17 Best Sights in Detroit, Michigan

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History, the largest museum of its kind in the world, tells the story of the black experience in America through exhibits and audiovisual presentations; there's also a theater, research library, and store.

Midtown's top cultural attraction, with more than 100 galleries, is the Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA displays 5,000 years of art treasures, including works by van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Renoir. Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry, four immense frescoes, is a must-see.

Among Belle Isle's other attractions is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, with one of the largest orchid collections in the country.

Adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the Automotive Hall of Fame has profiles of the individuals behind the machines, a mural of automotive history, and a full-size replica of the world's first gas-powered car.

Belle Isle, 3 mi southeast of the city center on a 1,000-acre island in the Detroit River, is reached by way of East Jefferson Avenue and East Grand Boulevard. Here you'll find woods, walking trails, sports facilities, a 9-hole golf course, and a ½-mi-long beach. Like many other urban parks, Belle Isle is best visited during the day.

At the far end of Belle Isle, the Belle Isle Nature Zoo offers family nature programs on weekends focused on Michigan flora and fauna.

The Cranbrook Art Museum has major exhibitions of contemporary art and a collection that includes works by Eliel and Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames.

The Detroit Historical Museum hosts numerous exhibits exploring the region's history, its ties to the automobile, and the city's rich legacies in music and sports. Other worthwhile exhibits are Motor City and Streets of Old Detroit—a walk through the city's long history.

More than 2,800 animals from about 300 species live uncaged in natural habitats at the Detroit Zoo. Highlights include a large penguinarium, a walk-through aviary with tropical birds and plants, and a wildlife interpretive gallery with a butterfly house. Don't miss the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit, with polar bears and seals in a simulated habitat; an underwater tunnel gives you the chance to see the animals swim overhead.

Also on Belle Isle, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum includes a Gothic Room taken from a 1912 Great Lakes luxury liner, and the pilot house from the S.S. William Clay Ford, a Great Lakes freighter. You can also listen to ship-to-shore radio messages and view the river and city through a periscope.

Ford's son Edsel built the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, a 60-room Cotswold-style residence on 87 acres. Albert Kahn designed the 1929 home, which boasts a large collection of original antiques and art as well as extensive gardens.

Henry Ford's Fair Lane blends a Scottish Baronial style with a simple Arts and Crafts design. Here, you'll get a look at the bowling alley where Ford used to shoot pins with his friends Thomas Edison and naturalist John Burroughs.

Dearborn's is America's largest indoor-outdoor museum. It charts the country's evolution from rural to industrial society through exhibits covering communication, transportation, domestic life, agriculture, and industry. Greenfield Village preserves 80 famous historic structures, including the bicycle shop where the Wright brothers built their first airplane; Thomas Edison's laboratory; an Illinois courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law; and the Dearborn farm where Ford himself was born. The Automobile in American Life, inside the museum, is a lavish collection of chrome and neon that traces the country's love affair with cars. W. Buckminster Fuller's futuristic Dymaxion House and the IMAX theater are also worth checking out.

Historic Cranbrook House and Gardens is an Arts and Crafts-style mansion designed by Albert Kahn for newspaper publisher George Booth and his wife, Ellen. Situated on a 319-acre National Historic Landmark campus, the house, the oldest surviving manor house in the Detroit area, has lead-glass windows, beautiful art objects, and formal gardens with fountains and sculpture.

The opulent Meadow Brook Hall was built in the late 1920s for Matilda Dodge, widow of auto pioneer John Dodge. The 110-room, 88,000-square-foot, Tudor-revival style mansion includes a two-story ballroom, original art and furnishings, and formal gardens.

At Pewabic Pottery, founded in 1903, you can see where the brilliantly glazed ceramic Pewabic tiles found in buildings throughout the nation—including the Detroit Public Library and Washington National Cathedral—are made. The pottery now houses a ceramics museum, a workshop, a store, and a learning center.

Second Baptist Church of Detroit, organized in 1836, is Detroit's oldest black congregation. The church was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and African-Americans gathered here to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation.