Detroit Activities

East Grand Boulevard

 (313) 852-4075

With 983 acres, Belle Isle Park is the largest city-owned island park in the country. You can access it with a footbridge at the foot of East Grand Boulevard. The nearly half-mile long bridge was built in 1923 and renovated in 1986. The park features a zoo, aquarium, conservatory, Great Lakes museum, and plenty of room for recreation.

315 E. Warren St.

(313) 494-5800

Founded in 1965, this museum offers exhibits and programs that explore the diversity of African American history and culture. Charles Wright was an obstetrician and gynecologist who wanted to preserve Black history. The museum features Mae Jamison’s NASA flight suit, a replica of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birmingham jailhouse door, among other artifacts.

5401 Woodward Ave.

(313) 833-1805

This museum showcases the history of Detroit and southeastern Michigan, including exhibits that recreate the streets of Old Detroit and 19^th Century stores, celebrate automotive history and reveal a pilot house from a Great Lakes freighter. In 1995, the museum opened The Motor City Exhibition, which includes an operating assembly line from the General Motors Cadillac Division Clark Street Plant. In 1998, the museum opened Frontiers to Factories depicting the city’s economic progress from French fur trading post to the major industrial center it is today.

 

5200 Woodward Ave.

(313) 833-7900

The Detroit Institute of the Arts offers more than 100 galleries with art from ancient to modern times, including 17^th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, the William Hurst Collection of armor, the Tannahill Collection of impressionist paintings, the Pre-Columbian Native American Art exhibit, the G. Mennen Williams collection of African art and Diego Rivera’s Detroit industry murals.

 

5020 John R. Street

(313) 577-8400

Now called The New Detroit Science Center, this hands-on center includes traveling exhibits, five hands-on exhibit laboratories, two demonstration stages, an IMAX theater and a digital dome planetarium. Exhibit laboratories explore matter and energy; waves and vibration; life sciences; and mechanics and motion.

 

Russell Street

(586) 393-8800

This indoor-outdoor marketplace is more than a century old and remains one of the city’s major attractions. Spread over a 43-acre area, the market draws 45,000 people on a given Saturday. You can find just about any fresh food you are looking for, including meats, fresh farm fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts and candies.

2648 W. Grand Blvd.

(313) 875-2264

When you visit this museum, which is located in an old brick house, you will be standing on the site where the Motown sound of the 1960s began. The exhibits include musical instruments, photographs, and the original world-famous Studio A and control room, where Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, the Temptations, the Supremes and many others got their start in the music business under the direction of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr.

 

170 E. Jefferson Ave.

(313) 259-2206

Built in 1849, this gothic-inspired church was relocated in 1955 from Woodward Avenue to its current location on Jefferson Avenue to make room for construction of the civic center. The interior of the stone church features a nautical design. A blessing of the fleet and memorial service remembering those who have died at sea is held every March.