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Oakland County Porch Notes
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- History and cultureTroy: Oakland County's biggest city keeps a village in its pocketTroy 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 cultureA Newspaper Family Turned Their Estate Into One of the World's Great Design SchoolsThe 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 cultureMeadow Brook Hall is a 110-room Tudor Revival landmarkMatilda and Alfred Wilson built the 110-room Meadow Brook Hall from 1926 to 1929, then included it in the gift that founded Oakland University.
- History and cultureThe Most Famous Disappearance in Michigan HistoryJimmy 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.
- OutdoorsFarmington 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 cultureNovi: the town probably named by a Roman numeralNovi'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.'
- History and cultureThe Bad Boys PistonsDetroit won with grit, not glamour — the bruising Bad Boys took back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990 as a true team.
- History and cultureThere's a Building in Michigan Whose Whole Job Is to Be Wonderfully WeirdMarvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is a free, wall-to-wall collection of working coin-op machines and antique automatons in the Detroit suburbs — currently mid-move, so check before you drive.
- History and cultureYates Cider Mill: pressing apples on the Clinton River since the 1800sYates Cider Mill in Rochester Hills has run since 1863 — cider since 1876, pressed with an 1894 water turbine — where the Clinton River Trail meets fall tradition.
- OutdoorsStony Creek: 4,400 acres of up-north, twenty minutes from homeStony Creek Metropark gives northern Macomb County 4,400 acres of lake, beaches, and trails — the suburbs' own piece of up north.
- History and cultureThe Detroit Zoo isn't in Detroit — it's Royal Oak's backyardThe Detroit Zoo, opened in 1928 as America's first bar-less zoo, sits in Royal Oak and Huntington Woods — penguins, polar bears, and all.
- History and cultureMadonna was born in Bay City before growing up near DetroitMadonna was born in Bay City, raised in Pontiac and Rochester Hills, and studied dance in Ann Arbor before leaving Michigan for New York.
- OutdoorsMichigan's six scramble areas (and the Silver Lake rulebook)The open-riding playgrounds of Michigan off-roading — Silver Lake's dunes, Holly Oaks, The Mounds, St. Helen, Bull Gap, and Black Lake — and the extra rules each one layers on.
- OutdoorsThe Huron: a National Water Trail runs through itThe Huron River is a designated National Water Trail, with more than a hundred paddleable miles and liveries, launches, and river towns strung along it.
- History and cultureWoodward's one-day celebration of Detroit car cultureA 1995 Ferndale soccer-field fundraiser grew into a 16-mile cruise whose organizer estimates nearly one million people and 40,000 classic cars each year.
- OutdoorsThirty-four lakes in one township: Oakland's lake countryWaterford alone holds 34 named lakes, and Cass Lake — southeast Michigan's largest — spreads between Waterford and West Bloomfield, with a state-park beach on its shore.
- Rules and licensesCan you park on the street overnight? Often notMany metro Detroit suburbs restrict overnight street parking, and snow emergencies can bring stricter temporary bans.
- Cars and drivingWhy is car insurance so expensive around here?Michigan auto insurance is still expensive, and metro Detroit addresses can move rates by hundreds of dollars a month.
- History and cultureWhy Oakland? Oak openings, 1,400 lakes, and Michigan's prosperity engineOakland County took its name from the park-like oak openings the first surveyors found — and its 1,400 lakes and glacial hills still set the landscape apart.
- Rules and licensesCan you run an Airbnb here? Your city or township decidesMichigan leaves short-term rental rules to each city or township, so Airbnb and Vrbo rules can change from one community to the next.
- Money and taxesBuying in a township? Watch for special assessments on top of your taxesMichigan township buyers should check for special assessments that can add separate road, sewer, water, lighting, sidewalk, or drain charges.
- Money and taxesIn Michigan, you get two property-tax bills a year — not oneMost Michigan property owners get separate summer and winter tax bills, with local rules deciding what lands on each bill.