"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
- Berthold Auerbach

March 16, 2007:
HARMONIE PARK ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT – A TRIBUTE TO “PARADISE VALLEY”

They called it Paradise Valley, in Detroit's Black Bottom. It was a 66 square block area on the near east side of Detroit's downtown and from the 1920s on it was where the vast majority of the African American population of Detroit lived. By the 1940s it was teeming with the new immigrant blacks from the South who had moved north for good paying jobs in factories beginning two decades earlier on Henry Ford's promise of $5 per day.

The living conditions weren't great: overcrowded tenements and row houses, but in the center of it all, on Hastings Street, you could find some great fun. And all the great jazz and blues clubs of Detroit: the Flame Show Bar, Three Star Bar, Forest Club. And you could also find the great Detroit blues musicians, there too: John Lee Hooker, Big Maceo Merriweather, Bobo Jenkins, Baby Boy Warren, Calvin Frazier, Boogie Woogie Red. 
 
Paradise Valley, on all accounts was a hell of a place, and it was named this because it was no paradise and because there was nothing green about it, no trees, or anything –it was neither a valley, nor a paradise; but this mere strip of land on the east side of the city became the home to thousands and thousands of migrant African Americans. These short history lessons here are important when illustrating the artistic climate throughout Detroit's history.

Paradise Valley, while one of the saddest, most impoverished, and depressing areas of the city was also a hotbed for entertainment and artistic activity, with movie-houses, and some of the first jazz clubs to come up in the north. The 1930s, 40s, and 50s saw all of the jazz greats come through Detroit. Jazz wasn't chic in those days, it wasn't about good music to smoke a cigar to, it was a rogue rhythmic music, much like Hip Hop is today. Arts and entertainment in the African American community was quite possibly the only escape there was. It is safe to say also that without Paradise Valley there would have been no Motown.
 
Harmonie Park is the prime location to continue the great legacy of Paradise Valley. Located at the heart of a new and exciting entertainment district in Detroit, Harmonie Park is surrounded by the countries second largest theatre district (only New York has more theatre seats), and the incomparable Grand Circus Park. Within walking distance is The Fox Theatre, The State Theatre, The Opera House, The Music Hall, The Gem & Century Club, Hockeytown, Ford Field, Comerica Park, the new Hilton Garden Inn and a number of restaurants, bars and pubs.

It is positioned to be the entertainment district Detroit has been longing for.

Around the world we are known more for our great music than anything else. Nobody on the planet can lay claim to more great music across so many genre's; Jazz, Blues, Rock, Pop, R&B, Gospel, Techno, Rap & Hip Hop.

From John Lee Hooker, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, and all the Motown artists, the MC5, Iggy Pop, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, The Romantics, Madonna, The Winans, Kid Rock, Eminem, the Godfathers of Techno Derrick May,& Kevin Saunderson and The White Stripes, Detroit has brought the world more great and diverse music than anyone.

Detroit is the only city on the planet that can lay claim to the title "MUSIC CAPITOL OF THE WORLD!"

When visitors come to our city the biggest question asked is "Where is the music?" We now have the answer...HARMONIE PARK.

At the corner of Gratiot & Randolph is the gateway to Harmonie Park & the Entertainment District.

*Read the article in the Detroit Free Press by John Gallagher, Business Writer, here.

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