Delray Café

Delray, a small community once home to thousands of new Hungarian immigrants in the early years of the twentieth century, is one of Detroit's forgotten pockets of ethnic history. Delray's streets feature some of the oldest housing stock in the city, but years of industrial pollution and an unofficial policy of civic neglect have made it nearly inhospitable territory.

Delray's boundaries are roughly the Detroit River, Fort Street, Clark Street, and Dearborn Avenue. The French who made up the first European settlement in Detroit found local Algonquin and Hurons in the area, who liked its proximity to excellent fishing waters. The name Delray came from a local citizen, Augustus Burdeno, who had served in the Mexican War and named his property after a south-of-the-border town that charmed him, Del Rey. Incorporated as a village in 1898, Delray was formally annexed by city of Detroit eight years later.

Attracted by local foundries, steel mills, and soda-ash plants that set up shop in the area, waves of Polish, Hungarian and Armenian immigrants began to make Delray their home in the first years of the twentieth century. It remained a thriving, vibrant and predominantly Hungarian neighborhood for years, with Hungarian markets and bakeries, taverns that featured lively Gypsy music on Saturday nights, and even a Hungarian-
language newspaper. Zolkower's Department Store and two immense Roman Catholic parishes anchored the area. The death knell for Delray came in 1965 when I-75's immense Rouge River overpass bridge cast a long shadow. In 1974, under new federal environmental regulations, the city of Detroit built an expanded sewage treatment plant adjacent to the church of St. John Cantius, and 300 homes and several businesses were demolished as a result.

Even the city seemed to give up on Delray, and has officially classified it as an industrial zone. The last vestige of old Delray is the Delray Café, located at 8032 Jefferson and still serving authentic Hungarian and Polish cuisine. Because of the junction of several railroad lines, a vintage railroad switching tower off Dearborn Avenue — the last staffed one inside city boundaries — is a favorite site for local train enthusiasts.