Detroit: Detroit Historical Museum (July 2017)



Detroit Historical Museum - Great Museum, and Admission Is Free!

My spouse and I visited the Detroit Historical Museum (DHM) on a Sunday afternoon in early July 2017. Incredibly, admission to the museum is free! (Donations are accepted, of course.) It is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (closed on Mondays). We spent about two hours at the museum, moving through each exhibit at a brisk pace, but you could easily spend an entire day if you want to fully investigate each exhibit and item on display.

The DHM is located in Detroit’s Cultural/Historic District on Woodward Avenue, across a side street from the main branch of the Detroit Public Library and diagonally across the street from the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA). (The science center and African-American museum are nearby.) Parking is available for a fee in an adjacent surface lot. The museum exhibits cover several floors, with both stairs and elevator access between them. The DHM offers amenities including restrooms, an information desk, and a shop that sells souvenirs, gifts, and snacks. (The museum contains no on-site restaurant, although a lunchroom is available if you “brown bag” it.)

The museum’s goal is to illustrate the history of the area from the 1700s to present day. Exhibit themes include automobiles and the assembly line, famous Detroit natives and their inventions (also check out famous handprints outdoors in the courtyard from Alice Cooper, Gordie Howe, Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson, and Lily Tomlin, among others), the city’s role in World War II, colonial times and the fur trade, slavery and the Underground Railroad, model trains, Kid Rock Music Lab, and rotating exhibits. Our favorite part of the museum was called the “Streets of Old Detroit”; located in the basement, it recreates a village from the 19th and early 20th century (complete with cobblestone streets, storefront windows, and shops that you can enter). We also liked the “Motor City Exhibition” area, particularly its re-creation of an automobile assembly line (including a two-story “body drop” of a car exterior onto a frame). The semi-interactive toy train exhibit was also particularly enjoyable. (The cable car feature is not one that we have noticed before, nor had we ever seen how a tiny camera can be attached to one of the engines to give a close-up view of the train’s path.) We were also intrigued by the temporary exhibit that described the Detroit riots of 1967, which are coincidentally chronicled in a major motion picture that opened in August 2017.

We enjoyed our time at the Detroit Historical Museum – and we would have gladly paid for the experience!