Current and historic US highway endpoints in Detroit, MI

1927-present
After a fire almost completely destroyed Detroit in 1805, Augustus Woodward (a territory judge) designed the street pattern that would be used as the city was rebuilt.  Among its most prominent features were the several boulevards that radiate outward from the original townsite, at approximately 30° increments along a 180° arc, serving all parts of the city and state.  All of these boulevards converge on a point of origin located in what is now Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit.  120 years after they were laid out, these boulevards began carrying Detroit's US highway traffic:
Picture
c. 1929, Automobile Blue Book
Woodward Avenue is one of the "radials" or "spokes" -- it served as US 10.  Michigan Avenue is another one; US 112 travelers used it.  Grand River Avenue (which was both US 12 and US 16) is another spoke.  At various times, all four US routes ended where they met a fifth highway, US 25:
Picture
c. 1956, Gousha
The interactive image here is looking north on Woodward.  US 25 followed what later became M-3: it came in on Fort Street (one block behind the camera), then to this intersection, then turned right (through what is now Campus Martius).  Straight ahead on Woodward was the east beginning of US 10, and to the left on Michigan was the east beginning of US 12, US 16, and US 112 (which later became the current route of US 12, after the completion of I-94).
Meanwhile US 25 followed Cadillac Square for a couple blocks, then was directed left on Randolph Street, and then northeast on Gratiot Avenue (another spoke).  From the location shown in the image above, we will take a virtual tour to the left on Michigan, in order to discuss historic routes as well as current US 12.  The first block we come to is Griswold Street.  This marked the east beginning of US 12 from 2000-2005, and the first confirming marker was once posted there:
Picture
Wiley, 2000
In two more blocks, we reach the intersection with Washington Boulevard, which is probably where this photo was taken:
Picture
date and attribution unknown
The "R" shields directed US 12 and US 16 traffic to turn right.  So that was probably looking west on Michigan, approaching the point where US 12-16 split off on Washington in order to get to Grand River Av.  One block further west is Cass Avenue:
Currently that intersection marks the east beginning of US 12, and the first confirming marker is posted one block later, just past 1st Street:
Heading the opposite direction (east on Michigan), the last US 12 marker is posted just past 3rd Street:
About three blocks ahead, we come to Cass, which has been the east end of US 12 since 2005.  An "END US 12" assembly was posted in 2015...
...but until about 2010 there was still a US 12 trailblazer posted about two blocks further ahead:
Picture
Ivy/Nitzman, 2009 (gone by 2011)
That was correct until 2005, which is when the US 12 designation was truncated from Griswold to its current terminus at Cass.  This shows the former endpoint at Griswold...
...but prior to 2000, US 12 continued ahead one more block to Woodward...
...but before the reintroduction of Campus Martius, one could continue straight ahead onto Cadillac Square:
Picture
Wiley, 2000
For decades, that was the east end of not only US 12, but also US 16 and US 112.  The east beginning of US 10 was to the left on Woodward.  Northbound US 25 was straight ahead, while southbound was to the right.
In the late 1950s, the US 12 designation was removed from the Plymouth Road - Grand River Ave route, and changed to follow the Willow Run - Detroit Industrial - Edsel Ford - John C. Lodge freeways.  At that time, it would have ended where the Lodge Freeway ends: on Jefferson at Woodward (which was US 10, so the two routes shared a common terminus).  This photo was taken looking south on Woodward at Jefferson:
Picture
Wiley, 2000
The cars are at what was the east end of US 10 during the 1950s, while the east beginning of US 12 was to the right.  That arrangement did not last long though: it was 1961 when US 112 was decommissioned, and US 12 was changed again -- this time to follow the route of what had been US 112.  Downtown, that would have put US 12 back on Michigan Av, so the east end would have been back at the old Cadillac Square terminus again.  But then -- sometime in the 1970s, perhaps when US 10 was rerouted to use the Lodge Frwy -- US 12 traffic was directed south onto Woodward for another three blocks.  The designation then ended at the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson again, but this time things were reversed: the cars shown above were at the east end of US 12, and to the right was the east beginning of US 10.

From here, US 12 follows what used to be the route of US 112 through Michigan.  The original US 12 was along Grand River Av and Plymouth Road (formerly M-14) out of Detroit to Ann Arbor; and from there through Jackson, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph; and then south along the shore of Lake Michigan.  After that highway was rendered obsolete by I-94, Michigan removed much of it from the state highway system, and re-assigned the US 12 designation to the highway that was originally US 112: from Detroit to New Buffalo, via Ypsilanti, Coldwater, and Niles.

Many additional things have changed since the '50s: Michigan has been a "leader" in the movement to decommission US routes, and US 12 is the only one that still serves downtown Detroit.  Of course the radial avenues are still there, but today most traffic uses the newer network of freeways which obscure the grand design of the underlying street pattern.
Research and/or photo credits: Chris Bessert; Brent Ivy; Alex Nitzman; Dale Sanderson; Mike Wiley
Page originally created 2000;
last updated Mar. 26, 2016.