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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	FORT SHELBY SITE Michigan
Wayne County, 250 West Fort Street, Detroit.

Fort Shelby was the third name of a fort that stood on the site of the city of Detroit. The British had named it Fort Retreat; and the French, Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit. In 1796 the British, carrying out the terms of Jay's Treaty, yielded the fort to Capt. Moses Porter, in command of Gen. Anthony Wayne's advance guard. In 1812 Gen. William Hull invaded Canada from Detroit, but soon retreated and surrendered the Michigan Territory to the British. The next year Gen. William Henry Harrison recaptured Detroit and went on to defeat the retreating British Army in Canada at the Battle of the Thames. He then restored the British fort and renamed it Fort Shelby. A settlement that had grown up around the fort continued to grow slowly until after the completion of the Erie Canal, in 1825. Soon afterward Detroit became an industrial city. At the Fort Street entrance to the Federal Building, a bronze plaque marks the site of Fort Shelby.