Burned and Rebuilt?Great Fire of 1805
Great Fire of 1805
Great Fire of 1805: Detroit Skyline from Windsor 2025-09-01

Photo: Dyfsunctional · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Burned and Rebuilt? · Detroit, United States (approx.)

Great Fire of 1805

The open question

A fire wipes out the records and the old buildings in one go. Who decided what got rebuilt, and in what style?

On the record

The fire destroyed the remaining vestiges of the old Fort Ponchartrain and a vast number of buildings in its vicinity. After the fire, territorial judge Augustus Woodward argued that the city was badly planned, and thus should not be rebuilt the same way.

Year
1805
Kind
burned-rebuilt

Sources

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