Poletown East, Detroit

Poletown East is a neighborhood area of Detroit, Michigan bordering the enclave city of Hamtramck. The area was named after the Polish immigrants who originally lived in the area. A portion of residential area known as Poletown became the General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant in 1981 with those residents relocated by General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck which claimed eminent domain in order to make way for a new automobile plant.

History

Poletown was settled in the 1870s when the first waves of Polish and Kashubian immigrants came to Detroit, and served as the heart of Detroit's Polish community for many years. The nucleus of the community was the St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church, which opened in 1871 and closed in 1990. Poletown experienced its greatest period of growth during the 1920s and 1930s as thousands of Polish immigrants came to Detroit in search of jobs in auto plants and the slaughterhouses that were in the area. Poletown was not only home to Poles, but also to Italians and Blacks. During the 1950s and 60s, freeway construction and urban renewal projects altered the neighborhood.

Poletown (album)

Poletown is the eighth studio album by American rock singer Donnie Iris, released in 1997. It was Iris' third post-major label release, and was released independently on Seathru Records.

Background

Though the album followed on from 1993's Footsoldier in the Moonlight, Poletown marked the end of a long hiatus for the original band. The members re-congregated at Jeree's Recording Studio to record the album, which fans soon considered to be the finest Donnie Iris and the Cruisers album. The album marked a dramatic departure from the band's previous work, with the songs being lyrically and musically dark and brooding. Ten of the album's tracks were musically written by all members of the band, with Mark Avsec writing all lyrics. He also solely wrote the other three tracks on the album. Poletown was the last time that the band recorded with engineer Jerry Reed, who died in 1999.

During 1997, Iris was also the recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award.Poletown was largely ignored by radio upon its release, even from the band's long-time supporter WDVE.

Poletown (disambiguation)

Poletown may refer to:

Places

Other