CADILLAC'S VILLAGE OR "DETROIT UNDER CADILLAC." WITH LIST OF PROPERTY OWNERS AND A HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT 1701 TO 1710. COMPILED BY C. M. BURTON DETROIT, 1896.



CADILLAC'S HOMESTEAD. Where did Cadillac live? I cannot answer this question satisfactorily now, though I think he lived on the northwest corner of St. Francois and Ste. Anne streets, near the church. If I am right his house was on what is now the north side of Jefferson avenue, half way between Griswold and Shelby streets, about where the old Masonic hall stands. You will observe that the properties bringing the highest prices were those on Ste. Anne street, in the immediate vicinity of this land. This would naturally follow, if the house of the cornmandant was located here, St. Anne Street, at this point, was the Woodward avenue of the little city, and here the aristocracy lived with Cadillac in their midst. What kind of houses did they have? From all I have so far learned, the modern idea of a log house was unknown to them. I think their houses, even those of the better classes, consisted of stakes, driven into the ground as closely together as possible and the interstices filled with mortar or mud. These pickets were cut off, even, at the top, and a pitch-roof of split rails put on. Sawing lumber by hand was too difficult a job to permit much sawed lumber to be used, and what would be thus obtained was for interior work, doors, shutters, etc. It is very probable that no houses had windows, except those of the wealthiest citizens. Glass, for windows, was doubtless very scarce and very expensive. I can find no certain record that there was any glass windows at all, though in the description of the church occurs the statement that it contained a window with shutters and sash frames between, "of 20 squares," each. The squares may refer to the small panes of glass, common even until a few years since, in church windows. A short time after Cadillac left Detroit to become governor of Louisiana, in 1711, he had a complete inventory of his belongings in Detroit, made by Pierre Chesne and Antoine Magnant, and the priest, Father Cherubin Deniaux, and this property was turned over to Pierre Roy for safe keeping. From this list we obtain an idea of the buildings owned by Cadillac, and I append their full description.
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(Pierre Chesne and Pierre Roy were to be inlaws- Kevin Lajiness)
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The City of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922 By Clarence Monroe Burton, William Stocking, Gordon K. Miller


The History of Detroit and Michigan By Silas Farmer