Famous Ditches of St. Clair Shores: Extract from USGS 15' topo quad, Grosse Pointe, 1936

If you remember growing up in St. Clair Shores, have a look back to 1936, for more on the "county ditch".  The map below is a snip from the USGS 1:31,680-scale Grosse Pointe quad.  Geri, Dave, Joe D, Sandra, Chuck, and other mudders from south of 10 Mile will recognize the path of a couple of ditches as they were before being "tubed" and covered in the mid-1960s.

They had names:  Mummer Drain ran between Trombly and Kramer, and had its source upstream around Gratiot (a little west of this snip).  Mummer was joined by Kern Drain east of Harper, between Fresard and Downing.  I don't remember Kern.  It might have been piped and covered before my time, and it was on the ragged edge of my regular playing range anyway.  (I lived in the armpit of the K in LAKE.)

The map shows many other items now gone, such as the golf course that inspired the Fairway Bar.  And south of Blossom Heath there is a tight block full of old cottage houses that were still lived-in as of the early 1960s, though they were pretty run-down by then.  In 1936 there were still many woodlots south of 9 Mile.  You can see the early French settlement pattern (the same as around New Orleans) in the long farm lots, all fronting on the lake, that eventually dictated the street pattern east of Harper. 

This map seems to catch St. Clair Shores at an early boom stage.  By 1936, SCS had grown a downtown, at 9 Mile & Mack.  (Get on the right track...)

Click on the graphic to zoom...

Portion of Grosse Pointe 7.5' topographic quadrangle, 1936, U.S. Geological Survey, Dept. of Interior

The snip below is from a 1918 Army Corps of Engineers map at the same scale.  (The screen capture coverage is a little different from the 1936 above.  I'm lazy.)  Development is light, but there are the seeds of what became a bedroom suburb, especially with establishments along the Lake Shore Railroad line.  Among other things, it's interesting that Little Mack preceded Harper, probably because it's on a section line.  9 Mile & Mack was not yet "on the right track", but it looks like there was a church at the present site of that other high school.  So, sometime between 1918 and 1936 residential streets were laid in, neighborhoods were selectively built up, and the Shores gained a commercial center.

There is also a 1905 version, not pasted here because it's basically the same map, but without the vegetation - which the Army added because in their mapping standards they cared deeply about tree cover. The same plates were used in both years.  So, given the question about what was happening between 1905 and 1918 (or 1936), I will throw this out there:  Does anyone have access to other maps of SCS that could be posted here to build a more detailed story?  If so, please post a comment in the space below, and thanks in advance!

Click on the graphic to zoom...

Portion of Grosse Pointe quadrangle, 1918 edition,1:62500 scale, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

By the way:  welcome, and thanks for being patient with my first post!