistic influence of its current residents. Fresh pieces coexist alongside Victorian gingerbread trim and stained glass. For Christmas, the Corktown Historical Society displayed unique cutout wooden reindeer designed by local groups and dwellers.
There's a historical worker's row house in Corktown dating back to 1849. The row house is one of the oldest representatives of its kind in extant. These tenement-style blocks were built to house dock or factory workers, typically immigrant laborers, says Model D. The worker's row house was the site of an archeological dig. Wayne State University shows artifacts at its historical museum.
Corktown is conveniently close to all Detroit's commercial, social, educational, and cultural resources. It's a short jaunt from such Detroit hot spots as Wayne State University, the Ren Cen, the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts), Campus Martius, Eastern Market, and the Detroit Public Library. Downtown shopping, night clubs, businesses, restaurants, and entertainment venues are readily available.
Corktown is a throwback in every sense of the word except price. One residential loft on Harrison Avenue leases for $1,200 a month for 1,100 square feet. But for an eyrie in Corktown's upbeat, beautifully maintained community, it's not so much.
A lifelong Michigan resident, Marilisa Sachteleben writes about people, places, and events in her state, particularly in its most pivotal city of Detroit.
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