There is a rich history behind the land that the El Moore Gardens rests upon, as well as the materials that were used to create the garden and store. The story of the land stretches back from the Native Americans who originally called the area home to the North Cass Farms era of the early 19th century, and from Detroit’s Victorian “Paris of the West” / Piety Hill days to the Cass Corridor artist and activist years of the 1960s and ‘70s. Home for several decades to a gas station, the land became a brownfield site after the station’s demolition, and has now been remediated and transformed into a place where people can come together to enjoy nature.

Most of the materials used to build the gardens and retail building were carefully reclaimed and repurposed from buildings in Detroit and the surrounding region. These include:

• Garden entrance created using the iconic Dalgleish Cadillac water tower
• Garden benches made from the water tower’s steel legs
• Main gates made from metal from Thomas Edison’s workshop gates
• 30,000 locally reclaimed bricks from the nearby Marie Apartments building

Come see how we can build Detroit’s sustainable future from its past.