Milwaukee Junction Walking Tour

What:

A 90-minute walking tour through the Motor City’s historically significant Milwaukee Junction neighborhood, an area once considered the “cradle of the Detroit auto industry.”

When:

10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (Eastern)
August 24, 2025

Where:

461 Piquette Avenue
Detroit, Michigan
(Beginning at the Ford Piquette Plant, the tour group will wend through the Milwaukee Junction district, making multiple stops at structures of historical importance.)

Why:

The walking tour will provide participants with a unique opportunity to visualize and better understand the area’s rich architectural and industrial history, while experiencing the energy of the repurposed and vibrant Milwaukee Junction neighborhood of today.

Who:

Sponsored by Albert Kahn Legacy Foundation, noted Detroit historian Jacob Jones will conduct the walking tour. Jones will provide detailed background information for each structure and a general commentary for the tour.

Tour Highlights:

Tracing the evolution of factory architecture — from timber and brick to steel and concrete — the tour stops at a wide variety of structures designed or inspired by Kahn.

These include:

Piquette Flats (formerly Studebaker Service Building),

Ford Piquette Avenue Plant (where Henry Ford first experimented with assembly line production of the Model T),

Chroma Building (112-year-old former storage facility transformed into a hub for design, creativity and community engagement),

Fisher Lofts (a remarkable industrial-to-residential conversion of an historic Fisher Body factory) and many others.

History of Milwaukee Junction:

Named for its location at an important junction of the old Detroit