County note shelf

Wayne County Porch Notes

Stories, practical details, outdoor places, tax quirks, and local history connected to Wayne County. This shelf has 13 practical notes and 95 local stories.

108 notes

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Money and taxes Detroit's Income Tax: The Only One Michigan Collects for You Detroit's is the state's steepest city income tax and the sole one the Michigan Treasury administers, so you file the Detroit return with Lansing.
Money and taxes Hamtramck Taxes Its Own Income, Wrapped Inside Detroit Hamtramck is an enclave surrounded by Detroit, yet it runs its own 1% income tax; a state credit keeps residents who work in Detroit from paying twice.
History and culture Fair Lane: the Dearborn estate Henry Ford lit with his own river Henry and Clara Ford's Fair Lane estate ran on its own hydroelectric powerhouse — its cornerstone laid by Thomas Edison — and powered part of Dearborn besides.
Money and taxes Highland Park's 2% city income tax — and why it's only a handful of Michigan cities Highland Park levies its own city income tax on top of state and federal: 2% on residents and 1% on nonresidents who work there — one of about two dozen Michigan cities that do.
History and culture Council Point: the Lincoln Park riverbank where Pontiac planned a war At Council Point Park on the Ecorse River, Ottawa war leader Pontiac gathered tribes in April 1763 to plan the attack that became a six-month siege of British Fort Detroit.
History and culture The Heidelberg Project: a Detroit street turned into a polka-dotted artwork Since 1986, artist Tyree Guyton has turned vacant houses and lots on Detroit's Heidelberg Street into a sprawling outdoor artwork of polka dots, salvaged objects, and painted numbers.
History and culture Allen Park: where the Detroit Lions actually work The Detroit Lions' practice fields and headquarters have sat in Allen Park since 2002 — a city named for lumberman Lewis Allen, not the team that now calls it home.
Outdoors Dearborn Heights has a 1920s Donald Ross golf course it bought to save Warren Valley in Dearborn Heights is a Donald Ross-designed golf course from the 1920s along the Middle Rouge that the city bought from Wayne County in 2018 to keep it from becoming subdivisions.
Home and property Garden City: a suburb laid out so every family could grow its own food Garden City was platted in the 1920s on the English garden-city idea — home lots sized near an acre so each household could raise fruit and vegetables to feed itself.
Cars and driving Grosse Ile's two bridges: pay on the north end, free on the south The island of Grosse Ile reaches the mainland by two very different spans — a private toll swing bridge from 1913 and a free former railroad bridge the county opened in 1931.
History and culture Hamtramck Disneyland: one retired autoworker's two garages of joy In a Hamtramck alley, retired GM worker Dmytro Szylak spent years turning two garages into a towering folk-art carnival of pinwheels, flags, Elvis, and toy soldiers.
History and culture Inkster's name came off a red sawmill — and its post office was once 'Moulin Rouge' The city of Inkster takes its name from Robert Inkster, a Shetland-born millman whose steam-powered red sawmill ran the settlement in the 1860s — once postmarked Moulin Rouge.
Outdoors Maybury State Park: the woods that were once a city for the sick Maybury State Park near Northville was built on the grounds of Detroit's old tuberculosis sanatorium — a self-sufficient hospital town of some 40 buildings that ran from 1921 until 1969.
History and culture McLouth Steel: the Trenton mill that cast steel the new way McLouth Steel's Trenton plant was the first in North America to cast all its steel by the continuous-casting method, ran from 1948 until 1995, and once supplied 40 percent of the city's tax base.
History and culture Melvindale: a town built so Ford's Rouge workers could walk home Melvindale began in the 1920s as Oakwood Heights, a subdivision laid out to house workers at Ford's giant Rouge plant, and it took its name from one of its developers, Melvin Wilkinson.
Outdoors Mount Trashmore: the Riverview hill where people skied on the dump Riverview built a public ski hill on top of its own municipal landfill — locals called it Mount Trashmore — and the buried garbage now feeds a renewable-gas plant.
History and culture Northville: the 'north village' that finally broke away from Plymouth Northville got its plain name from being the north end of Plymouth Township, and after decades of sharing a government it voted to split off and form its own township in 1898.
History and culture Plymouth's single-screen movie house opened three days before Pearl Harbor The Penn Theatre in downtown Plymouth opened in December 1941, still runs as a 402-seat single-screen cinema, and is owned and operated today by a community nonprofit.
History and culture Rosedale Gardens: the 1920s neighborhood that came before Livonia was a city Rosedale Gardens, platted in the 1920s with deed restrictions and a village feel, was the first real suburb of farm-country Livonia Township and is now a National Register historic district.
History and culture Southgate: the city that took three tries to be born Southgate broke off from the old Township of Ecorse and incorporated as a city in 1958, after a years-long fight of petitions, a referendum, and a failed first charter.
History and culture Taylor was named for a war hero who'd never set foot in it Taylor Township was organized in 1847 and named for Zachary Taylor, then a celebrated Mexican-American War general and soon the 12th U.S. president — not for any local family.
History and culture The little Grosse Ile lighthouse the island bought to save The wooden lighthouse on Grosse Ile dates to an 1894 channel-marking range, was decommissioned in 1963, and survives because the township and its historical society bought it from the federal government in 1965.
History and culture The Old Redford movie palace built to look like a Japanese garden Detroit's 1928 Redford Theatre was decorated as a Japanese garden, still plays its original Barton pipe organ, and has been run since 1977 by an all-volunteer organ society.
History and culture The Wilson Barn: Livonia's last reminder it was once dairy country The Wilson Barn in Livonia is a rebuilt 1919 bank barn from the Ira Wilson dairy farm, run on land the family had owned since 1847 and grown into a leading creamery.
History and culture Trenton: named for the rock that became Arm & Hammer baking soda Trenton took its name from Trenton limestone quarried along the Detroit River, and one local quarry's stone was cooked into baking soda sold under a name still in every kitchen — Arm & Hammer.
Money and taxes Wyandotte makes its own electricity — and has since the 1890s Wyandotte runs its own electric, water, and cable utilities, a setup that goes back to an 1892 vote and makes the power bill a city department instead of DTE.
History and culture Wyandotte: the salt under the city that built a chemical giant A glass tycoon found a deep bed of pure salt under Wyandotte in 1890 and built the Michigan Alkali Company on it — the chemical works that grew into the city's BASF plant a century later.
Outdoors Belleville Lake: the reservoir that drowned a village in 1925 Belleville Lake in Van Buren Township is not natural — it formed in 1925 when a dam on the Huron River backed up the water, flooding the old village of Rawsonville.
History and culture Detroit's Historic Fort Wayne: a star fort that never fired in battle Historic Fort Wayne, a five-pointed star fort on the Detroit River, was built in the 1840s to guard against a British attack that never came, and still stands today.
History and culture Flat Rock: where Henry Ford dammed the Huron to light Model T headlamps Henry Ford built a dam on the Huron River at Flat Rock in the 1920s to power a lamp factory that made headlights for his cars. The dam still stands, now with a fish ladder.
History and culture Grosse Ile: the island that trained Navy pilots — including a future president Grosse Ile, the largest island in the Detroit River, hosted a U.S. Naval Air Station from 1927 to 1969 that trained thousands of pilots, among them future president George H.W. Bush.
History and culture Hamtramck: a city inside Detroit that keeps reinventing itself Hamtramck is a two-square-mile city surrounded by Detroit on nearly every side. Once a center of Polish-American life, in 2015 it elected the first Muslim-majority city council in the United States.
History and culture Northville's Mill Race Village: a 19th-century town gathered onto one green Mill Race Historical Village in Northville gathers 19th-century Michigan buildings — a church, a one-room school, a general store — on land once home to a grist mill.
History and culture Plymouth: the windmill town that became the home of the Daisy BB gun The Daisy BB gun started in Plymouth, Michigan, where a struggling windmill company began giving away air rifles in 1888 — and soon dropped windmills to make guns.
History and culture River Rouge's Zug Island and the mystery hum that crossed the border Zug Island, a steelmaking site in River Rouge, was traced as the likely source of the 'Windsor Hum' — a low rumble that rattled windows across the river in Canada for years.
History and culture Romulus: the township that grew Michigan's busiest airport Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport sits in Romulus. It began as a one-square-mile county field dedicated in 1930 and is now by far Michigan's busiest airport.
Outdoors Trenton's Elizabeth Park: the oldest park in the Wayne County system Elizabeth Park in Trenton, a 162-acre island park donated to Wayne County in 1919, is the oldest unit of the Wayne County park system.
History and culture Wyandotte: where America first made steel by the Bessemer method The Eureka Iron Works in Wyandotte poured the first commercial Bessemer steel in the United States in 1864, and rolled the country's first Bessemer steel rails in 1865.
History and culture Ecorse: a Downriver town named for birch bark Ecorse — one of Wayne County's oldest communities — takes its name from the French 'Rivière aux Écorces,' the river of bark, for the birches that once lined its stream.
History and culture Plymouth's Big Winter Thaw That Never Melts the Crowds Each winter, downtown Plymouth turns into an open-air gallery of glittering ice carvings, and big crowds bundle up to see them.
History and culture Canton's two speeds: boomtown subdivisions and a village from 1825 Canton Township grew into one of Michigan's largest communities, but its Cherry Hill corner preserves a National Register village from the 1820s.
History and culture Greenmead: the 1820s farm Livonia kept Livonia preserved its pioneer roots at Greenmead — a 95-acre 1820s homestead and historical village hosting markets, festivals, and Michigan's oldest barns.
History and culture Taylor: home of the 2021 Little League World Series champions Taylor North won the 2021 Little League World Series — Michigan's first title since 1959 — and the city's 200-acre Heritage Park is where that baseball culture lives.
History and culture The city that named itself after its mall In 1966, Nankin Township incorporated as 'Westland' — taking the name of its brand-new shopping center to stop Livonia from annexing it.
Rules and licenses Own a home in a Detroit historic district? Exterior changes need approval Detroit local historic districts require Historic District Commission approval for many exterior changes before permits.
History and culture 'Midnight' — Detroit's Secret Code Name on the Road to Freedom On the Underground Railroad, Detroit was code-named 'Midnight' — the last dark stop before the 'Dawn' of freedom across the river in Canada.
History and culture A Communist Painted America's Greatest Mural Cycle — and an Auto Baron Paid for It Diego Rivera, a committed communist, painted the Detroit Industry murals — what many call the finest mural in America — for Edsel Ford at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1932-33.
History and culture A Factory Worker Turned Detroit's Hastings Street Into a #1 Record Bluesman John Lee Hooker came to Detroit for factory work, played the Hastings Street clubs at night, and turned his sound into the 1949 #1 hit 'Boogie Chillen'.
History and culture A Whole Block of Detroit Is a Polka-Dotted Outdoor Art Museum Detroit's Heidelberg Project turned a blighted east-side street into a world-famous outdoor art environment of polka dots and salvaged objects.
History and culture Barry Sanders: The Most Exciting Lion of All For ten seasons the most electrifying runner in football played in Detroit — then walked away, near his peak, just shy of the all-time record.
History and culture Better Made: Detroit's Last Chip Standing The last of Detroit's twenty-plus hometown chip makers, still frying on Gratiot Avenue since 1930.
History and culture Bob Seger Was Michigan's Biggest Rock Star Before the Rest of the Country Noticed Bob Seger packed Detroit arenas for years as a hometown hero before his 1976 live album, recorded at Cobo Hall, finally broke him nationwide.
History and culture Detroit Has a Skyscraper Locals Call "the Largest Art Object" in the City The Fisher Building, Detroit's golden-topped 1928 Art Deco landmark by Albert Kahn, is known as the city's 'largest art object.'
History and culture Detroit Has an Island Park Bigger Than Central Park (Designed by the Same Guy) Belle Isle, Detroit's 982-acre island park, is bigger than Central Park and designed by the same architect — with the country's oldest aquarium and conservatory.
History and culture Detroit's 'Red Dwarf' — the Goblin Blamed for 300 Years of Bad Luck Detroit's Nain Rouge — a 'red dwarf' said to appear before disaster since Cadillac's day — is folklore, and now has its own springtime parade.
History and culture Detroit's Grand Train Station Came Back From the Dead Detroit's grand 1913 train station sat abandoned for 30 years as a symbol of the city's decline — until Ford spent roughly $950 million restoring it, reopening in June 2024.
History and culture Eddie Tolan: Detroit's Midnight Express Detroit's bespectacled Midnight Express won double sprint gold at the 1932 Olympics and became the first African American called the world's fastest human.
History and culture Eloise: The Asylum That Was Once Its Own City Eloise began as the 1839 Wayne County Poorhouse and grew into a self-contained city of 75 buildings and 10,000 patients — now a famous haunted attraction.
History and culture Faygo Started as Cake Frosting — Really Faygo's flavors started life as cake frosting — reworked into pop by two immigrant bakers in 1907 Detroit.
History and culture For a Few Electric Years, a Detroit Dance Hall Was Rock's Wildest Room For a few electric years in the late 1960s, Detroit's Grande Ballroom — home of the MC5 — was one of the wildest, most important rooms in rock.