Orchard East: Where diverse groups came together
It was a homecoming of sorts for Bill Bray.
The 67-year-old City of Monroe native was canvassing for the Monroe Democratic Party prior to the General Election, and he was assigned to the Orchard East neighborhood.
Bray grew up in the neighborhood, living there with his parents and seven siblings until he was drafted into the Army in the early 1970s. His childhood home was just steps away from the Arthur Lesow Community Center.
He often could be found with a baseball glove in hand, manning the outfield of the old Hellenberg Field.
Bray’s father came to Monroe from Tennessee in the 1950s as part of an influx of southern transplants looking for work in the local quarries, paper mills and automotive factories.
The southerners arrived in an Orchard East neighborhood originally established by European immigrants. A large number of African American families also eventually settled in the area.
“I loved growing up in the neighborhood,” Bray said. “I learned to get along with everybody, different races, different incomes, because we were all basically the same down there.”
Like Bray, Brenda Tolbert’s family also moved to Monroe’s east side from Tennessee looking for work. Tolbert, 72, was born in the old Monroe Hospital on Maple Blvd., and she grew up on Norwood Drive.
“Everybody was family,” Tolbert recalled. “Of course, southern people are that way anyway, ’Y’all come back’ and that kind of thing. We never locked our doors over there...
“People, they didn’t have much. We didn’t have, of course, anything like the kids have today. But I don’t know, I just have fond memories of that whole time growing up.”
DEFINING ORCHARD EAST
Ask five different people to group the Orchard East neighborhood on a map, and you likely will get five slightly different shapes.
Ask them to tell you where it is, and it will be a similar story.
You might hear general terms like “the east side,” referring to everything south of the River Raisin and east of the natural barrier of the railroad lines at Kentucky Ave.
But some people consider Orchard East as being just the part of the east end of the city located around Orchard Drive.
Residents of the neighborhood, as well as those who focus on its well-being, often use east side and Orchard East interchangeably when referring to the entire third precinct of the city, which includes a small portion of the neighborhoods west of Kentucky.
“There’s work going on right across the street from Kentucky Ave. that really benefits the entire neighborhood,” said Mark Cochran, assistant to the city manager and economic development coordinator for the City of Monroe.
“That imaginary boundary was kind of founded in the Census track as well, in my perspective, and the opportunity zone established by the federal government.”
While the borders of the neighborhood are blurred and subjective, there’s no disputing where it got its name.
“This was an orchard,” said Monroe City Councilwoman Kellie Vining. “When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, the trees are really what stood out... Fruit trees of every kind you could think of that would grow here in Michigan, apple trees, pear trees... cherry trees, walnut trees.
“That’s what I think of is the beauty of the neighborhood, with the trees and the natural landscape.”
THE COMMUNITY'S DECLINE
Predominantly a blue-collar community, Orchard East was essentially a city within a city in its heyday.
“My grandmother who still lives here, she told me that when my mother and her siblings were coming up (they) did not have to cross the tracks for anything unless they needed a gown or tuxedo,” Vining said. “Every other wear was available, so there were gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, clothing stores, shoe stores.
“Actually, where the (Navarre Branch) Library sits now, that block was actually the city’s central business district before it got moved downtown. The Italians owned tons of businesses, and there were many Black-owned businesses as well.”
“It was its own little city down there, it was self sufficient,” added Bray. “We had hardware stores, lumber yards, two or three drug stores, four or five gas stations, Durocher’s (TV and Appliance) was down there at one time... Quite a few of them were still there when I graduated in the early ’70s.”
But one by one, those businesses started to disappear.
“I was a kid, but I want to say it was maybe in the late 1970s,” Vining said.
“I think a lot of it had to do with maybe some of the elders passing on and their children didn’t stay in those trades, and I believe – and this is just my opinion – that when the businessmen in the city moved the central business district more towards downtown, I think it’s a combination of those two things (that resulted in) what I consider the decline in the Orchard neighborhood in terms of families and things.”
Vining was living in Detroit during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s, but she says the things she saw in Motown happened in Monroe as well – specifically in the Orchard East neighborhood – as drug-related crime and the subsequent arrests left lasting stains on the area.
“It had a lot to do with taking a lot of people out of the community,” Vining said.
REBIRTH AND REVITALIZATION
As Bray was canvassing his childhood neighborhood, walking through the streets he remembered so well, he said he couldn’t help but notice the differences.
“I was very surprised at how things have changed,” he said. “I remember all the stores, actually where they were all at and everything... (Now there’s) nothing.”
But while it has a long way to go to return to its former glory, the Orchard East neighborhood seems to be on the mend.
In recent years, revitalizing the neighborhood has become a priority for elected officials, groups and organizations across Monroe County.
The hope is that these investments — both monetary and otherwise — combined with countless instances of residents pouring their own time and energy back into the neighborhood, can begin to reverse decades of neglect and decay.
“I think it’s important because this is the beginning of the city,” Vining said. “It’s some of the oldest neighborhoods. …
“I think a lot of people have just realized why not start at the point that’s been the most neglected, for lack of a better word.”
FOUR-PART SERIES
The Monroe News is examining the City of Monroe’s historic Orchard East neighborhood in a four-part series to include the area’s history and ongoing efforts to revitalize the once self-sufficient community.
Today’s installation details the neighborhood’s history.
Saturday’s story will focus on city-led revitalization efforts.
