County note shelf
Oakland County Porch Notes
Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Oakland County. This shelf has 8 practical notes and 69 local stories.
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- History and culture Cranbrook: a newspaperman's farm that became an art school A Bloomfield Hills farm bought in 1904 by Detroit News publisher George Booth grew into Cranbrook — a school, art academy, and science museum, all designed by Eliel Saarinen.
- History and culture The parks built on top of a freeway in Oak Park When I-696 was cut through Oak Park, the state capped it with three wide landscaped bridges so the Orthodox Jewish community split by the trench could still walk to synagogue on the Sabbath.
- History and culture A cheese magnate's mansion, and the Michigan governor who grew up there The Governor Warner Mansion in downtown Farmington was the boyhood home of Fred Warner — orphan, cheese tycoon, three-term Michigan governor — and is now the city's history museum.
- Home and property A whole town planned by one woman in the 1920s Lathrup Village grew out of 1,000 acres that Louise Lathrup Kelley bought in 1923 and laid out as her own planned community — masonry houses, attached garages, and a shuttle to the shops.
- Outdoors A working farm and a raptor house inside the suburbs of Troy The Lloyd A. Stage Nature Center keeps 100 acres of meadow, marsh, and forest — plus a barn of non-releasable hawks and owls — wild in the middle of one of metro Detroit's busiest suburbs.
- History and culture America's Polish seminary, on a Michigan military academy's old campus A campus founded in 1885 in Detroit to train Polish-American priests moved in 1909 into the buildings of a bankrupt military academy on Orchard Lake and grew into the Orchard Lake Schools.
- Outdoors Apple Island: the uninhabited island that named Orchard Lake A 35-acre island in the middle of Orchard Lake gave the lake its name; the Ottawa called it 'the place of the apples,' and today it's a school-owned nature sanctuary.
- History and culture Battle Alley: the Holly street that earned its name in fistfights A short brick street in downtown Holly was nicknamed Battle Alley after years of saloon brawls — and the 1891 hotel on its corner survived a temperance crusader's ax.
- History and culture Berkley took its name from a one-room school and a farmer's road Berkley is named for a schoolhouse and a road that ran through Elmer Cromie's farm; back when it was chosen, two tracks down Woodward carried a train and an interurban streetcar.
- History and culture Clarkston: half a square mile around a mill pond The City of the Village of Clarkston is one of Michigan's smallest cities by area — half a square mile of historic streets wrapped around a Clinton River mill pond, ringed by Independence Township.
- History and culture Clawson is probably just 'Lawson' spelled wrong The city of Clawson likely owes its name to a clerical slip — a settler named Lawson, an extra letter, and a post office that opened in 1880 under the misspelled version that stuck.
- Outdoors Dinosaur Hill: a leftover pile of basement dirt that became a Rochester nature preserve A 16-acre nature preserve tucked into a Rochester subdivision got its name from kids who thought a mound of excavated basement dirt looked like a sleeping dinosaur.
- Outdoors Haven Hill: the woodland retreat Edsel Ford built to escape the family business Edsel Ford spent the 1920s buying hilltops in Highland Township for a private retreat; today his Haven Hill estate is a state recreation area and a National Natural Landmark.
- History and culture How a blue-collar Ferndale became metro Detroit's gayborhood Affirmations anchors West Nine Mile Road in Ferndale, where a longtime LGBTQ community helped pass a 2006 rights ordinance and elect Craig Covey mayor in 2007.
- History and culture Keego Harbor is named after a fish — by way of a poem Keego Harbor borrowed its name from 'keego,' an Ojibwe word for fish that a Pontiac real-estate man lifted out of Longfellow's 'Song of Hiawatha' for the lakeside town he was platting.
- Outdoors Kensington Metropark: a swampy fishing hole turned into a 1,200-acre lake Kensington Metropark near Milford wraps 4,500 acres around Kent Lake — a wide lake made by damming the Huron over an old swimming hole — and is famous for chickadees that land on your hand.
- History and culture Milford lit its streets in 1892, with a dynamo in an old gristmill Milford grew up around mills on the Huron River, and in 1892 it became one of Michigan's first towns with electric lights — powered by a dynamo bolted into a gristmill.
- Outdoors Mt. Holly: where metro Detroit learns to ski A township ski hill off Dixie Highway near Holly, opened in the mid-1950s, installed southeastern Michigan's first chairlift and still teaches generations of beginners on its 350-foot drop.
- History and culture Northville Downs: 80 years of harness racing under the lights Northville Downs opened in 1944 as Michigan's first track to race harness horses at night, ran for 80 years, and closed in 2024 as the state's last nighttime harness track.
- History and culture Oxford once called itself the Gravel Capital of the World A glacier left a thick vein of gravel under Oxford, and for decades the village mined and shipped it by the trainload — billing itself the Gravel Capital of the World.
- Money and taxes Pontiac is one of the few Oakland County cities with its own income tax Pontiac levies a city income tax — 1% on residents and 0.5% on nonresidents who work there — one of only about two dozen Michigan cities that tax income at all.
- Outdoors Pontiac Lake's mountain-bike trail is rated among the country's best Pontiac Lake State Recreation Area in White Lake Township packs 3,700 acres, the longest beach in southeast Michigan, and an 11-mile mountain-bike loop rated a Top 100 U.S. trail.
- History and culture Pontiac's car museum, in the city that gave GM its wide-track swagger A museum that opened in 2024 inside a former Pontiac school gathers the cars, carriages, and GMC trucks of a city that built vehicles for over a century — and named a street Wide Track.
- Outdoors Proud Lake: 3,000 acres of state land where the Huron River slows down Proud Lake State Recreation Area spreads over 3,000 acres of Commerce Township, where the young Huron River widens into a chain of lakes laced with hiking trails and canoe water.
- History and culture Sylvan Lake: the little city named for a 'wooded shady lake' Sylvan Lake, one of Michigan's smallest cities by land area, takes its name from a lake an 1818 expedition first called Timber Lake for its fringe of tamaracks.
- History and culture The Auburn Hills tower with a window shaped like a car logo Chrysler's Auburn Hills headquarters is one of the biggest office buildings in the country, crowned by a 249-foot tower with a giant window in the shape of the Pentastar logo.
- History and culture The car named Oakland — for the county it was built in Before Pontiac, there was Oakland: a car company started in a Pontiac buggy factory in 1907 and named for Oakland County itself — until General Motors quietly erased the brand around 1931.
- History and culture The day green ooze leaked onto I-696 in Madison Heights In December 2019 a bright yellow-green sludge of hexavalent chromium seeped onto eastbound I-696 in Madison Heights from a shut-down plating shop, kicking off a years-long state and federal cleanup.
- History and culture The farm widow who gave Southfield its downtown Before the glass towers, Southfield's center was a 19th-century crossroads called the Burgh — and the city's civic center exists because farmer Mary Thompson sold her land below market and willed away her farmhouse.
- Outdoors The golf course that paid for the zoo next door Rackham Golf Course in Huntington Woods was a 1924 gift from Horace and Mary Rackham, designed by Donald Ross — the same couple whose money helped build the Detroit Zoo across the road.
- History and culture The oldest house in Oakland County still stands in downtown Birmingham John W. Hunter built a frame house in Birmingham in 1822 — the oldest house in Oakland County, saved from demolition, moved, and now the centerpiece of the Birmingham Museum.
- History and culture The Palace of Auburn Hills: three banners, then a vacant field The Palace of Auburn Hills opened in 1988, gave the Detroit Pistons three NBA titles, was imploded in 2020 — and General Motors now plans an electric-vehicle parts plant on the bare ground.
- History and culture The Royal Oak studio where the Spirit of Detroit was born Sculptor Marshall Fredericks worked from a studio at Woodward and Normandy in Royal Oak from 1945 to 1998, modeling the Spirit of Detroit and dozens of other public works there.
- Outdoors The West Bloomfield Trail: a railroad turned quiet woods The 6.8-mile West Bloomfield Trail follows an 1884 rail line — later an electric interurban — that once hauled freight and passengers from Pontiac toward Detroit before the rails were torn up.
- History and culture The Witch's Hat: South Lyon's train depot got its name from its roof A 1909 Grand Trunk depot in South Lyon, named for its pointed conical roof, was saved in 1976, rolled to a park, and now anchors a small historic village.
- Outdoors Three rivers are born in Springfield Township The Huron, Clinton, and Shiawassee rivers all rise within Springfield Township, whose swampy headwaters feed Indian Springs Metropark and drain to three different Great Lakes.
- History and culture Walled Lake danced to the big bands, then burned on Christmas From 1919 into the 1960s, the Casino dance pavilion on Walled Lake drew big-band crowds and an amusement park to its shore — until a Christmas Day fire ended the music.
- Outdoors Waterford's nature center used to raise fish by the millions For nearly 60 years the state raised bass and trout at the Drayton Plains fish hatchery on the Clinton River; today the same land is a 138-acre Waterford nature preserve.
- History and culture When Kmart ran a retail empire from Big Beaver Road in Troy The dime-store company S. S. Kresge founded grew into Kmart and ran its headquarters from a complex on Big Beaver Road in Troy from 1972 until 2005, before the building was finally torn down.
- History and culture Wixom used to be called Sibley's Corners Wixom started as a farm crossroads called Sibley's Corners; it took its current name from Willard Wixom, who gave land for the railroad that turned the corners into a town.
- Outdoors Edsel Ford's country retreat is now a state park: Haven Hill The Highland Recreation Area in northwest Oakland County wraps around Haven Hill — Edsel Ford's former estate and a National Natural Landmark of rare Michigan forest.
- History and culture For 50 years, Wixom built Lincolns — then the line went quiet Ford's Wixom Assembly Plant turned out Lincolns and Thunderbirds from 1957 to 2007; the last Lincoln Town Car rolled off the line on May 31, 2007.
- History and culture Hazel Park Raceway: 69 years of horse racing, then an Amazon warehouse Hazel Park Raceway ran horse races from 1949 until it closed in 2018, ending live racing in Oakland County; an Amazon center now stands on the site.
- History and culture Holly's Battle Alley earned its rowdy name the hard way Battle Alley in downtown Holly got its name from an 1880 brawl, and in 1908 the temperance crusader Carry Nation famously stormed its saloon.
- Outdoors How a railroad's initials became the Polly Ann Trail The Polly Ann Trail runs about 17 miles up northeast Oakland County on a former railroad bed, from Orion Township through Oxford and Leonard toward the county line.
- History and culture Oakland University began with a 1,400-acre gift and a barn full of classrooms Oakland University grew from a 1,400-acre estate the Wilson family gave away in 1957; its first classes met in converted farm buildings before the campus took shape.
- Outdoors Paint Creek Trail: Michigan's first rail-trail The Paint Creek Trail runs about 8.9 miles from Rochester to Lake Orion on an old rail line — the state's first non-motorized rail-to-trail, open since 1983.
- History and culture The Auburn Hills mall built as one long loop you can't get lost in Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills, open since 1998, is Michigan's largest indoor outlet center — built in a long loop with shops, restaurants, and attractions.
- History and culture The Frank Lloyd Wright house that floats over a Bloomfield Hills ravine The Affleck House in Bloomfield Hills is a 1941 Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian home, now owned by Lawrence Technological University and open for seasonal tours.
- History and culture The Royal Oak tower built so a cross couldn't be burned The Charity Crucifixion Tower at the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak was raised in 1931 in answer to a Klan cross burned at the parish.
- Cars and driving Where GM has tested its cars since 1924: the Milford Proving Ground General Motors opened the Milford Proving Ground in 1924 as the auto industry's first dedicated test track — and it still runs today behind miles of fence in Milford.
- History and culture Lake Angelus: a whole city wrapped around one private lake Lake Angelus is one of Michigan's smallest cities, built around roughly 429 acres of water with resident-controlled access and unusually detailed boating rules.
- History and culture A 16th-Century English Village Outside Holly Each fall, the Michigan Renaissance Festival turns a wooded site near Holly into Hollygrove, a make-believe Elizabethan village.
- History and culture Pine Knob: the Clarkston amphitheater that lost its name for 20 years When this open-air theater opened in Clarkston in 1972, the venue says it was the biggest amphitheater in the country — and it has since topped Pollstar's amphitheater chart more than once.
- History and culture Pontiac: a chief's name, a car's name, a comeback's name Pontiac is named for the great Odawa chief, lent its name to millions of GM cars, hosted WrestleMania III's record crowd — and is rebuilding its downtown swagger.
- History and culture Troy: Oakland County's biggest city keeps a village in its pocket Troy pairs the Somerset Collection and a skyline of corporate headquarters with the Troy Historic Village — and a regular spot on national safest-city lists.
- History and culture A Newspaper Family Turned Their Estate Into One of the World's Great Design Schools The Booth newspaper family turned their Bloomfield Hills estate into Cranbrook — a 300-acre campus designed by Eliel Saarinen and one of the most influential places in American design.
- History and culture The Most Famous Disappearance in Michigan History Jimmy Hoffa walked out of a Bloomfield Township restaurant parking lot on July 30, 1975, and was never seen again — Michigan's most famous unsolved disappearance.
- Outdoors Farmington Hills' green heart (and the festival next door) Heritage Park gives Farmington Hills 200 wooded acres with a nature center and sledding hills, and the neighboring Farmington Founders Festival has run for generations.
- History and culture Novi: the town probably named by a Roman numeral Novi's name likely comes from 'No. VI' — toll gate, stagecoach stop, or township number six, depending who you ask — and today it's Michigan's 'Little Tokyo.'