With its many springs, the land in Delray (which comes from the Spanish phrase “of the kings”) was an attractive settlement for the French in the 1800s. It’s been a largely industrial neighborhood. The population boomed as German, Polish and Hungarian immigrants moved in. Delray was incorporated as a village in the late 19th century and annexed by Detroit in 1906. When Detroit’s industry was booming in the 1920s, so did Delray. The neighborhood had the largest Hungarian population outside of Budapest and was also incredibly diverse, with African-American, Polish, Mexican, Armenian, Italian and Irish families. In recent years it has seen an influx of Latino immigrants. The community has experienced significant abandonment over the past several decades after its population peaked at more than 20,000 in the 1930s, and is now home to nearly 4,000 residents. In 2015, the City of Detroit identified more than 30 homes for demolition in a blight removal campaign.
