Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Ecorse

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
B−History
History · Ecorse

Ecorse’s post office opened in 1863, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns · #383 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it

Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1906 on, and the census since 1910.

1863first post office
0on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Ecorse’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Ecorse began

When was Ecorse founded?

1863

The Ecorse post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1903. Another post office, Ecorce (1827), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 1,063 in 19102020 census: 9,305163 years

How historic is Ecorse?

B−

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Ecorse post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1903.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Ecorse’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ecorse is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns, #383 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ecorse’s overall grade.
Founding era1863, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194026.5% of homes (±5.2) · typical MI town 11.9% · U.S. 8.4%A−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical MI town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 48%
NewerOlder
Michigan towns of 2,500+ (701)Ahead of 45%

Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ecorse’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1903.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Ecorse’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Boom and bustPeaked at 17,948 in 1950; 9,305 people lived here in 2020.On the map since 19068 editions of the USGS map, 1906 to 1981. Watch Ecorse change.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers.Old housesHalf of Ecorse’s homes were built before 1954.
★ What stands out · People over time

Ecorse, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,000192019401960198020002020Peak: 17,948

Peaked at 17,948 in 1950; 9,305 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ecorse’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Ecorse on the map, 1906 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ecorse. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Ecorse on the 1906 USGS mapEcorse on the 1929 USGS mapEcorse on the 1936 USGS mapEcorse on the 1942 USGS mapEcorse on the 1952 USGS mapEcorse on the 1967 USGS mapEcorse on the 1973 USGS mapEcorse on the 1981 USGS map1906Wyandotte sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Ecorse.

By decade

Ecorse, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s12 items
Engine, Great Lakes Engineering Works1900Engine, Great Lakes Engineering WorksStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, broadside1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, broadsideStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, the launch1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, the launchStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, the launch1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, the launchStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, bow quarter1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, bow quarterStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, before the launch1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, before the l…Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, stern quarter1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, stern quarterStr. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, stern view from under1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, stern view f…Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, bow quarter after launch1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, bow quarter …Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, afloat just after launch1904Str. Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, afloat just …Str. R.W. England on the ways, Great Lakes Eng. Co. [i.e. Engineering Works], May 5, 19041904Str. R.W. England on the ways, Great Lakes Eng. Co. […The Launch of Str. R.W. England, Great Lakes Eng. Co. [i.e. Engineering Works]1904The Launch of Str. R.W. England, Great Lakes Eng. Co.…
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story

How Ecorse came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Ecorse.

Read it all →

In 1836, after the community had become part of United States territory, it was settled by more English speakers, who named it Grand Port. The community was unincorporated within Ecorse Township. In 1903 the settlement was incorporated as the village of Ecorse. With the opening in 1923 of the rolling mill of the Michigan Steel Corporation, a supplier of sheet steel for the automobile industry, Ecorse began to become an economic force in the region. The village incorporated as a city in 1942.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Ecorse, 1827 to 1991

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1827Post officeThe Ecorce post office opens
  3. 1857Post officeThe Ecorce post office closes
  4. 1863Post officeThe Ecorse post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900In the archiveEngine, Great Lakes Engineering Works
  7. 1906On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1919Post officeThe Ecorse post office closes
  9. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 17,948
  10. 1991Born hereDamond Smith is born here
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Engine, Great Lakes Engineering Works
Retake this viewEngine, Great Lakes Engineering Works, 1900

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Ecorse’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Ecorse had its own post office from 1863 to 1919. Another post office, Ecorce, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Ecorce
1827–1857
Ecorse
1863–1919
18201920today
Gone or out of use
Ecorse Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Ecorse
Saint Francis Xavier

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Ecorse’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewEngine, Great Lakes Engineering Works: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Lincoln Park1 historic placeC+River Rouge1 historic placeB+Wyandotte7 historic placesA−Detroit282 historic placesA+

Questions about Ecorse’s history

What year was Ecorse founded?

The Ecorse post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1903.

How does Ecorse rank for history?

Ecorse is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns, #383 of 701 in Michigan. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Ecorse?

27% of Ecorse’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1954.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From the Library of Congress (12), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.