- [Narrator] Coming up on One Detroit, we'll visit some of Detroit's gems.

We'll tell you all about the history behind Pewabic Pottery, plus a look inside the birthplace of Henry Ford's Model T. Also ahead, we'll take you to a neighborhood designated as a national historic district.

Plus we'll visit a unique spot where you can enjoy outdoor adventures inside, and we'll tell you what's happening around town this weekend.

It's all coming up next on One Detroit.

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on One Detroit, a look ahead at places that are truly Detroit.

We'll explore the city's automotive history inside the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant Museum.

Plus we'll visit an East Side neighborhood with a storied past.

Also ahead, we'll check out the activities at the Outdoor Adventure Center.

And Cecilia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ has a rundown of events taking place this weekend.

But first up, Pewabic Pottery has been a mainstay in Detroit's East Village neighborhood for more than a century.

The distinctive tiles and other ceramic art produced at the pottery are huge part of the city's history.

One Detroit's Bill Kubota has the story.

- [Bill] A fixture on Detroit's east side on Jefferson and East Village, Pewabic Pottery where you'll see a really old clay mixing machine.

- It was made very well back in 1912 and it's still operating today like a charm.

- [Bill] Pewabic Pottery turning out ceramic vases, decorative and architectural tiles, a Detroit legacy that goes back to the turn of the last century.

- I think that's kind of the beauty of Pewabic is we started at a time where this was really popular throughout the United States, but we are really one of the oldest continuously operating historic pottery.

So not many more left like us.

- [Bill] Pewabic was thriving in the 1920s part of the Arts and Crafts Movement, a reaction to the industrialization sweeping the nation, especially places like Detroit, how to bring some humanity, art and beauty amongst all these machine made things.

Meanwhile, dental equipment supplier Horace Calkins created a kiln to fire enamel for porcelain teeth.

- Horace was a really good business person and so kind of realizing that there is this entire new art trend growing within the city of Detroit, known as China painting, he expanded his line of kilns into kilns for the firing of pottery.

- [Bill] Calkins began working with a China painter, Mary Chase Perry.

- Our founder, Mary Chase Perry, later Mary Chase Perry Stratton, was born in Hancock, Michigan.

- [Bill] Hancock in the upper peninsula with its copper mines, including a mine called the Pewabic.

Stratton liked that name.

- Mary was really the artistic vision of the organization and that was something that was fully supported by her business partner.

- [Bill] Education director Annie Dennis has been discovering Pewabic's history, doing a deep dig into the archives.

- We are finding that she had connections to the Detroit suffrage movement and I think it was really inspiring for women artists to find a woman-run organization and that's no different today.

I think the coolest and best part about Pewabic and not just today but just historically are the people that continue to be drawn to this place and care for it.

- [Bill] Back in the clay mixing room, Cameron Hodge runs the machine that removes excess water.

- 'Cause it's still one of the best ways that you can produce clay.

My last major position was as a distiller and it was actually a very similar process of mixing a batch of whiskey and then mixing a batch of clay.

So that's actually how I got hired on in fabrication.

- [Bill] The molds that shape the clay for a lot of projects to process, pretty much the same as it's always been.

- Take the slug, put it into the mold, use an arbor press to press it into all the corners.

I like when the public comes around 'cause it is a nice reminder of like how special this job actually is that we get to make these tiles that some of 'em are about 100 years old as far as the design goes and just continuing the legacy and being a part of the history of Detroit, it's pretty cool.

- [Bill] After the shaping, some get a spray coat.

These tiles in original Stratton design hand painted by glaze technician, Cassidy Downs.

Then comes the firing, but the process isn't all old school.

Brett Gray's in the kiln room.

- I have a degree from CCS and ceramics.

Before that, I made custom surfboards and then I ended up here working in the vessel department.

The biggest difference between historic kilns and these kilns are these are all computer-controlled and we do about five different glazes in here right now.

So as I'm pulling these out, I'm kind of looking over them to make sure everything looks good, there's no imperfections.

These came out perfect, 99% of the time they do.

- It's hard to talk about Pewabic glazes without starting with iridescent glazes because it's really what essentially helped to put Pewabic on the map well over 100 years ago.

- [Bill] Glazes with an iridescent finish.

- So this is a before and after, before it goes into iridescent.

This one has the iridescent on it, which is also a third firing.

- [Bill] Here's where art and science converge.

In the old days, elements like lead and uranium gave these works, which you can see at the museum here that remarkable luster.

These finishes replaced with far less hazardous materials now.

Stratton's work brought together other creatives who established modern Detroit's legacy of art and design.

- I really think it was this network of designers and architects and artists that kind of helped to form the path of Pewabic Pottery.

And this group not only influenced the aesthetics of the city of Detroit, kind of this visual landscape, but also the educational communities.

For example, the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts is still alive and well in Detroit.

It's now known as the College for Creative Studies.

They also had ties to the University of Michigan.

In fact, Mary helped to found the art program at U of M. The first Wayne State University ceramics classes for the first 15 years existed here at Pewabic.

- [Bill] Pewabic tiles abound around Detroit, projects old and new, the Guardian Building, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Comerica Park, and now, right now, renewed interest about what's going on at Pewabic.

- The digital age that we're in right now had people refocus on things that celebrate things made by the human hand.

And so we're actually seeing this really incredible resurgence of people understanding now more than ever why it's important to have artists work and create things by hand.

- [Narrator] The Ford Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood is a major part of the Motor City's legacy.

The site is the birthplace of Henry Ford's Model T. The plant was transformed into a museum to preserve its rich automotive history.

One Detroit's Chris Jordan toured the museum with president and COO, Jill Woodward.

- Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is really one of the most important historic sites for the automotive industry in the world.

It is really the origin point of the Motor City.

So when we ask ourselves where did Detroit get a start as the Motor City, it happened right here in Milwaukee Junction.

Henry Ford built the Ford Piquette plant in 1904.

He was here until 1910.

And this is where he envisioned and built the very first Model T, which we know is the car that put the world on wheels.

We actually have Henry Ford's secret experimental room rebuilt here in the museum on the third floor and it's holy ground for a lot of people to see the spot where that vehicle, the very first one was made, over 15 million were made.

And when you come here, you can see for instance number 220 that was made right here in this building.

That's our Red Model T downstairs in 1909.

We have over 65 very rare vehicles here, including one of the only collections of Henry Ford's letter cars.

Those are all the models leading up to the T that you can see anywhere in the world in the place where they were made.

I feel like we've lost a little bit the significance of Milwaukee Junction.

This is exactly where the Motor City got its start right here because of the railroads.

There was all that innovation and entrepreneurship happening that really set the stage for what Henry Ford was gonna do right here in this building.

It was really the Silicon Valley of its day.

When we think about Detroit and what it means to the rest of the world, I think our contributions are really summed up by places like this that contain our history, our history that really went on to change the world.

The Model T really changed the way we live and drive today.

To have the birthplace of that vehicle here in Detroit preserved by chance and a lot of hard work is really a great gift.

- [Narrator] The Detroit neighborhood, known as Indian Village, has been home to some of the city's most well-known business moguls over the years.

It's a small community with 352 large homes, many of which were designed by noted architects like Albert Kahn and Lewis Camper.

A longtime resident took One Detroit's Bill Kubota on a tour of this national historic district.

- How you doing?

- [Bill] Retired car executive Mark Reynolds touring Indian Village in his 1965 Chrysler 300 rag top just for us.

He moved here from the suburbs in 1997.

- I asked a manager I worked for who was a lifelong Grosse Pointer, what did he think about living in Indian Village?

Is it a good idea?

And he says, well, it's always been there.

I think this might be the largest house in the neighborhood.

Bigsby Fails was the original, but it's about 12,000 square feet plus a carriage house.

- [Bill] By the looks of it, Mr. Fails was a success.

- And that's probably built in the O's.

- [Bill] Fails, an attorney for the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit, DTE today, 10 years ago, Curbed Detroit called the Fails Mansion a big stupid house.

An overpriced, dilapidated mess.

It's a showcased property now.

- This house here on the right with the paint job happening and some window repairs was the Scripps House of Scripps Publishing.

- [Bill] Scripps, the family behind the Detroit News and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

- That house still has its ballroom on the third floor.

You can see the rows of windows on the third floor and it has an elevator, full size passenger elevator.

Up till maybe another 20 or so years ago, you had a lot of people getting these houses 'cause they were really, really cheap and they didn't either have the money or the knowledge to keep them up.

- We've been living here for 33 years and when we bought our house, people thought we were crazy, but it's now worth so much money.

But it is expensive to live here, it is expensive.

These houses are old and they do require a lot of maintenance, but it's a labor of love.

- [Interviewer] What's the makeup now?

What are your demographics?

- Definitely middle class because you can't afford to maintain one of these houses if you don't have some amount of money.

They take a lot of work.

It's about 50/50 as far as black and white.

Recently we've had some more wealthy people, especially from out of state, move in, and we've had four or $5 million sales.

- [Bill] At the turn of the last century, this neighborhood emerged from a Detroit ribbon farm, a long strand of property emanating north from the Detroit River.

A developer gave us what would be called Indian Village.

- Well the city assigned street names.

As the city was growing, they were looking for every name they could find.

So we got Seminole, Iroquois and another street adjacent to us is Seneca.

So the realtors sort of gave it a nickname and the nickname stuck.

- We have three blocks, one mile long and all these beautiful historic homes.

And I have to say that we don't own these homes, they own us and we are just maintaining them for the next generation.

Maintain our heritage here in Detroit.

- [Narrator] Much of Detroit's heritage, car making, they call this the Edsel and Eleanor Ford Honeymoon Cottage, 6,000 square feet.

A starter mansion for the son and daughter-in-law of Henry Ford, they later moved to much bigger digs in Grosse Pointe.

Other auto magnates lost to history.

The Bobby Hupp house, Hupp Motorcars, maker of the Hupmobile.

The Hugh Chalmers house, the Chalmers Motor Company acquired by Chrysler in 1923, all on the same street, homes with cooks and housekeepers.

- I have call buttons to call to help.

I keep pressing them, but nobody comes.

- [Bill] The Mark Reynolds house.

More room, more rooms, more choices.

- Where do you wanna sit outside?

I have three different porches, so I take my choice.

- [Bill] He's got a roof like few others in these parts, wood shingles bent to get that certain look.

- American thatch, it is wood shingles made to look like thatch from a house in somewhere in the Cotswolds in England.

They were really expensive in the day and are shockingly expensive to fix now.

- [Bill] Here you can find other varied roof styles, the mansard, the gabled, the gambrel.

You'll see eyebrows, dormers, columns, all sorts of columns, and turrets.

- And this was the lumber baron's house we call it.

This has caught fire twice and twice by lightning and has been restored both times.

- [Interviewer] I don't see any lightning rods on that thing.

- I think that ball top.

- [Narrator] I guess that's a lightning ball.

- [Bill] Romanesque revival style this has been called 1906, designed by Louis Camper.

He also did the book, Cadillac Hotel Downtown.

- Well, this is one of the first architectural jobs by Albert Kahn.

He started out doing homes before he became famous for his industrial work.

- [Bill] Albert Kahn, known worldwide as the father of modern factory design, builder of Henry Ford's factories, the General Motors Building, the Fisher Building, hundreds of others.

- So there's maybe a dozen or more Albert Kahn houses in Indian Village.

- [Bill] Another Albert Kahn creation, this landmark, the Liggett School.

When Liggett moved to Grosse Pointe, the building turned into a Waldorf school in the 1960s.

- The Detroit Waldorf School is one of the oldest Waldorf schools in the country.

- [Bill] A private school in the city when others left.

The Waldorf Method, experiential learning, embracing art and creativity.

An integrated program here from the start, it continues today.

- I think that people who are from the east side know about the school and have passed by it, but I don't know if everyone knows about this gem throughout the city.

It just is a beautiful school and most of our children thinks it's magical.

- [Bill] The school home base for the annual Indian Village Home and garden tour held in early summer.

- This tour has been going on for 48 years.

- [Bill] Walk, ride, take your own self-guided journey.

Maybe check out the community garden and get inside some select homes.

- This home was built in 1914.

This home is designed in the unique Asian-inspired arts and craft style, which you probably didn't notice, but now that I've said that, at the end of the tour off from the sidewalk turnaround, take another look and I'll bet you say, oh yeah, I sort of see that.

- [Bill] That Asian inspiration, the curved awning over the porch.

The Tour Committee claims 352 homes to this neighborhood, adding up to a national historic district.

- If you wanna do any renovations on the outside of the home, you have to get permission from the Indian Village Historical Society.

- [Bill] Special rules here, zoning ordinances prevent Airbnbs and multifamily housing in the cause of preservation.

Trying to keep what was that we might still have it in the future.

- Indian Village belongs not just here on the east side of Detroit.

This is our heritage, this is the heritage of Detroit.

All Detroiters and people who live in and around Detroit should come here and enjoy it.

We're on the men, we're coming back.

We got a lot of things to see and do here in Detroit.

- [Narrator] The Outdoor Adventure Center is a venue that offers activities like virtual kayaking, snowmobiling, and ATVing.

The center is run by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and it brings the state's outdoor activities indoors.

One Detroit contributor Sarah Zientarski visited the center to learn more about what it offers residents and visitors.

- The Outdoor Adventure Center, such a cool place.

Can you just tell us like what is the concept behind this center?

- Basically, we do bring the up north downtown.

So everything that you can see in the beautiful up north, we try to bring it here and expose people to our natural resources throughout the state.

- Why is it important to bring that up north of Michigan to the city of Detroit?

- I think part of the reason is because we wanna make sure that everybody knows what we have to offer in this beautiful state.

And so for people who grew up in the city and don't travel much outside of the city, they can explore what we have to offer and we hope that they take the chance and go and visit our beautiful state parks throughout the state.

- And just what the state of Michigan has available because I'm sure a lot of people come here and think, oh, I didn't know how we had mines, I didn't know that we had sand dunes.

How do you see people come here and their minds kinda open up to all the beauty that we have here at in the state of Michigan?

- And that's the great part about working here, is that we see that inspiration and we see people ask more questions and ask where they can find more information.

Where can I get my fishing license?

Do you have any suggestions about good fishing spots?

And so that that is really exciting to see that people make that connection and then wanna know more about how to explore.

- [Sarah] When people come to the Outdoor Adventure Center, what can they expect as they walk through the doors?

- They can expect to feel like they're outside, which a lot of people, before they know what we are, they're surprised that it's all inside.

But really when you're inside, you feel like you're outside.

- What are the hands-on exhibits that people can explore?

- It's actually more than just hands-on, it's full body exhibits.

So we have fishing, which actually is simulated to make it feel like you're catching a fish.

We have snowmobile that you can ride, an ATV you can ride, bikes that you can ride, and then the tree of course that you can climb inside to the top of the tree and peek out and see all the branches and actually in the tree, there's birds and owls and bugs and all kinds of nature that you can explore inside the tree.

- How do you inspire people to go out to the state parks?

- That's actually one of our new exhibits this year.

We have an interactive state park map now, which is conveniently located in our campground exhibit.

And so you can touch and see the entire map of Michigan and explore what those campgrounds have to offer and other state parks, it's not just campgrounds.

- How long has the Outdoor Adventure Center been around and how have you expanded through the years?

- We opened in July of 2015 and every year, we do add something new.

So we're always looking for ways to expand what we offer and I think that's really another exciting thing about working here is exploring all, what can we add and working with the wonderful people and the rest of the DNR to see what ideas they have.

Like right now, we're working with forestry to expand all of our forestry exhibits.

So it's really exciting.

We have a very unique building that is one of a kind in the country.

There's no other DNR that operates a building like this.

So definitely come and stop by and see what Michigan has to offer.

- [Narrator] Summer isn't over just yet, and there are still plenty of outdoor festivals and other activities taking place in Metro Detroit.

Here's Cecilia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ with today's One Detroit Weekend.

- Hey everyone, I'm Cecilia Sharpe with 90.9 WRCJ here to let you know about some great events happening in Metro Detroit this weekend and beyond.

Friday is an MS Taste of Generosity at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market.

It's the third year for this Michigan-made food and fund festival that benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Also, Friday through Sunday is the Art and Apples Fest at the Rochester Municipal Park.

There will be over 200 artists displaying their works, live entertainment, food vendors, and a kid's art zone and creation station.

The beats, rhymes, everything, Detroit Hip Hop Theater Fest takes place Saturday, September 7th, at the Hill Gateway Theater.

The celebration honors how stories are told through the hip-hop genre, both on stage and off.

Saturday through Sunday, it's the old car festival at Greenfield Village.

It's our country's longest running antique car show and you couldn't have it in a better setting than among the beautiful old buildings and homes throughout the village.

Starting Saturday, September 7th through September 14th is the Trenton Art Festival, where you can see 10 new murals created on the sides of buildings throughout downtown.

There's also sip and stroll events, live mural paintings, plus the usual food and fun.

And you know there's always so much to do around here so stick around for a few more options.

Have a great weekend.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] That'll do it for this week's One Detroit.

Thanks for watching.

Head to the One Detroit website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Narrator] This program is made possible in part by Timothy Bogert, Comprehensive Planning Strategies.

From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music)