The area now referred to as Hubbard Farms was formerly in the Township of Springwells. Originally a Pottawatomie Indian village, the area was rich in Indian burial mounds. In the 1830’s, one such mound was opened by a party of explorers, including Bela Hubbard, who found an abundant deposit of human bones, arrow heads, stone axes and other relics. Hubbard also reported that on the north bank of the Detroit River, just below Fort Wayne, was an elliptical or circular earthwork, evidentially an ancient fortification.
The French granted Springwells to Robert Navarre, Jr. in the 1700’s. They called it “Belle Fountaine,” or “Beautiful Springs,” because of the natural springs located near the present site of Fort Wayne. These natural springs furnished an ample supply of water for General Hull’s troops, encamped there during the War of 1812. Clark’s Mineral Springs Baths on the north side of Fort between Clark and Scotten lasted well into the second decade of the twentieth century. The earliest English name given to the area was “Spring Hill,” and it was officially named Springwells Township by an act of the state legislature on April 12, 1827.
Springwells Township was initially settled by the French, the granting of lands following the pattern usual in the Detroit area. Hubbard Farms Historic District occupies parts of five private claims, or French ribbon farms. The easternmost was the Alexis Campau Farm, which extends from the east side of Vinewood to 25th St. The United States government confirmed the rights to P.C. 78 for the heirs of Alexis Campau in 1811. The Alexis Campau Farm was one of two farms granted to members of the prominent Campau family in the Hubbard Farms area. Much of the Campau Farm was sold to Bela Hubbard in 1853 by James Harper and Magdelaine Vernette Campau, his wife.
Private Claim 77, which includes the west side of Vinewood and both sides of Hubbard, was confirmed to Whitmore Knaggs by the United States government on Dec. 28, 1807. The Knaggs’ arrival in Detroit was contemporary with the acquisition of Canada and the Northwest Territory by the English. Knaggs’ parents came to Detroit under English rule and lived at Fort Detroit. They entered the fur trade, with the Dutch Mrs. Knaggs running the store. Knaggs, born in 1763, was one of six children. He became conversant in English, Dutch, French, and five Indian tribe dialects and was also quite familiar with the habits and customs of the Native Americans. Consequently, he became invaluable to the British generals in the Territory – St Clair, Hull and Winchester. During the War of 1812, he was a militiaman who became a prisoner of war. He later served as chief interpreter to General Cass, then an Indian agent.
When Knaggs married Josette Labadie, daughter of Pierre Descompte, he was then living in a log cabin on the 300 acre Knaggs Farm in Springwells that he purchased from a Frenchman named Gobelie. He built his frame house of logs and clapboard around 1790; it stood near the corner of River St. and Swain. Whitmore Knaggs died in 1826, leaving four sons and one daughter; his wife died in 1840.
In 1837, Bela Hubbard was appointed assistant geologist of the State Geological Survey under Douglass Houghton. Hubbard became an author, writing extensively on the geography, topography and geology of the south shore of Lake Superior, publishing a book on the subject in 1846 with W.A. Burt. A polymath, he was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1842. He was one of the organizers of the State Agricultural Society in 1849; a member of the Young Men’s Society of Detroit and its president in 1845; one of the organizers of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists, the forerunner of the present American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a student of the early history of Michigan, he was keenly interested in the history of the French period on the Great Lakes. Hubbard wrote Memorials of a Half-Century, published in 1888.
Hubbard was familiar with the publications of Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852),the leading landscape architect and architectural theorist of the time who wrote about picturesque Italian villas and landscaping. When it came time to build a retirement home, Bela Hubbard, a nature-lover at heart, had a vision of a Romantic villa surrounded by semi-natural parks and gardens. By 1853, he asked Alexander Jackson Davis, architect and disciple of Andrew Jackson Downing, to design an Italian Villa. In addition, he persuaded his friend and brother-in-law, John C. Braughman, and another friend, Christopher Reeve, to commission designs from Davis. Hubbard’s estate occupied eighteen acres between Fort and the river and included a small pond, a garden, an orchard, curving drives and walks. He and his wife named the estate “Vinewood.”
Vinewood Avenue, a roadway lined with overgrown trees and native grape vines, was named after the estate when it was laid out in 1856. Indian Avenue was named in 1856 because it crossed a ridge which abounded in Indian graves, but was later renamed Hubbard.
Hubbard was a civic minded individual who contributed to making Detroit a more beautiful place. Among his civic endeavors, he commissioned four- statues of Marquette, Richard, LaSalle and Cadillac for the Detroit City Hall; these now stand near the former St. Andrews Episcopal Church on the Wayne State University campus. In his later years, Bela was involved with the creation of the Boulevard around the city, and at his own expense built a road running north from Fort Street which he deeded to the City of Detroit in 1887 to become part of West Grand Boulevard. An enthusiastic patron of the arts, Hubbard was one of the founders of the Detroit Museum of Art.
Hubbard died on June 13, 1896 at his home on Vinewood. His villa was demolished in 1933 to make way for the construction Miriam Memorial Branch of Grace Hospital.
Braughman’s Italian villa on Fort next to Hubbard’s was also completed in 1856, but it was better known for its second owner, Daniel Scotten, the tobacco magnate who moved there in 1864. The grounds of the Braughman-Scotten estate lay between Vinewood and Hubbard Avenue, south of Porter and reaching towards Fort. The densely wooded lot was reportedly full of flowers. Scotten Avenue was named after Daniel Scotten in 1867. He was a Scot born in Norfolk, England in 1819 and who came to Detroit in 1853 at the age of 34 and took a job in the tobacco business with Isaac Miller. In 1861, he moved to a partnership with Granger and Lovett, and after Granger left it became Scotten, Lovett & Co. until 1877. The firm moved from Cadillac Square to W. Fort Street in 1878, where it erected one of the largest tobacco factories then in the United States, the Hiawatha Tobacco Works. In 1882, Scotten became sole owner. The company employed 1000-1200 men and women in 1896.
In addition to his position as a tobacco magnate, Scotten was a real estate entrepreneur. He platted his first subdivision in 1866 and owned a number properties, including the Hotel Cadillac, brick blocks on Gratiot, Grand River, 12th Street, West Fort, and stores on Jefferson. He also owned several dwellings and platted 27 subdivisions into 2481 lots. Scotten also owned significant amounts of farmland across the river around Sandwich, where he grazed cattle. Scotten had a reputation as being eccentric. He did not believe in typical philanthropic efforts; instead, he expressed his generosity more directly. He raised turkeys on his property and gave them away, along with firewood, dry goods, clothes and flour. His benefactors called him “Uncle Daniel.” He expressed his philanthropic philosophy on his death bed when he was quoted as saying, “Am I going to give Detroit anything? No, sir, nothing to the City. I have been giving to my people all my life.” Scotten had one daughter, Elizabeth; when he died in 1899 he left an estate reported as worth $7 million.
To the west of the Knaggs/Hubbard Farm was the Jean-Baptiste Campau Farm, or Private Claim 563, The US government reconfirmed the grant of 137.6 acres in 1811. The farm was subdivided in 1852 for the heirs of J.B. Campau and subsequently sold, primarily in the 1870’s and 1880’s, to a number of individuals who further subdivided the property into house lots. The two westernmost claims, P.C. 583 and P,C, 47, comprising approximately 377 acres, were conferred to Jacob Visger in 1807 by the US government. The breadth of P.C. 583 is the same as that of Clark Park, while P.C. 47 is between McKinstry and Clark.
John P. Clark, known for promoting the fishing business along the Detroit and Maumee Rivers, was best known in Detroit as a shipbuilder, owner and founder of the Clark Dry Dock Company, and land developer. He was born in 1808 in New York, and his family moved to Ohio when he was still a young boy. Not having much interest in school, Clark began his business career at an early age in Toledo, Ohio where he earned 50 cents a week fishing on the banks of the Maumee River. Within ten years, Clark was shipping large quantities of catfish to New Orleans, becoming the largest distributor of catfish outside the state of Louisiana. Seeing the rivers as much more than giant fishing ponds, Clark began to build his vast fortune on the waterways of the region.
In 1833, Clark purchased a steam barge and started a towing service on the Great Lakes. In 1838, Clark moved to Detroit and started his shipbuilding business. He began by buying and selling small schooners and within two years, he was selling watercraft of all kinds. In 1850, Clark founded the Clark Dry Dock Company at Springwells, where he built a large number of steam and sail vessels including the Jay Cook, Alaska, Pearl, Gazelle, and Riverside. By the late 1860’s, Clark Dry Dock had become part of the Detroit Dry Dock Company through merger.
Clark spent the last twenty years of his life developing much of the land he had acquired earlier in his career. Clark’s knowledge of the city’s development enabled him to invest wisely in real estate. Already one of the richest men in the state, Clark wanted wanted to do something that would benefit the people of Detroit while also memorializing himself. Upon his death in 1888, he deeded the parcel of land known as Clark Grove to the city for a park. According to the will, the city would receive only half of the parcel of land called Clark Grove and would have to purchase the remaining half with the following provisions: all the native timber was to remain, except where walkways and drives were constructed, and the beaver dam was to remain and kept in its present condition. The city was to pay the executors of the estate “a fair price” for the other half of the parcel. The land was to be used as a public park and would forever be named the John P. Clark Park. If the city could not live up to the conditions of the will, the land would revert to the Clark heirs.
Utilizing the park’s natural resources and abiding by the provisions of Clark’s will, Elstrom did very little to interfere with its natural beauty. According to the diagram he submitted to the Park Commission, Clark Park would consist of a series of winding walkways which would allow a person to travel throughout the entire park. These walks would be 10 feet wide and surfaced with gravel; no carriages would be allowed in the park. At the intersection of these walks would be circular spaces of about 20 feet over which shelters would be erected. To deal with the drainage problem, the waterways would be directed toward the site of a geyser fountain which would also form the supply for a canal system. Clark Park was opened to the public at the turn of the century.
The park underwent its first major renovation in 1910 and continued to change as the community changed. Over the years trees and other foliage have been removed to create softball fields and playgrounds. Today only a few trees remain at the south end of Clark Park. It continues to serve as a major recreational area for the people of southwest Detroit.
Because property was subdivided by different individuals and sold as house lots at different times under different restrictions, a great variety of building types became available to serve the differing needs of people. Its significant architecture spans the years from 1870 through 1930. No one ethnic group originally dominated Hubbard Farms; in fact, its occupancy reflected the different waves of immigration in Detroit throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Knaggs, Hubbard, Scotten, Ferrand and other early residents were of northern European descent; German and Irish names are common in the late 19th century city directories and Eastern European names appear occasionally after World War I. The area today has a cultural identification with Detroit’s Latino community.
Excerpted from the Final Report, Proposed Hubbard Farms Historic District