Hart Plaza

About Hart Plaza: Philip A. Hart Plaza (Commonly known as just: Hart Plaza) opened in 1975 and has resides on fourteen acres between the Detroit River and West Jefferson Avenue in the Downtown neighborhood.  It is the assumed location of landing of Detroit's founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac on July 24, 1701. Landing point believed to be the foot of present-day Shelby Street a few feet below Jefferson Ave. The 40,000 person capacity Detroit Municipality was named after United States Senator Philip Aloysius Hart who served as Michigan Senator from 1958 until his death in 1976.  It is home to a statue of the founder of Detroit Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad, Horace E. Dodge and Son Memorial Fountain, Isamu Noguchi's Pylon and the Transcending art piece. Many events also take place within Hart Plaza and all upcoming events can be found listed below.

Author's Anecdote: From the late 1980's to the early 1990's my father was working out of the Guardian Building and later the 14th floor of the Buhl building.  My first and only experiences of Hart Plaza included walking from his parking garage on Griswold through the plaza to attend Red Wings games at Joe Louis Arena and watching the annual fireworks display from one of the office windows that overlooked the river.  As a child, a lot of things looked really cool within the area but none of it had any significance to me until later in life when I decided to attend various events in Hart Plaza and of course started down this journey of consuming everything I could possibly learn about the city of Detroit's history. (See: Mission & Goals)