Wharves and Docks

By the building of wharves and docks, and the extension of the shore by "made land." the river is continually encroached upon. At the foot of Woodward Avenue, it once came up seventy-seven feet north of the north line of Atwater Street; and between Woodward Avenue and Wayne Street it covered half the space occupied by the blocks between Atwater and Woodbridge Streets. At Cass Street it covered a part of what is now Jefferson Avenue. On T. Smith's map of the town as it was in 1796 are shown two wharves called respectively Merchants' and Public or King's Wharf.

One of the earliest records concerning the wharves recounts the voting of a tax, on "July 26, 1804, of twenty-eight pounds eight shillings New York currency for repairing wharf." The wharf repaired was probably that formerly known as King's Wharf, still in use in 1823.

In 1819 permission was granted to H. Berthelet to build a wharf at the foot of Randolph Street. Wharves were also built, about this time, by Mr. Hudson and Mr. Roby. As the city grew, an increasing amount of rubbish and refuse was deposited on the low grounds at the river's edge. This created an almost constant nuisance, and from time to time efforts were made to correct the evil. On July 3, 1820, a tax of five hundred days' labor was voted to be spent "on the border of the river." In 1826 the permanent improvement of the river front was begun by the depositing, along the margin, of earth from the embankment of Fort Shelby. During the following years up to 1834, the work was continued at an expense of over $10,000.

One of the improvements of 1827 was known as the Steam Mill Wharf. The City Council voted to give the perpetual use of sixty feet in width on Woodward Avenue, from Atwater Street to the channel of the river, to a Steam Mill Company, for the erection of a mill, provided it was built within two years; the city also expended $3,000 in filling in and building a dock for the site of the mill, which was never erected. Since that time the work has gone on until good and substantial docks, nearly five miles in length, now line the river along the city front.

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