Conant Gardens
About Conant Gardens
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Conant Gardens is located on the East Side of Detroit along east 7 Mile Road. The neighborhood is unusual in that it was originally built and owned by African Americans, starting in the 1910s. The original owner of the property, Schubael Conant, was an abolitionist. In the 1840s, he removed the racially restrictive covenants which prevented land from being sold to African Americans. Similar covenants prevented African Americans from buying land in much of the rest of the city until the late 1940s. Nonetheless, the neighborhood was originally intended as an area for white collar employees of the Ford Motor Company to settle. This plan was never put into action, and a large influx of African Americans after World War I helped make the neighborhood primarily black.