From: Silas Farmer, History of Detroit, (1884)

The nationality and characteristics of the people congregated in certain parts of the city have given rise to peculiar designations for such localities. Thus the larger portion of the territory on Fifth and Sixth Streets, for several blocks east side of Michigan Avenue, is called Corktown, because chiefly occupied by people from the Emerald Isle. The eastern part of the city, for several blocks on each side of Gratiot Avenue beyond Brush Street, for similar reasons is often spoken of as Dutchtown, or the German quarter. That part of the city lying a few blocks north of High Street and between Brush and Hastings, is known as Kentucky, from the number of colored people living there. A walk of a few blocks east and north of this locality terminates in the heart of Polacktown, where many Poles reside. That portion of the city just west of Woodward Avenue and North of Grand River Avenue, forming part of the old Fifth Ward, is sometimes designated as Piety Hill; for the reason that it is largely occupied by well-to-do citizens, who are supposed to largely represent the moral and religious portion of the community.

Peddler’s Point is a name frequently applied to a part of the Grand River Avenue near Twelfth Street. The intersection of several streets at that place forms a pointed block, which locality is a favorite place for itinerant hucksters to intercept and purchase supplies from the farmers coming on the Grand River Road.

Swill Point is the not very euphonious appellation sometimes given to a portion of Larned Street near Second because of a distillery formerly located near by. Atwater and Franklin Streets, for several blocks east of Brush Street, are frequently designated as the Potomac. This locality is near the river….The Heights is a name applied to a region near the westerly end of Fort Street East, occupied in part by former denizens of the Potomac quarter. This last region being on lower ground, a removal to Fort Street was spoken of as a removal to the “Heights,” possibly the fact that “high old times” have been frequent in this locality has also had something to do with the particular designation. These last localities have numbered among their inhabitants the worst classes of both sexes.

Woodward Avenue, with one end at the river’s edge, and the other reaching indefinitely into the country, has no superior on the continent. The elegant stores, residences, and churches that mark its route, the beautiful parks and private grounds that lie on either side, win universal admiration.

Griswold Street, running from the river to the High School, is the financial artery of the city. On its courts, lawyers, and banks abound.

From
Detroit Association of Charities Report (1883):

The central district embraces within its eastern border from the river, between Brush and Antoine Streets, as far as Illinois Street, some of the worst dens of infamy existing in Detroit—the purlieus of vice and debauchery and the resort of criminals…places resorted to by the most dangerous of the criminal class and their concomitant depraved women.

. . . .

There are no regular large crowded tenement houses here. A close inspection of the dwellings of the poor in the eastern and central districts shows that nearly all are of one-story wood, generally occupied by two families, averaging twelve to fifteen souls. A considerable number of these tenements are located in alleys; three-fourths of the entire number are in bad condition; these are located on the lower streets and otherwise as mentioned. As a rule the poorest class of colored people are found in the worst class of tenements….The average rent demanded from each family is $1.25 a week, and the landlords are invariably represented as exacting.

. . . .

For the purpose of protecting, elevating, and encouraging our young women. This association shall have as a primary object the establishing of a home for women where strangers in our city in search of work may come and register their names; also be boarded at a small cost until situations are procured. This home shall also be open to girls of good moral character who are from any cause unable to find employment, and if unable to pay for their board, shall be kept until furnished with a situation, by agreeing to give an equivalent in labor. This home shall be open for our industrious women, who are employed in our factories and workshops, without relatives or friends with whom they can live, and who are in receipt of small wages and unable to secure comfortable and respectable homes.

Source: Olivier Zunz, The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880-1920 (Chicago, 1982).