Campus Martius Park ( ') is a re-established park in

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. After the fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for ''Field of Mars'', where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge

Augustus Woodward Augustus Brevoort Woodward (born Elias Brevoort Woodward; November 1774 – June 12, 1827) was the first Chief Justice of the Michigan Territory. In that position, he played a prominent role in the reconstruction of Detroit following a de ...

's plans to rebuild the city. It was named for the principal square in Marietta, Ohio, the first capital of the Northwest Territories.

Description

The park is located at the intersection of

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which bisects th ...

and Michigan Avenue, four blocks south of

Grand Circus Park The Grand Circus Park Historic District contains the Grand Circus Park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan that connects the theatre district with its financial district. It is bisected by Woodward Avenue, four blocks north of Campus Martius Park, a ...

. The original park covered several acres and was a major gathering area for citizens. The park was lost in the 1900s as the city's downtown was reconfigured to accommodate increased vehicular traffic. Hart Plaza, along the riverfront, was designed to replace Campus Martius as a point of importance. But as Hart Plaza is a primarily hard-surfaced area, many residents came to lament the lack of true park space in the city's downtown area. This led to calls to rebuild Campus Martius, the site of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

-era Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, located across from the new Compuware Headquarters. The park is also where the point of origin of Detroit's coordinate system is located. north of this point is

Seven Mile Road The roads and freeways in metropolitan Detroit comprise the main thoroughfares in the region. The freeways consist of an advanced network of interconnecting freeways which include Interstate highways. The Metro Detroit region's extensive toll-fre ...

; north is Eight Mile Road, and so on. The point of origin is marked by a medallion embedded in the stone walkway. It is situated in the western point of the diamond surrounding the Woodward Fountain, just in front of the park's concession building. The new Campus Martius Park was dedicated November 19, 2004 and includes two performance stages,

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

s, public spaces and a seasonal

ice skating rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

. At , the park is smaller than its predecessor, as a full restoration of the original would have required the demolition of several buildings. However, the city increased the amount of park space in the area by constructing the new Cadillac Square Park, which opened in summer 2007, immediately to the east of Campus Martius. The park's skating rink is designed to resemble the

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...

rink in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

but is larger in size. Since its opening the rink has been operated b
Magic Ice USA, Inc
Campus Martius Park is the home of the annual Motown Winter Blast, an event that has drawn more than 450,000 people to the downtown area every year and it has become the site of the city's annual Christmas tree lighting celebration, held the Monday before Thanksgiving. Thousands come to hear Christmas music and countdown to the lighting of the city's official Christmas tree and other decorations to mark the start of the holiday season.

Cadillac Square Park

Cadillac Square Park is another re-established park in the area. It lies immediately to the east of Campus Martius Park. Until 2001, the area where the park is located was occupied by a bus transfer station constructed in the 1960s. From 1841 until 1891, Cadillac Square was the site of the Detroit Farmer's Market. The new park is site of the relocated Bagley Memorial Fountain which previously occupied a spot on Campus Martius. In January 2008, the city of Detroit announced plans for a new Cadillac Centre, a $150 million mixed-use residential entertainment-retail complex attached to the

Cadillac Tower The Cadillac Tower is a 40-story, Neo-Gothic skyscraper designed by the architectural firm of Bonnah & Chaffee at 65 Cadillac Square in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, not far from the Renaissance Center. The building's materials include ter ...

. Designed by architect Anthony Caradonna and patterned after the

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Sp ...

, the contemporary steel and glass 24-story skyscraper complex to be located on Campus Martius Park, was planned to begin construction in the fall of 2009, but was indefinitely postponed by the city in October of that year when the developers failed to meet key agreements with the city. The French sport of

pétanque Pétanque (, ; oc, petanca, , also or ) is a sport that falls into the category of boules sports, along with raffa, bocce, boule lyonnaise, lawn bowls, and crown green bowling. In all of these sports, players or teams play their boules/balls ...

is played at Cadillac Square each workday from noon to 1 p.m. The similar Italian sport of

bocce (, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancie ...

is also played there.

Gallery

File:Old map 1807 plan.jpg,

's plan following the 1805 fire for Detroit's baroque styled radial avenues and Grand Circus File:CadillaclookingupDetroit.jpg,

, looking up from Cadillac Square File:MichiganSoldiersSailors.jpg, Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument File:Detroit December 2015 24 (Campus Martius Park).jpg, Michigan Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in December 2015 File:ChaseBuildingDetroit.JPG,

Detroit Financial District The Detroit Financial District is a United States historic district in downtown Detroit, Michigan. The district was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 2009, and was announced as the featured listing in the ...

from Campus Martius File:DetroitCampusMartiusPark.jpg, View from Campus Martius Park ice rink File:MikerussellCampusmartiusParkDetroit.jpg, View from Campus Martius Park ice rink File:Campus Martius Park Skating rink.JPG, Campus Martius Park skating rink File:Detroit December 2015 22 (Campus Martius Park).jpg, Campus Martius Park skating rink File:Campusmaratdetroinight.jpg, Campus Martius at night File:ViewupWoodwardfromCampusMartius.jpg, Looking north up Woodward Avenue File:HardRockCafesignfromCampusMartuisdetroit.jpg,

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and r ...

in Compuware World Headquarters File:Woodward Fountaindetroit.jpg, Woodward Fountain File:Cadillac Square Detroit 1899.jpg, Cadillac Square in 1899,

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

is on the left and the Majestic Building is to the right File:CadillacSquareParkdetroit.jpg, Same view of Cadillac Square in 2007;

One Kennedy Square One Kennedy Square is a 10-story building located at 777 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Campus Martius Park. The building is bordered by Griswold Street, Michigan Avenue and Woodward Avenue, and stands on the site of the old ...

stands on the site of the old City Hall and

1001 Woodward 1001 Woodward is a 25-floor office building in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It replaced the Majestic Building, a 14-story high rise on the same site. The building is located just south of the neighboring David Stott Building, at the corner of Wo ...

has replaced the Majestic Building

References

External links

Official Campus Martius Park websiteDetroit News: Campus Martius Park historyVideo review of the park with on-site footage
{{Authority control Parks in Detroit Downtown Detroit Culture of Detroit History of Detroit Kilometre-zero markers 2004 establishments in Michigan

Description

Cadillac Square Park

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links