In the days when Detroit was the center of Americas automotive might, Milwaukee Junction was the belly of the automotive beast itself. Its’ central location and easy access to Detroit’s mightiest plants made it a natural hive of activity. From enormous factories to small detail shops and fabrications garages, this industrial crossroad is now a quiet and somewhat desolate place. Train tracks cut directly through the center of the Junction; the locomotive is the lifeblood of this area. The deserted look of the area actually disguises the amount of people living and working here still. At night the area is very dark and noisy with freight trains passing through almost every half hour. Despite its’ hermit state, artist and writers have for years made their mark on the Junction. It is maybe, possibly the most covered area out side of Eastern Market; the Junction is a sprawl with artistic activity. Graffiti here is often covered by businesses that refuse to give into urban blight, or “burnt” by rivaling artist. This recycling of wall space causes the Junction to be constantly juxtaposed with new and old graffiti. The Milwaukee Junction area is, and will remain a graffiti hot bed for some time to come. Legends of Detroit street art rub elbows, in time, as they constantly cover the area with colors…and crime.

Founded and constructed in 1897, the Schroeder Paint & Glass Co. operated along the Grand Trunk railroad on the west side of New Center. It supplied the auto industry with parts for nearly a hundred years. It's on Rosa Parks Blvd. north of McGraw Street. This area of has more abandoned boats filled with debris than family homes. None of the factories that once thrived in this area operate anymore; most have burned down or been torn down, but a few others linger on the edge of collapse. Due to the incessant scrapping taking place there the backside of the building is nearly gone, carried away one brick at a time. Today the inside of Schroeder Paint & Glass is nearly empty, and part of the building has caved in on the first floor garage. Slowly, over the past couple years the familiar symptoms of neglect have started to show.

Graffiti and other street art now cover the paint facility in abundance, especially on the roof. We will continue to update this nebulous of creativity and bring you shots of Detroit’s notorious street artist and their ever-evolving art works.

Detroit’s inability to get its public education system in line and stable means every year it simply hemorrhages money. This bleeding has caused the school board in Detroit to close dozens and dozens of school each and every year. Although most of the schools are not functional, they still provide street artist and graffiti writers with ample space to practice their craft. The Wilbur Wright School off Rosa Parks Blvd. is one of the many schools now nurturing a different public art program; it used to provide job training and opportunities for students. From medical training, to wood and metal shops…even a mechanics bay, this place was a hub for learning skilled trades. In the last couple years the city has done little to secure these schools. Scrappers, writers, explorers, and just your ordinary neighborhood vandals have ravaged these schools beyond repair. OnlynDetroit.com has been documenting schools and other buildings for years and these are just the latest editions in the city’s annual nixing of school from its' registry. Check back for more schools that are soon to be Detroit’s newest street art galleries.

Heavily traveled by train, and transient… the Grand Trunk Rail line running West thru New Center is virtually the Graffiti Supper highway of Detroit. Spanning from the Upper East Side of the City to the South West corner, it has been painted up and down, and back again. The Grand Trunk line is the sister to the larger Canadian National Railway, branching out from Port Huron, through Michigan, into Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The GTR was the lifeblood of the automobile parts suppliers of the Mid-West. The GTR operated from 1880 when it was spawned out of the merger of the Chicago Railroad and the C.N. It continued to thrive for decades but closed in 1960.

This hunk of New Center Industrial might sits on the North West corner of the I-75 / I-94 freeway interchange. With an epic view of FB21 from the freeway you notice a sprawl of rooftop graffiti. The Fisher Body Plant has been a painter’s haven for years. Some of the oldest pieces date back to 1997. Now layered with thousands of bombs, tags, and pieces this structure is constantly changing as new writers take aim, and old heads try and hold it down. A trip to the roof provides a great view of the Midtown and the New Center areas. Hundreds of graffiti pieces painted in layers on the water tower and its base show the age of the scene and reveal just how many have made the climb before you.

Constructed: 1919 -1925

Architect: Unknown

Style: Industrial

Crossroads: Hastings and Piquette Ave

Area / Floors: 3.7 million square feet of floor space / 6 floors

Abandoned: mid-1990s

This dilapidated piece of charred waste has been sitting vacant for God knows how long. Devastated by fire years ago it is now home to some real hot urban street art. If you find yourself walking around these parts we highly recommend a good pair of boots and a Mag-Light The rooftop offers a great view and is where most of the good graffiti is located. The area is currently be scrapped to high hell and it may only be a year or two before this place is wiped clean off the map. Wild dogs and pheasant are common in this area. Empty lots out number houses on must blocks.

Constructed:

Architect:

Style: Industrial

Crossroads: Jefferson & St. Jean

Area / Floors:

Abandoned:

Off the beaten path for even the most extreme of explorers and painters, this blackened 8-story box smells of death and grease. Now this goliath stands charred, stripped, and even cracked from the top of the building to the second floor; a dangerous place for explorers, and writers alike. Large dark holes lie in wait with jagged metal and brick filling the bottom basement. As always a flashlight is needed and respirator style mask is strongly suggested. The fumes of the top floors will make you sick to your stomach. Graffiti can be found only on the outside of the Grand Trunk because of its noxious odors and the precarious state of things, but the rooftop is accessible and with good equipment is worth the hike.

Constructed:

Architect:

Style: Industrial / Cold Storage

Crossroads: St. Aubin & Ferry

Area / Floors: 9 floors

Abandoned:

Each floor of the south side and the each rooftop have a really good array of pieces by some of the most notorious Detroit crews. On the South East structure there are only two stairways up to the roof. The key to navigating the Packard is the second floor concourse that runs entire span of the complex, and will take you to every section of North and South Packard including the East Grand Crosswalk. By knowing this and the general layout it’s hard to get completely lost, but not entirely. Recently the crosswalk became so eroded and weak due to years of weathering and the new plague of scrapping going on inside, large sections of concrete and bricks came off in early January 2008, crashing onto E. Grand Blvd. No one was hurt, but the road was shut down for the day. The South side of the Complex is generally easier to walk through than the North side, but dumping and scrap operations are making it a more difficult. A flashlight is not actually needed unless you go during nightfall. Most of the South complex has enough exposure to walk around using natural light, just watch your step.

Constructed: 1903

Architect: Kahn

Style: Industrial

Crossroads: Bellvue & Grand Blvd

Area / Floors: 9 floors

Abandoned: Mostly in the late '90s

One of the highlights of the North Packard complex is the view from High point. Graffiti from as far as the eye can see. To explore and photograph all the pieces can take one full day. Almost every conceivable place to paint has been rolled, sprayed, or damaged by now. New walls and opportunities have made getting fresh real estate much easier. As always, a flashlight and extra batteries for both your camera and light are a must. Police have stepped up patrol of the North Packard entryway but if you plead stupidity and have a camera not paint-cans you can most likely talk your way out of trouble.

Constructed:

Architect: Albert Khan

Style: Industrial / Office

Crossroads: East Grand Blvd. & Bellevue

Area / Floors: 9 floors

Abandoned: Late 90's

The Cut, the ditch, the rail yard, or simply that paint spot, has been for the better part of a decade the place to get up. The cut was a spot to relax, out of the view of the general public, to chill and put up some pieces. Sitting on the east edge of Eastern Market, The Dequindre Cut was named because Dequindre road ends directly at the start of the North entrance leaving only a ditch. The start of the nearly 2.5 mile abandoned rail yard looks deceivingly like nothing at all. Sloping ever so slightly for the first 200 or so yards soon drops to approximately 20 feet below the street level. Crossing under some of Detroit’s busyiest streets like Gratiot, Layfette, Congress, and Jefferson the cut offers explorers an up-close and often serial view of the underground life of Detroit…literally. Colorfully stylish and forever interesting, the first thing that jumps out is of course the amazing collection of graffiti murals and “pieces” a.k.a. “masterpieces” as unique and different from one to the next as they get better and better the deeper you go.

Constructed:Unknown

Current Status: Being renovated into the Greenway Mile Park

Span: Mack and Dequindre

Left to rot in the open air like a carcass, animals once slaughtered here in the grimy and often vial slaughter/packing house is a painted mess of alphabet soup. For years writers and artist have been doing there own killing here and it’s on the walls for everyone to read. The tags along the outside of the building hold no reflection of the painted pieces inside. Some very nice pieces are in a place few will ever see. If going to explore, a flashlight is a must night or day. Besides the usual painters that roam there, some of the sketchiest people of Eastern Market call that area home. Either living in the basement, or using the building as an entryway to the Dequindre Cut. At night the place drips, especially after any amount of rain. It feels very similar to exploring abandoned tunnels or sewers.

Constructed:

Architect:

Style: Industrial

Crossroads: Orleans & Wilkins

Area / Floors: 3 floors

Abandoned:

Sitting in the shadow of the Michigan Central Depot, the Detroit Public School Warehouse is a cold, bleak, unassuming looking structure. Only 3 floors and shaped like a cube you wouldn’t figure anything would be going on in this place. Anything you would want to be part of. But like so often the case in Detroit, nothing is livelier than an abandoned warehouse boarded, and fenced, festering with mold and asbestos. This dank black box happens to be a lively art gallery of the street. The bottom floor is home to a couple homeless characters. The upped floors sit scrapped of all valuables, left behind are only wood and papers. Any metals that remain will be gone soon. But the top floor and the roof keep a truly awesome Detroit secret. Unnoticed and even un-seeable from the street the upper walls of the roof jet up over your head and create a perfectly, self-contained graffiti habitat.

Constructed:

Architect:

Style: Warehouse

Crossroads: 14th Street & Maranteete

Area / Floors: 4 floors

Abandoned:

Nestled comfortably between Roma Café and the Cattlemen’s Meat Market, and behind Louie’s on Mack there lies the old Eastern Market Fire House. Plagued with scrapers, transients, and the drug addicted they use its confines as a shooting gallery, or even worse… the local dump. For the past couple years this un-guarded hunk of concrete and steel has become one of the many street art galleries of Eastern Market. The one truly spectacular sight in the Firehouse was stolen this past year. An authentic 1930s or 40s fire truck, still in relatively good condition was assumed to have been heisted from the main engine room late one night in spring of 2007.

Constructed:

Architect:

Style: Industrial

Crossroads: Erskine & Orleans

Area / Floors: 1 Floor

Abandoned: 2003