If you would have told me 15 years ago that the trip I was about to take to Detroit for a Tigers baseball game with my brother would quickly turn into a 15-year love affair, I never would have believed you. But that is exactly what happened. 

That warm, sunny, summer day in 2010 changed everything. I was just along for the ride to celebrate my brother’s birthday and keep my promise of taking him to a Tigers game in Detroit after he went to a baseball game in Cleveland with me the year before. (Tigers fans, I know… I really wanted to go to Jacob’s Field, okay; and at the time, I was having a crisis of baseball fandom). 

I still recall the exact moment I knew, sitting behind the Tigers dugout on the third base side of Comerica Park overlooking the Detroit skyline- this is where I was meant to be; and not just that I was meant to be a Tigers fan again, but I was meant to be *in* Detroit. It felt like coming home. 

With a reignited love for Tigers baseball came reasons to travel to Detroit for games, and each visit increased a pull I felt towards the city. I chased this feeling of coming home whenever I could, hoping to ease the increasing homesickness I felt in between visits.

I would travel north for sporting events, and concerts, mixing entertainment with exploring new parts of the city. I’d visit history at the Henry Ford, sing at the Motown museum, eat coney dogs downtown at American AND Lafayette, tour the Fisher building, explore Belle Isle, admire art at the DIA, visit Eastern Market, browse for books at John King, and take a graffiti tour at the old abandoned Packard Plant. 

After one trip to the Motor City, I was sharing my adventures with coworkers when one of them looked at me plainly and asked, “why don’t you move to Detroit?” 

It wasn’t a new idea; it was something I had considered in my job search a couple years before. But this time, it really stuck with me. It wasn’t the right time then, but a couple of years later, it would be.

A print from a local newspaper that I could not find more information on to give credit. If you know the creator of this artwork, please let me know!

When you think of Detroit, you may remember the pictures of desolation, or if you actually visited Detroit in the past, you may still remember those memories of abandoned houses, overgrown lots, and potholed roads. This isn’t the full reality of Detroit today though (okay we may still have a lot of potholed roads). The last 15 years have seen a lot of amazing changes to the city. That’s not to say there aren’t parts that are still struggling, like any major city, there are. And not just our roads, there are still neighborhoods that look like they came right out of 2010. Even my own street is a mix of fixed up homes, well-kept lawns at established residences, and even a few abandoned lots of boarded up homes.

But if you haven’t been to Detroit in the last year or so, you haven’t been to Detroit.

I think one of the things I most admire about the city of Detroit and its people is the grit, truly the lifeblood of the city, that you feel every time you visit. It is even embodied in our sports teams- the kneecap tour Detroit Lions, the Pistons turnaround from the worst team in the NBA to making the playoffs in a season, and the Detroit Tigers shocking everyone with their playoff appearance last season and then being one of the best teams in all of baseball this season.  

Even the city motto showcases this grit:

“Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus. We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes.”

Detroit is like a phoenix- it rises from the ashes more beautiful than before. 

And I think that is what attracts me most to this city. The ability to pick yourself up and emerge victorious, stronger, more resilient than before. Who hasn’t found themselves fallen, in the depths of despair, wondering if things will ever get better? I’ve found myself there many times; hell, I’m still trying to claw my way out from the rock bottom fall that was 2024. But if this city and the people of Detroit can rise from the ashes, so can I.

One of the reasons why I wanted to buy an old house in Detroit and fix it up is to help a small piece of the city that I love find beauty again. While I didn’t buy the desolate house I had initially envisioned (and really, thank goodness for that), I did buy a 90+ year old house that needed a lot of extra love.  Much like the certainty I felt that fateful day in summer 2010, I felt the same when I toured my house for the first time with my amazing realtor. And everything came together just as it should for us to be together. 

I still think back to 2021 and admire how the Universe plotted for this dream to become a reality. I got approval in the spring to work fully remote upon my move to Detroit. I went through one realtor, one bad offer, an apartment hunt that came up empty, and by the fall, even though I fully trusted my new realtor, I was getting worried that maybe this wasn’t supposed to happen. 

Then the week of Thanksgiving I came up just as this old house came on the market, for one week only. Do you know how hard it is to schedule inspections the weekend after Thanksgiving? VERY. But it happened, and everything came together to close just in time for the new year. 

This month will be 3 years of living in Detroit (I spent the first 5 months of home ownership in 2022 making the house liveable). It has been quite the three years- full of ups and downs, but one thing has stayed the same, the feeling that this is where I’m meant to be. At least for now.

I don’t know what the future holds, I may not always live in this old house, or even in this amazing city. But I do know, Detroit will *always* be home. 

And for me, there’s no place like home.

You can follow my house adventures on Instagram at @elysasoldhouse. 

While sharing my personal story and connection to Detroit, I would be remiss if I did not honor and acknowledge those who have resided here before me. 

I acknowledge that Waawiyaataanong, also referred to as Detroit, is the ancestral and contemporary homeland of the Three Fires Confederacy. These sovereign lands were granted by the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot nations, in 1807, through the Treaty of Detroit.

I would also like to acknowledge the incredible Black Americans who have resided in this city and made it what it is today. Detroit is one of the Blackest cities in America and that culture can be seen and felt throughout this amazing city.