According to the Brush Park Community Development Corporation, entrepreneur Edmund Brush, son of Elijah Brush, the city's second mayor after its first incorporation, began developing his family's property, located conveniently close to downtown, into a neighborhood for Detroit's elite citizens. Homes were built in Brush Park beginning in the 1850s and peaking in the 1870s and 1880s. At present, about 80 original structures remain in the area. During the 19th century, around 300 homes were built in Brush Park, including 70 Victorian mansions. However, the neighborhood began to decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the advent of streetcars and then automobiles allowed prosperous citizens to live farther from downtown. Brush Park's revival began in the 1990s and has since accelerated. New condominiums have been built in the southern part of the district, near the Fisher Freeway, and a number of the older mansions have been restored.
