Only one of these neighborhood names is correct.
Ephraim Smith Frischkorn (b.1882 – d.1956) was a land developer and home builder for 42 years. His companies: the Frischkorn Real Estate Company and the Frischkorn Construction Company built over 7,000 homes on the westside of Detroit and into Redford Township. He was called a “Pioneer Builder” because when he came to Detroit in 1913, Plymouth Road was a gravel path.
Frischkorn owned and developed hundreds of acres of land in what was an undeveloped area of Detroit along Plymouth Road. He and his two brothers constructed homes, but also installed the infrastructure like roads, water pipes, and sewer lines to serve the new homes. They also contracted a motor bus route to connect the area t the major auto factories much to the chagrin of the Detroit Motor Bus Company. Frischkorn established the Grand Dale (Grandale), Evergreen Village, Highlands, Parkway Heights, and Golf Heights.
Occasionally, the Grandale neighborhood is referenced as “Frischkorn’s Grand-Dale” in older data added to OpenStreetMap although this is not the area labeled incorrectly as “Fiskhorn” today.
The first instance of adulteration of Frischkorn’s name is unknown. However, in the widely adopted Cityscape mapping of Detroit neighborhoods the name was listed as “Fishkorn.” You could find mass produced map posters with the incorrect name for many years.
At some point in the more recent 2013-2016 neighborhood mapping efforts under the new “Department of Neighborhoods,” the name was further, but incorrectly amended to be “Fiskhorn.” Only on small land development of Frischkorn’s overlaps with the City’s Fiskhorn boundary.
Today the City government’s mapping of neighborhoods includes Fiskhorn and that naming has become the de facto preferred name for the area. What began as a few accidentally dropped letters in 2003 has turned into a full blown renaming that confuses Detroiters and visitors alike.
Organizations:
- Prest, Joy, Ellis Block Club
- Joy Community Association
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