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Plum Street was a neighborhood known as "Detroit's Art Community," roughly bounded by what is today Michigan Avenue, the Lodge Freeway, and the Fisher Freeway. It was a site of Detroit's countercultural scene in the 1960s.

Detroit school teacher Robert Cobb envisioned the area as an arts community--along the lines of San Francisco's Haight Ashbury--and began acquiring and developing properties for that purpose in the early 1960s. At its height, the neighborhood attracted 43 "hip capitalist" ventures, including head shops, art galleries, and craft oriented retail stores. The area was also home to the Detroit underground newspaper The Fifth Estate and was home to "The King of the Hippies" John Sinclair's media production company Translove Energies. By 1969, fewer than 10 businesses remained. Much of Plum Street was cleared in the 1970s to make way for the Lodge Freeway. What remains of Plum Street is now the site of the MGM Casino.

There is a short chapter about Plum Street in David Carson's "Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'N' Roll"

Businesses in the Plum Street area

  • Of Cabbages and Kings - antiques
  • Waste Basket Boutique – paper clothing fashions
  • Prometheus Candle Works – candle making
  • Tres Camp – posters and art reproductions
  • Red Roach Coffee House
  • Above It All (925 Plum Street) - boutique
  • Wisdom Tooth - performance venue

Sources

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