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Oakland County Porch Notes
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- History and culture A 110-Room Tudor Castle Built by One of the Richest Women in the World A 110-room Tudor castle near Detroit, built in the 1920s by Matilda Dodge Wilson — once among the world's richest women — who later founded Oakland University.
- History and culture The Bad Boys Pistons Detroit 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 culture There's a Building in Michigan Whose Whole Job Is to Be Wonderfully Weird Marvin'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 culture Southfield: where the shopping mall was invented (and a skyline grew) Northland Center opened in Southfield in 1954 as the world's largest shopping center — the prototype American mall — and the city went on to build a golden skyline of its own.
- History and culture Yates Cider Mill: pressing apples on the Clinton River since the 1800s Yates 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.
- Outdoors Stony Creek: 4,400 acres of up-north, twenty minutes from home Stony Creek Metropark gives northern Macomb County 4,400 acres of lake, beaches, and trails — the suburbs' own piece of up north.
- History and culture The Detroit Zoo isn't in Detroit — it's Royal Oak's backyard The Detroit Zoo, opened in 1928 as America's first bar-less zoo, sits in Royal Oak and Huntington Woods — penguins, polar bears, and all.
- Outdoors Michigan'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.
- History and culture One Saturday a year, Woodward becomes the world's biggest car show The Woodward Dream Cruise — born in 1995 — is the world's largest one-day automotive event, rolling a million-plus spectators and tens of thousands of classics through Oakland County.
- Outdoors The Huron: a National Water Trail runs through it The Huron River is a designated National Water Trail, with more than a hundred paddleable miles and liveries, launches, and river towns strung along it.
- Outdoors Thirty-four lakes in one township: Oakland's lake country Waterford 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 licenses Can you park on the street overnight? Often not Many metro Detroit suburbs restrict overnight street parking, and snow emergencies can bring stricter temporary bans.
- Cars and driving Why 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 culture Why Oakland? Oak openings, 1,400 lakes, and Michigan's prosperity engine Oakland 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 licenses Can you run an Airbnb here? Your city or township decides Michigan 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 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.