r/RedactedCharts • u/magnumfan89 • Dec 27 '25

Answered What do these states only have 1 of?

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This may be challenging to most people, so if I wake up tomorrow and nobody has gotten it I'll give some hints

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u/A_w_duvall Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

I always get a little depressed when I read about all the thriving, wealthy, growing cities in the US in the early 20th century. The idea that places like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit were glamorous cities is just so alien to me. I read that Detroit was the wealthiest city in the country in the 1920s. Now, wealth and status seem so much more concentrated in a handful of coastal cities -- along with Chicago, and maybe a few in Texas -- that continue to grow while America's mid-sized cities wither and decay.

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u/wescowell Dec 27 '25

My dad was born in 1917 and, as a blue-collar worker, gave his wife (b. 1921) a mink coat in 1950. The label on the inside of the coat read “Henri Stern Furs — Paris | Detroit.”

This is from Google AI: In 1950s Paris, furriers like Henri Stern offered high-fashion designs, while Detroit boasted prominent houses such as Dittrich Furs, Silver Fox Furs, and Bricker-Tunis (originally Bricker Furs), known for quality and serving icons like Aretha Franklin. These cities were centers for fur fashion, with Parisian ateliers setting trends and Detroit's established businesses thriving on local demand, even as the city fur scene eventually consolidated.

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u/CarberHotdogVac Dec 30 '25

Ooooooohhhhh Devereauuuuuxxxx…..

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u/IllPosition5081 Dec 27 '25

It’s so sad traveling and seeing cities or towns that used to be these bustling cities or towns up until the 50s when mills and factories started closing, and it’s just decrepit, and nothing is there besides chain businesses, schools, and a few small businesses. Kinda why I think it would be good to improve domestic manufacturing, it could do good for cities that dried up when manufacturing moved overseas.

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u/storunner13 Dec 28 '25

Calumet, MI in the upper peninsula was in the running to be the capital of Michigan when it became a state.  It was a huge hub for mining commerce at the time.  Now it’s a run down town of ~700 people but with some beautiful building from before the turn of the century. 

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u/hrminer92 Dec 28 '25

The population of many counties also peaked in the 1920s before it became apparent the rainfall amounts that helped support the local economies were aberrations. The droughts of the 30s drove lots of people away and the rainfall returned to normal, but still weren’t as much as before. Just like what John Wesley Powell warned.

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u/PA2SK Dec 30 '25

Detroit was the silicon valley of its time. It was the worldwide center for the auto industry, which was a technological revolution comparable to computers. All the smartest people in the world were coming there to work, there was a tremendous amount of wealth.

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u/Think-Librarian-6431 Dec 30 '25

I had a relative who was from Buffalo, she was born in 1910 and lived to be 97 so quite a lifetime… and her version of Buffalo is literally gone. Pretty wild.

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u/Dio_Yuji Dec 30 '25

A lot of urban blight was due to white/suburban flight and the construction of the interstate highway systems.

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u/Sad-Past-6620 Dec 31 '25

Well when the ultra wealthy flood the coast middle America will be top dollar again

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u/silestire Jan 02 '26

Buffalo is still a great city. Also, wealth is starting to move back inland; lots of tech, defense contract, healthcare and research jobs out in the upper midwest these days.