Michigan Avenue
Encyclopedia : M : MI : MIC : Michigan Avenue
- "Michigan Avenue" is also the name of a 1973 film by James Benning.
![Buildings on Michigan Ave. as seen from Millennium Park in Chicago. (Photo: Patty Kuhn. ©2004 Illinois Route 66 Heritage Project, courtesy of [byways.org])](http://encycl.opentopia.com/enimages/thumb/538/537958/250px-MichiganAveFromMilleniumPark_ChicagoIL.jpg "Buildings on Michigan Ave. as seen from Millennium Park in Chicago. (Photo: Patty Kuhn. ©2004 Illinois Route 66 Heritage Project, courtesy of [byways.org])")
Michigan Avenue refers to remnants of Old U.S. Highway 12 that ran from downtown Detroit to Chicago. It was replaced by Interstate 94 in 1962, and the state of Michigan re-routed the U.S. 12 designation to the former route of U.S. Highway 112.
In Chicago, the northernmost mile of Michigan Avenue (before its terminus at Lake Shore Drive) forms the Magnificent Mile, one of Chicago's most prestigious commercial districts.
In Detroit, Michigan Avenue is one of five major avenues (along with Woodward, Grand River, Gratiot and Jefferson) planned by judge Augustus Woodward in 1805 that extend from downtown Detroit in differing directions. Michigan Avenue extends due west from the city's downtown. Because Michigan Avenue runs through a few poor and/or unsavory neighborhoods in downtown Detroit, older Detroiters occasionally will refer to uneducated persons as having "gone to school on Michigan Avenue."[[Citing sources citation needed]] This usage is becoming less common, however.
Historically, Michigan Avenue was an old highway that ran through the middle of the major towns and cities of Michigan between Detroit and Chicago. In most place the road is still there, and is named either Michigan Avenue, Old U.S. 12 or the Red Arrow Highway, named after a World War I army division. It is still possible to drive the highway from Belle Isle in Detroit all the way to The Magnificent Mile in Chicago, with only a few places in which one is required to navigate around the interstate highway. The major break in Old U.S. 12 is in the middle of Michigan half way between the village of Parma and the city of Albion. It is at this point that I-94 cuts south to some degree and bisects the old highway, forcing a motorist to navigate north on smaller roads.
The highway is considered an important historic road, in the same vein as Route 66.
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