Roads began to take the city to the west and north, railroads brought copper mined in the North to be processed in the foundries of the city. As trade began to expand the economic possibilities for people willing and able to work, word spread among the immigrants who had settled in upstate New York; Detroit was growing and jobs were plentiful.

They began to come west; first along the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and then by steamship on to Detroit. Once here, they came off the ship at the docks where Third Street now lies, some asking where they could find a job even before they found a place to live. A short distance from the docks, one of the French Strip farms had recently been subdivided and developed. Here were boarding houses, rooming houses, worker’s cottages and tenements built to house the workers within walking distance to the shipyards, rail yards, lumber yards, lumber mills, tobacco shops, shoe factories, clothing manufacturers, copper foundries, and wagon factories where they worked long hours.

This simple row house, believed to be among the oldest residences remaining in the city, appears on the Hart Map of Detroit published in 1853, and may have preexisted the relocation in 1849 of the neighboring Most Holy Trinity Church’s first frame structure.

Its dimensions are quite small by modern standards; 36 feet wide by 26 feet deep. Two stories high, it was originally divided into three separate units, each just 560 square feet of living space; yet nearly as large as the one story, two room cottages with lean-to kitchens attached being built during the same period. Two of the original six over six pane double hung windows remain on the rear wall. A middle door has been covered over. Three chimneys remain. Those in the end units perhaps for warmth, sit entirely within the walls, rather than outside. It is Barn Frame 4X4 post construction, none of which extend beyond one story, in a style know as platform upon platform.

The Worker’s Row House Museum captures the imagination as a Restoration and Preservation Project important for the fact that it honors and appreciates the trials and triumphs of those usually unheralded, poor immigrant families who, in their coming to Corktown, started, in 1834, the oldest community still in existence in Detroit today. Their toil made the city a strong center for the dignity of labor, just as it allowed them the living wage that afforded them homeownership.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were extremely important in Detroit—its industrial potential was conceived and realized during this time. In 1880, Detroit ranked nineteenth on the American industrial scale; in 1890, seventeenth; and in 1900, sixteenth. By 1914, however, its ranking had shot up to fourth. The auto transformed Detroit’s economy, and the tenants in this Row House illustrate this evolution to an extent. Row House tenants in the 1850s included a nurse, carpenters, laborers, and a grocer. From 1870 to 1900, the tenants included a washerwoman, painters, laborers, dressmakers, molders, firemen, and bakers. Between 1900 and 1916, the tenants included drivers, clerks, a plumber, finishers, carpenters, and laborers. Beginning in 1916, the tenants of the Row House become more affiliated with the auto industry; that year, tenants included bodymaker Samuel Golden who boarded with his parents at 150 Sixth, autoworker Charles Elliott who lived at 152 Sixth, and chauffeur Eugene F. Peters at 154 Sixth. From 1916 until 1941, Row House tenants included a truck driver, autoworkers, coremakers, diemakers, laborers, and machine operators.

One example of a post-auto family living in the Row House is that of the Goldens. From 1915 until 1922, the Goldens lived in one Row House unit. In 1916, Mr. Samuel Golden was 64, his wife Margaret was 59, daughter Cynthia was 21, and son Samuel C. was 16. Everyone in the house could read and write, and everyone’s native language was English. Everyone except Samuel C. was born in the U.S. Samuel C. was born in Canada, came to the U.S. in 1901, and was a naturalized citizen through his father. As previously mentioned, young Samuel C. was listed in the 1916 city directory as a bodymaker. Mr. Golden was a laborer with the City Department of Public Works. By 1920, when Cynthia was 25, she was a glassblower at a lamp company, and Samuel C. (20) was a truck driver for a soft drink company. Later Row House tenants employed in the auto industry include machinist Emmanuele Camilleri (1927), coremaker Jose Tedesco (1929-1932), diemaker Frank Attard (1930), laborer Tony Saliba (1931), laborer Vernia Irwin (1934), auto machinist Jose Choiniere (1935), and autoworker Joseph Grech (1939).