County note shelf
Lenawee County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Lenawee County. This shelf has 5 practical notes and 27 local stories.
32 notes
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- History and culture The Lenawee County Fair has run since 1839 Adrian's fair, first held in 1839, is Michigan's longest-running county fair, and its grounds carry the memory of the state's deadliest grandstand collapse.
- History and culture Siena Heights, the university the Adrian Dominican Sisters built The Adrian Dominican Sisters founded Siena Heights as a women's college in 1919; after more than a century the university announced it would close in 2026.
- History and culture The Irish Hills Towers were built out of spite Two wooden observation towers stand a few feet apart on US-12 in Cambridge Township because two 1920s neighbors kept building higher to outdo each other.
- History and culture Hudson's library started with a letter to Andrew Carnegie In 1903 a Hudson man wrote to steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who sent $10,000 to build the town's library, dedicated in 1905 with the U-M president speaking.
- History and culture The little stone shrine the Irish Hills built by hand St. Joseph Shrine on US-12 grew from a fieldstone church Irish settlers raised in the 1850s into a summer pilgrimage spot with an outdoor Stations of the Cross.
- Outdoors The River Raisin starts in a Lenawee County field The River Raisin rises high in the Irish Hills of Woodstock Township and runs about 150 miles to Lake Erie, dropping roughly 480 feet along the way.
- History and culture Hudson, where a high school won 72 games in a row From 1968 to 1975 the Hudson Tigers won 72 straight football games — a national high school record that stood for 22 years and is still the Michigan mark.
- History and culture Blissfield's Hathaway House, the white mansion on US-223 The Hathaway House in Blissfield is an 1850s Greek Revival mansion, also called the David Carpenter House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- History and culture How a sealed pump the size of a melon built Tecumseh Tecumseh Products, which moved to town in 1934, made the sealed compressors inside countless refrigerators and air conditioners, and reshaped its hometown.
- History and culture Tecumseh's Hayden Mill, where Henry Ford turned soybeans into car parts An old mill on the River Raisin in Tecumseh became one of Henry Ford's 'village industries,' processing soybeans for paint and plastic starting in 1935.
- History and culture The Croswell Opera House: Adrian's stage since the Civil War The Croswell in downtown Adrian opened in 1866 and is widely called the oldest theater still operating in Michigan.
- History and culture A Michigan governor's house still stands on a quiet Adrian street The 1840s Greek Revival home of Charles Croswell, Michigan's governor from 1877 to 1881, survives in Adrian and is kept as a museum by a local DAR chapter.
- History and culture Cement City was named before the cement plant even opened The crossroads now called Cement City renamed itself in 1901 for a Portland cement plant that mined the marl out of nearby Goose Lake to make its product.
- Outdoors The creek at Morenci has two names and crosses a state line The stream Michigan calls Bean Creek flows past Morenci and becomes Ohio's Tiffin River, named for Edward Tiffin, the first governor of Ohio.
- History and culture Adrian College and its abolitionist beginnings Adrian College, chartered in 1859, grew out of an antislavery Methodist school and was led from the start by famed abolitionist Asa Mahan.
- History and culture Clinton's woolen mill ran for 90 years on the old Chicago Road The Clinton Woolen Mills, organized by 100 local stockholders in 1866, turned area wool into cloth until 1957, on a town that grew up on the Detroit-to-Chicago military road.
- History and culture Morenci: the last city before you cross into Ohio Morenci, in the far corner of Lenawee County, is the southernmost city in Michigan, sitting right on the Ohio state line.
- History and culture The track through Blissfield is one of the oldest in America The short line running through Blissfield follows the route of the Erie and Kalamazoo, the first railroad to reach into Michigan Territory, laid in the 1830s.
- History and culture Onsted: the Irish Hills village a railroad put on the map Onsted, the gateway village to Lenawee County's Irish Hills, took shape when a railroad reached it in 1884 and was incorporated in 1907.
- Outdoors A place dark enough to see the Milky Way Lake Hudson Recreation Area became Michigan's first dark-sky preserve and remains a quiet southwest Lenawee outdoor spot.
- Outdoors A sprawling garden hidden in the Irish Hills Hidden Lake Gardens is Michigan State University's large botanical garden and arboretum in Franklin Township near Tipton.
- History and culture Adrian: where Michigan's first railroad ran Adrian's railroad origins go back to the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad, Michigan's first railroad.
- Outdoors Devils Lake: the Irish Hills' old summer resort Devils Lake and Manitou Beach carry Lenawee County's old Irish Hills summer-resort story.
- Money and taxes Hudson has a city income tax Hudson is one of Michigan's cities with a local income tax for residents and nonresidents who work inside the city.
- Outdoors One of NASCAR's fastest tracks is in the Irish Hills Michigan International Speedway brings one of NASCAR's fastest major tracks to Cambridge Township in the Irish Hills.
- History and culture Walker Tavern and the old road to Chicago Walker Tavern preserves the old Chicago Road stagecoach era and the later US-12 roadside-attraction story in Cambridge Township.
- Home and property Buying on (or near) a Lenawee County lake? Lakefront homes in Lenawee County's Irish Hills can come with legal lake levels, special assessments, and lake-specific boating rules.
- History and culture Why Does Michigan Have So Many Places Named After Foreign Places? Michigan's map is full of foreign and classical town names — Paris, Moscow, Athens, Rome — left over from an 1800s naming boom, and locals pronounce most of them their own way.
- Home and property Outside town, you're probably on a well and septic Many rural Lenawee County township homes use private wells and septic systems, so buyers should ask for inspections before closing.
- History and culture The Irish Hills: Lenawee's lake-dotted playground (with a superspeedway) Lenawee County's Irish Hills pack dozens of lakes, century-old roadside Americana, and Michigan International Speedway into its rolling northwest corner.
- Money and taxes Buying in a township? Watch for special assessments on top of your taxes Michigan township buyers should check for special assessments that can add separate road, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalk, or drain charges.
- Money and taxes In Michigan, you get two property-tax bills a year — not one Most Michigan property owners get separate summer and winter tax bills, with local rules deciding what lands on each bill.