Campus Martius Park is a re-established park in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. After the fire of 1805, Campus Martius (from the Latin for Field of Mars, where Roman heroes walked) was the focal point of Judge Augustus Woodward’s plans to rebuild the city. It was named for the principal square in Marietta, Ohio, the first capital of the Northwest Territories.
The park is located at Woodward Avenue and Michigan Avenue, four blocks south of Grand Circus Park. The original park covered several acres and was a central 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 Civil War-era Michigan Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument site, across from the new Compuware Headquarters. Bed Bug Exterminator Detroit
The park is also where the point of origin of Detroit’s coordinate system is located. Seven miles (11 km) north of this point is Seven Mile Road; eight miles (13 km) 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 at the western point of the diamond surrounding the Woodward Fountain, just in front of the park’s concession building.
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 Detroit Farmer’s Market site. The new park is the relocated Bagley Memorial Fountain site, which previously occupied a spot on Campus Martius.
In January 2008, Detroit announced plans for a new Cadillac Centre, a $150 million mixed-use residential entertainment-retail complex attached to the Cadillac Tower. Designed by architect Anthony Caradonna and patterned after the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 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.
Address: 800 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI
Check out other attractions like Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
