As part of the Detroit Mobile Audio Tour, participants will be able to go to a handful of “must see” sites in the city of Detroit and use their mobile phones to listen to audio about what makes these spots interesting. But at what sites?
The Detroit Mobile Audio Tour wants your input. We spoke to Detroit tourism aficionados like Linda Yellin of Feet on the Street Tours and Jeanette Pierce of the D:hive to compile a list of 25 top Detroit sites that might make good stops on an audio tour. Now we need YOU to help us pick what should actually be the first five sites on the Detroit Mobile Audio Tour.
TAKE THE DETROIT MOBILE AUDIO TOUR POLL
So far we’ve received some really great feedback about the sites on the poll. What we can’t incorporate into these first five sites we will definitely use to help us figure out the next five sites… so please keep the feedback coming. That said, I thought we deserved to give you an explanation for why we decided to not include certain items on this initial site list.
Why aren’t there any museums on the list? Like the DIA, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, or the Motown Museum?
The reason is that Detroit’s world class museums don’t need a Detroit Mobile Audio Tour stop. Remember, we’re not telling people what to do and see in Detroit [that’s what the Belle Isle to 8 Mile insider’s guide will be for, and we know they’ll do a great job.] Once visitors are at a site, our goal is to tell them what’s interesting about that space that’s not currently being said there in that space. Museums like the DIA, the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, and the Motown Museum are already very interactive and tell their own stories… and they tell those stories well! We just don’t think they need our voice to be added to the mix, because their own voice is so strong.
Where are the neighborhoods on the list?
How could we, at this point, justify picking one neighborhood over another? There are so many interesting Detroit neighborhoods we feel like this has potential to be its own tour. So we’re holding onto that idea for now. Please tell us if you disagree.
What about Belle Isle?
There is SO MUCH happening on Belle Isle we feel like there’s no way we could cram it into one tour stop. We feel that Belle Isle, as well, could be its own tour. And we hope it just might some day. But if you disagree and think it should be its own spot on the Detroit Mobile Audio Tour, please fight for it!
Why did you choose __ but not __?
We tried really hard to narrow the list down to 25 sites to make the poll easier for you all. Unfortunately that meant we had to cross some really cool things off, oftentimes because there was already something similar, or because we wanted another category represented and something had to go. That said, this is a big reason why question three on the poll gives you a chance to add your feedback. If you think it’s weird that we included one site instead of another, please let us know!
Listen to Detroit 
Michael Mercier
The Ford Piquette Plant, 461 Piquette Avenue 48202, is Ford’ Motor Company’s first manufacturing plant where the first 12,000 Model T’s were built.
Detroit’s strong connection to the auto industry is not the automobile’s invention ( you will have to go to France for that ) but auto production.
Henry Ford’s innovation, the continuous conveyor belt assembly line, made automobiles “affordable to the great multitude”. He refined the idea during the time assembly was taking place at Piquette.and introduced it in large scale at the Highland Park Plant in 1913. Over fifteen million five hundred thousand Model T’s were eventually built with one being build from start to finish in an assembly time of 93 minutes!
The Piquette Plant, now the Model T Automotive Heritage Complex, is a museum and a performance venue.
Patricia Rae Linklater
Our proper name is Ford Piquette Avenue Plant the legal name is Model
T Automotive Heritage Complex, Inc.
lauraherberg
Forgive me, Patricia. Please see the corrections made above.
lauraherberg
Indeed, Michael. Thanks for sharing this important and interesting information. You may notice that the Ford Piquette Plant was not included on our list of potential sites for the tour. That’s not because we don’t think it’s an interesting place but because we think the museum already does a great job of telling its own story.
We’re hoping you’ll look at our poll here [http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KZQJZ77] if you haven’t already, and let us know five places in Detroit with interesting stories that aren’t currently being told in their space.
Thanks for interacting. Your input is appreciated!
-Laura Herberg, Detroit Mobile Audio Tour Creator
james courtney
The Spirit of Detroit Statue, I think the statue and the motto, say a lot about Detroit, and its constant fight against destruction. it shows how resilient we are, no matter how bad, we continue, no matter who leaves we keep working. And very close to the Statue is another very controversial landmark, which can be interesting for tourists as its meaning, politically and socially is both divisive and uniting at the same time, depending on how you tell the story, speaking of the Joe Louis Fist. A symbol of Black Power, sports history, Community Strength or anti slavery/Jim Crow?
lauraherberg
Great suggestion, James. I’ll confess I’m secretly hoping one day I’ll get to do a “Statues and Monuments of Detroit” Mobile Audio Tour. But yes, perhaps one or two statues will make it into the Detroit Mobile Audio Tour. We’ll see as the results of the survey keep coming in…
Michael Daisy
The Boydell Building on Beaubien @ E. Lafayette was the first site of John & Horace Dodge’s manufacturing facility following their relocation from Windsor. It is where the brothers first hooked up with Henry Ford.
lauraherberg
Cool stuff, Michael. As you may have seen in the poll, we’re trying to fill an automotive hole that we left empty earlier so I am definitely keeping this site in mind.
Liam Collins
Worker’s Rowhouse in Corktown. Argueably one of the oldest wooden structures still standing in Detroit, this tenament residence was the site of a WSU archaeological excavation from 2006-2010. As Corktown was originally French ribbon farmland that became a planned suburb around 1838 it is important to understand the city as we enter another stage of development. Today in Corktown, dense urban neighborhood is reverting to urban farmland.
lauraherberg
I vaguely remember reading an article about this but can’t find it anymore. Do you happen to remember the name of the professor leading the dig? Fantastic suggestion, Liam. Thanks for chiming in!