M-1, also known as Woodward Avenue, is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Metro Detroit area of the US state of Michigan. The highway, called "Detroit's Main Street", runs from Detroit north-northwesterly to Pontiac. It is one of the five principal avenues of Detroit, along with Michigan, Grand River, Gratiot, and Jefferson avenues. These streets were platted in 1805 by Judge Augustus B. Woodward, namesake to Woodward Avenue. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has listed the highway as the Automotive Heritage Trail, an All-American Road in the National Scenic Byways Program. It has also been designated a Pure Michigan Byway by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and was also included in the MotorCities National Heritage Area designated by the US Congress in 1998.
The trunkline is the dividing line between Detroit's East and West sides and connects to some of the city's major freeways like Interstate 94 (I-94, Edsel Ford Freeway) and M-8 (Davison Freeway). Woodward Avenue exits Detroit at M-102 (8 Mile Road) and runs through the city's northern suburbs in Oakland County on its way to Pontiac. In between, Woodward Avenue passes through several historic districts in Detroit and provides access to many businesses in the area. The name Woodward Avenue has become synonymous with Detroit, cruising culture and the automotive industry.
Woodward Avenue was created after the Great Fire of 1805 in Detroit. The thoroughfare followed the route of the Saginaw Trail, an Indian trail that linked Detroit with Pontiac, Flint, and Saginaw. The Saginaw Trail connected to the Mackinaw Trail, which ran north to the Straits of Mackinac at the tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. In the age of the auto trails, Woodward Avenue was part of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway that connected Portland, Maine, with Portland, Oregon, through Ontario in Canada. It was also part of the Dixie Highway, which connected Michigan with Florida. Woodward Avenue was the location of the first mile (1.6 km) of concrete-paved roadway in the country. When Michigan created the State Trunkline Highway System in 1913, the roadway was included, numbered as part of M-10 in 1919. Later, it was part of US Highway 10 (US 10) following the creation of the United States Numbered Highway System. Since 1970, it has borne the M-1 designation. The roadway carried streetcar lines from the 1860s until the 1950s; a new streetcar line known as the QLine opened along part of M-1 in 2017.
Route description Like other state highways in Michigan, the section of Woodward Avenue designated M-1 is maintained by MDOT. In 2021, the department's traffic surveys showed that on average, 68,359 vehicles used the highway daily south of 14 Mile Road in Royal Oak and 15,909 vehicles did so each day in north of Chicago Boulevard in Detroit, the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively. All of M-1 is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility. As well as the sections of Woodward Avenue in Pontiac that are part of Business Loop I-75 (BL I-75) and Business US 24 (Bus. US 24), all of M-1 is a Pure Michigan Byway and an All-American Road. Woodward Avenue is considered to be the divider between the East and West sides of the city of Detroit.
Detroit and Highland Park
Woodward Avenue starts at an intersection with Jefferson Avenue next to Hart Plaza about from the Detroit River. The plaza is regarded as the birthplace of the Ford Motor Company, and it is located near Huntington Plaza and the Renaissance Center, headquarters for General Motors (GM). The first block of Woodward Avenue, between Jefferson Avenue and Larned Street, is a pedestrian plaza, the Spirit of Detroit Plaza, home of the namesake statue used to symbolize the city. Woodward Avenue runs north-northwesterly away from the river through the heart of downtown Detroit and the Financial District. Along the way, it passes several important and historic sites, including notable buildings like One Woodward Avenue, the Guardian Building, and The Qube. Further north, Woodward Avenue runs around Campus Martius Park and enters the Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District, a retail, commercial, and residential district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). After that historic district, the avenue travels through the middle of Grand Circus Park; the northern edge of the park is bounded by Adams Avenue, where state maintenance begins.
North of Adams Avenue, Woodward Avenue is a state trunkline designated M-1. The highway crosses to the west of Comerica Park and Ford Field, home of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers and the National Football League's Detroit Lions, respectively. Woodward passes the historic Fox Theatre before it crosses over I-75 (Fisher Freeway) without an interchange; access between the two highways is through the service drives that connect to adjacent interchanges. North of the freeway, M-1 passes Little Caesars Arena, home of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and the National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistons. A six-lane street, the highway travels through mixed residential and commercial areas of Midtown including the Midtown Woodward Historic District, another district listed on the NRHP. South of I-94, Woodward heads through the Cultural Center Historic District, which includes the campus of Wayne State University, the Detroit Public Library, and the Detroit Institute of Arts; the institute and the nearby Detroit Historical Museum showcase the city's automotive history.
North of I-94, Woodward passes through New Center; this district is home to Cadillac Place, the former headquarters of GM. The neighborhoods on either side of the highway transition in composition north of New Center; this area is mostly residential in nature. Between the intersections with Webb Street/Woodland Street and Tuxedo Street/Tennyson Street, Woodward Avenue leaves the city of Detroit for the first time and crosses into Highland Park, an enclave within Detroit. It is within Highland Park that M-1 intersects M-8, the Davison Freeway. Woodward passes over the Davison, which was the first urban, depressed freeway in the US, at an interchange south of Highland Park's downtown business district. M-1 crosses that district and runs next to the historic Highland Park Ford Plant, home of the original moving assembly line used to produce Model Ts; opened in 1910, the plant's assembly line dropped the time needed to build a car from 12 hours to 93 minutes and allowed Ford to meet demand for the car.
M-1 crosses back into Detroit at the intersection with McNichols Road; the latter street occupies the 6 Mile location in Detroit's Mile Road System. North of this intersection, Woodward Avenue widens into a boulevard, a divided street with a median; left turns along this section of roadway are made by performing a Michigan left maneuver using the U-turn crossovers in the median. Between McNichols and 7 Mile Road, Woodward Avenue travels to the east of the Detroit Golf Club in the Palmer Park area. North of 7 Mile, the highway runs to the west of the Michigan State Fairgrounds and to the east of the Palmer Woods Historic District. The northern edge of the fairgrounds is at M-102 (8 Mile Road), which is also where Woodward Avenue exits Detroit for the second time; the two boulevards cross in a large interchange.
Oakland County
Crossing the border into the suburb of Ferndale in Oakland County, the highway runs through residential neighborhoods but is lined with adjacent businesses. The intersection with 9 Mile Road marks the suburb's downtown area. Further north in Pleasant Ridge, the north-northwesterly path of Woodward Avenue changes as the road turns to the northwest. After the curve, M-1 meets I-696 (Reuther Freeway); immediately north of this interchange in Huntington Woods is the Detroit Zoo. North of 11 Mile Road, Woodward Avenue forms the border between Berkley to the west and Royal Oak to the east. The highway passes the Roseland Park Cemetery north of 12 Mile Road before crossing fully into Royal Oak. Near 13 Mile Road, the trunkline passes through a commercial district anchored by a shopping center and Beaumont Hospital. North of 14 Mile Road in Birmingham, M-1 and Woodward Avenue leaves the original route, which is named Old Woodward Avenue, and runs to the east of it to bypass that suburb's downtown area. The highway crosses the River Rouge and returns to its original routing north of Maple (15 Mile) Road.
North of Birmingham, Woodward crosses through part of Bloomfield Township for the first time before entering Bloomfield Hills. That suburb's downtown is centered on the intersection with Long Lake Road; Woodward passes between a pair of golf courses north of there. The highway enters the south side of Pontiac's residential neighborhoods after crossing back into Bloomfield Township. At the intersection with Square Lake Road, M-1 terminates. Woodward Avenue continues northwesterly into Pontiac carrying the BL I-75 and Bus. US 24 designations; it terminates after the two directions of the boulevard diverge and form a one-way loop around the city's business district.
Cultural significance
Scenic and historic designations
Many historical sites are located along Woodward Avenue, which was included in the MotorCities National Heritage Area when it was created on November 6, 1998. The road was designated what is now called a Pure Michigan Byway by MDOT in 1999, and a National Scenic Byway by the FHWA National Scenic Byways Program on June 13, 2002, the only urban road at the time with that classification. It was later upgraded to All-American Road status on October 16, 2009; such roads have highly unique features and are significant enough to be tourist destinations unto themselves. In announcing the byway status in 2002, Norman Mineta, then United States Secretary of Transportation, said that "Woodward Avenue put the world on wheels, and America's automobile heritage is represented along this corridor."
The Woodward Avenue Action Association (WA3), the local agency that acts as the stewards and advocates for the All-American Road and Pure Michigan Byway designations as well as adjacent historical sites, obtained a grant for $45,000 (equivalent to $ in ) from the FHWA in 2011 to install a set of 50 custom road signs along M-1 between Detroit and Pontiac. WA3 sells replicas of these signs to discourage theft. Profits are also being used along with money from clothing and other merchandise to support the Woodward Avenue Beautification Fund, a special endowment created in 2010 to aid the 11 communities along the highway with maintenance and to defray costs associated with special events on the avenue.
As well as the custom signage, WA3 has received FHWA grant funding to erect a series of lighted "tributes": solar-powered, lighted pillars that contain artwork related to the roadway. The $150,000 glass and concrete sculptures are being placed in the median along Woodward Avenue to serve as landmarks along the route of the roadway and to brand it for tourists. A total of 10 to 12 installations are planned for the length of the highway in Wayne and Oakland counties. The art project received a 2011 National Scenic Byway Award for the Byways interpretation category.
Religion, entertainment, and cars