Inspiring Conversations with Bailey Sisoy-Moore of Detroit History Tours and The Detroit History Club

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bailey Sisoy-Moore. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Bailey Sisoy Isgro is the owner of Detroit History Tours and the proprietress of the Detroit History Club. She is an author, humorist, workaholic, Faygo-loving tour guide from the great City of Detroit. A lover of city ephemera, her most prized possessions include her antique books about Detroit penned by Clarence M. Burton himself, her Library of Congress readers card, her collection of vintage jewelry, and signed pay stubs of Edsel Ford. A frequent essay contributor, her most recent work can be seen in The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook. Her first children’s book, Rosie A Detroit Herstory, hit shelves in the fall of 2018 from Wayne State Press and is receiving rave reviews. She has appeared on television as a contributor on the Travel Channel’s Tough Boats and Globe Trekker series, is a common guest on history-themed podcasts, and has written op-eds for local papers. She also likes to think her mother is proud. When she isn’t tramping around Detroit giving tours, drinking at century-old bars, and talking history with anyone who’ll join her, she can be found at her home in Highland Park, “a little slice of heaven inside Detroit.” She is meticulous in her research and passionate about historical accuracy, yet she takes great joy in presenting history in the most exciting, playful, and accessible way possible. A passionate connoisseur of all things delicious, she adamantly argues the health benefits of coney dogs and Vernors floats. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Walking tours start on location and generally last between an hour and 2 1/2 hours, depending on the tour. At a leisurely place we explore the historical context of an area. On our Hamtramck walking food tour, which we called “meandering meal Hamtramck“ we walk 1.5 miles at a leisurely place over 3 hours, enjoying four different courses of the progressive meal at four different Hamtramck’s restaurants. 

On our bus tours, we just meet at our building, the Detroit History Club, where they check in before boarding a luxury motorcoach, which has leather captains chairs for every guest. We then spend between two and four hours (depending on the tour) exploring an aspect of the city’s history from women’s history on our wild women tour to architecture history to cops and mobsters of Detroit’s past. 

How many people per tour? 

Walking tours up to 20 

Bus tours up to 50 

We hope to continue to be the premier historical tour company in the City of Detroit. Our focus has been and always will be Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck as we continue to grow we hope to offer more diverse tours celebrating more voices in each of the three cities, we care so deeply about the Detroit history, club, or a vent arm continues to grow, and we are excited to offer more events of varying sizes as well as re-launching our book club and readers series in 2023. 

Wild Women Tours 

A woman who through social, professional, or personal avenues, affected the way Detroit, Highland Park, or Hamtramck’s exists today. 

Why do they matter? 

Women’s history is human history. Remembering their contributions helps remind all of us of the greatness we can achieve as well as worn us away from the terrible actions and repercussions some faced. 

Do women’s stories largely go untold? Why? 

A lot of times women’s history gets pushed to the sidelines. We talk about Berry Gordy founding Motown records, but we often leave out his sister. Esther‘s management help to create a successful record label here in Detroit. Women have always been part of the story but often are sidelined to present men as having done it all. Hopefully, that continues to change for the better, but it can’t go without saying that most historians have come across research where women are referred to as only Mrs. husband’s name, hitting a research wall to learn even the first name of a woman, heavily involved in charitable or philanthropy works here in Detroit, or the creation of a Restaurant dish, or religious offering. 

Are the subjects always the same for the Wild Women of Detroit tours? 

No, the tour is 3 1/2 hours and often based on guest questions or interest. We lean one way or another when speaking. As the guide, I come prepared to talk about 25 women and time allows me maybe 12 so although the tour has a specific route and we know where will be stopping for our refreshments, a wonderful bar called Abicks, which has been run by the women of the Abick’s family since 1907. I might switch it up to talk specifically about someone based on the questions we get for gas. As an example, I had a lot of teachers on the bus last night, so I was able to focus heavily on one of my very favorite to traders Dr. Fannie Richards, who was the first African American Michigan woman to earn a Ph.D. 

Of course, but it always seems to change with my mood. I love Dr. Richards and take a lot of inspiration from her commitment to her students and to the causes of fairness and racial equality. I’m always in love with Nancy Brown, who wrote an advice column in the Detroit News, her goal was to show young women in the Heights. They could achieve by highlighting women who would become experts in their fields, masters of their trade, or sensational in their talent. Nancy Brown believed in brightening the lights of other women around her and never being the reason for them to dim. I also think about Esther a lot. Ester Gordy was tough. She was quick-witted and often defuse situation before they became a problem. She believed everyone had talent, and it had to be nurtured and both literally and physically fed. She allowed Berry, Gordy, her younger brother to flourish by managing the nuts and bolts of Tamala records later Motown so that he could focus on the creative. Her stewardship of the finances, organization of the talent, and business abilities allowed Motown to be as successful as it was. 

I was always a fan of both history and English, but my favorite school class always was art. By high school, I was personally firmly a history buff/art student. 

 Yes, I like places with history. I was very lucky to always be raised in homes that had history. Every holiday of my life was celebrated at the house my great-grandparents built in the Warrendale neighborhood of Detroit. As kids, we loved Greenfield Village. I remember our parents taking us to the old Fisher mansion and Gaukler Point I remember my grandparents pointing out places like the Detroit yacht club with awe in their voices. For our offices for the building of Detroit History Tours and the Detroit history club, we had to have a place that mattered. Historically, a new built property simply wouldn’t fit our souls. 

What was the name of the former funeral home? 

Our current building was formally the Buhay funeral chapel. We are located directly across the street from immaculate, conception, Byzantine Ukrainian church in 1947 the church supported Mr. Stephen Buhai in completing his education post World War II medic as a funeral, Director, and embalmer, eventually providing him with the land to build the funeral home. They even gave him a few of the leftover supplies from building the church, which is why the two buildings look so similar today. 

I’d love to be able to call myself a wild woman of Detroit. I hope to one day earn the title. 

I think you’ve got to be a little bit of a wild woman to be an entrepreneur; gods know anything else would be easier! I hope over a long life my actions and abilities leave me remembered fondly in the city of Detroit, but I’ll leave that to the next generation of historians and tour guides to decide what to call me. I just hope to God, they’re celebrating me and I’m not a cautionary tale. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Detroit History Tours and The Detroit History Club. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
This is a little bit of a hard question because how the pandemic has affected us, in 2019, we had our best year ever with 601 tours/ 23 events seeing just over 48,000 people. However, the pandemic changed everything in 2020. We had nine tours and 2 events before everything shut down in March. For the remainder of 2020, we were largely online, only conducting 26 online events and producing 256 free educational history bedtime stories. In 2021 we were able to host 37 tours, 48 online events, and produce another 110 free educational videos. in 2022 we’ve been able to re-open to in-person public events, and we are on track to close out the year with 470 tours and nine events in 2022 will you will see our 300,000th guest at the company. We are hopeful that 2023 will be a year filled with health and prosperity and we will finally see our pre-pandemic numbers again 

Our founding here 2014, we had 68 tours. 

There are 22 members of staff, 12 of which conduct tours as lead guides; the rest are office staff (god bless them) and second guides which are sort of like, shepherds; they go on tours and help keep everyone together, assist with food and drink, and are available to answer questions and help out. 

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I suppose I am happy, sure. It’s an honor to share the history of the city of Detroit with locals and visitors alike. But, as in all things, Happiness is what you make of it. I believe firmly that doing a job well is a form of worship/meditation/zen and that happiness can be found in any career where a worker is treated with dignity and supported to do their best possible work. I try to make sure this is that type of environment for my staff whose happiness I consider important to our mission. A happy Detroiter is going to show that happiness on tour, and it becomes contagious to our guests. 

Pricing:

• 12 to 135 dollars for tours at Detroit History Tours detroithistorytours.com
• 5-200 dollars for events at The Detroit History Club Detroithistoryclub.com
• $20 – Smartphone app tours available in the app store for Android or iPhone under “Detroit History Tours” are gps navigated and fully audio-visual.

Contact Info:

• Website: detroithistorytours.com detroithistoryclub.com
• Instagram: @detroithistorytours
• Facebook: @Detroithistorytoursandthedetroithistoryclub
• Youtube: Detroit History Tours
• Yelp: Detroit History Tours

Image Credits
Kevin Walsh
Detroit History Tours