anayone remember the Fairlane mall monorail (Dearborn, Hudson: hotel, live, dangerous)

[RIVERSMVP14]

I sure do it was fun.

[adams_aj]

I rode it a "couple" of years ago!

[Retroit]

I never heard of it.


source: http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2...-dearborn.html


Gone: https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&l...20792&t=h&z=16

[magellan]

I do! I remember going on a field trip to Henry Ford Museum/GF Village as a kid and driving past this intersection and thinking I was in some kind of future land, with the all glass Hyatt Regency (it was called back then in the 70's/80's) the monorail going over to the mall. The whole bus full of kids was pretty blown away. Like Buck Rogers in real life.

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.co...ct-system.html

[zthatzmanz28]

Fairlane Mall still open?

[adams_aj]

Wasn't this a "sister" mall to Lakeside? A Taubman development? Last time I was at Lakeside, it was more than half-empty.

[Tekkie]

Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28

Fairlane Mall still open?

Yep, I went there last summer with my buddy when he wanted to go to a comic-con at that hotel nearby.

It's actually very nice inside.

[mcq]

I vaguely remember the monorail as a little kid. In fact, I had completely forgot about it. My mom and some family members frequented the mall on about a weekly basis since we were no more than 10 minutes away. Hudson's was their favorite store (once in a while we would go to the Hudson's downtown store which I also vaguely remember). For a while (late 90's or so I think), the mall earned a dangerous rep due to some incidents and no one in my family was going there very much anymore. It seems to have cleaned back up again in recent years and isn't so bad. My mom has started going again with my little sister. It really is a decent mall, all things considered.

[jackmichigan]

Originally Posted by magellan

I do! I remember going on a field trip to Henry Ford Museum/GF Village as a kid and driving past this intersection and thinking I was in some kind of future land, with the all glass Hyatt Regency (it was called back then in the 70's/80's) the monorail going over to the mall.

It was also nicknamed the "Hyatt ***** House" due to the number of underage prostitutes who were busted in the hotel. When it first opened, the Hyatt Regency was also known for the number of suicides that occurred there. It's hard to imagine jumping from one of the higher floors in the atrium, but a number of people did.

As for the monorail, it was modeled after the monorail at Disney World and was supposed to represent the future of urban transportation. Before it was installed at Fairlane Mall (which destroyed a significant portion of Henry Ford's former Fair Lane Estate) a test track for the monorail was built at the Ford Farm in Superior Township in Washtenaw County. Some of the concrete areas which made up the test track are still visible to this day. Of course, the monorail didn't live up to expectations--and was expensive to run--so it was disassembled a few years after it was installed.

[zthatzmanz28]

Originally Posted by Tekkie

Yep, I went there last summer with my buddy when he wanted to go to a comic-con at that hotel nearby.

It's actually very nice inside.

Last time I spent time and money there I bpought furniture from THIS END UP and electronics from SCHOCK or some such store.