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Wayne County Porch Notes
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- Cars and drivingDrive Under the Detroit River and Come Up in CanadaThe Detroit-Windsor Tunnel gives an ordinary downtown drive a strange middle: about a mile beneath the river, followed by a real international border.
- History and cultureEddie Tolan: Detroit's Midnight ExpressDetroit'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 cultureEloise: the poorhouse that grew into a medical cityEloise began as Wayne County's poorhouse in 1839 and grew into a 902-acre medical complex with 75 buildings, 10,000 patients, and 2,000 staff.
- History and cultureFaygo Started as Cake Frosting — ReallyFaygo's flavors started life as cake frosting — reworked into pop by two immigrant bakers in 1907 Detroit.
- History and cultureFor a Few Electric Years, a Detroit Dance Hall Was Rock's Wildest RoomFor 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.
- Cars and drivingFord's $5 Day Raised Pay, With Strings AttachedFord announced a $5, eight-hour day in 1914. It was a landmark pay increase, but the full amount included profit sharing tied to rules about workers' private lives.
- History and cultureGordie Howe and the Making of HockeytownMr. Hockey gave Detroit its claim to Hockeytown: 25 seasons, four Stanley Cups, and a career that somehow stretched to age 52.
- History and cultureHenry Ford Moved Thomas Edison's Actual Laboratory to Michigan — Brick by BrickHenry Ford moved Thomas Edison's actual Menlo Park laboratory to Michigan, brick by brick, and had a frail Edison relight his lamp there in 1929.
- History and cultureHoudini's Last Trick Was in Detroit — and It Killed HimHarry Houdini gave his final performance at Detroit's Garrick Theatre in 1926, then died on Halloween of a ruptured appendix at Grace Hospital.
- History and cultureHow "Live Bullet" carried Bob Seger beyond DetroitBob Seger built his reputation around Detroit before the Cobo Hall performances on 1976's "Live Bullet" brought him significant national attention.
- History and cultureHow Diego Rivera Put Detroit Industry on Four WallsDiego Rivera's 27-panel Detroit Industry fresco cycle surrounds Rivera Court at the DIA, pairing factory work with the promises and costs of modern industry.
- History and cultureInside Detroit's 5,000-seat Fox TheatreDetroit's Fox opened in 1928 as the city's largest movie palace. Its six-story lobby and roughly 5,000-seat auditorium still welcome shows, concerts, and guided tours.
- History and cultureJoe Louis: The Brown BomberBorn in Alabama but made in Detroit, the Brown Bomber held the heavyweight title nearly twelve years — the longest reign in history — and became a national hero.
- Cars and drivingMichigan Built the Car — but It Also Built the Road, the Rules, and the First FreewayMichigan didn't just build the car — it laid the first mile of concrete highway (Woodward, 1909), pioneered the painted center line, and built the first urban depressed freeway (Davison, 1942).
- History and cultureMichigan's First Governor Was 24 Years Old. They Called Him "The Boy Governor."Stevens T. Mason became Michigan's first state governor in 1835 at age 24 — the youngest in U.S. history, a record that still stands — after being named territorial secretary at just 19.
- History and cultureOne of America's First Radio Stations Went on the Air in DetroitDetroit's 8MK — later WWJ — went on the air in 1920 as the first newspaper-owned radio station, and is still broadcasting more than a century later.
- History and cultureSanders: The Hot Fudge That Built a Detroit EmpireThe German immigrant's candy counter that gave Detroit its hot fudge, bumpy cake, and a maybe-claim to inventing the ice cream soda.
- History and cultureTechno Was Invented by Three Teenagers in a Detroit SuburbTechno was born in the basements of three Belleville teenagers — Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson, the Belleville Three — before it conquered dance floors worldwide.
- History and cultureThe 1968 Tigers: A Championship a City NeededA year after Detroit's hardest summer, the 1968 Tigers and a Game 7 hero named Mickey Lolich gave a divided city something to share.
- History and cultureThe Detroit Factory Where the Model T Took ShapeFord's 1904 Piquette Avenue Plant is where the Model T was developed and first produced; today the landmark factory is open as a museum.
- Cars and drivingThe First Car Ever Driven in Detroit Wasn't Ford's — and Ford Watched on a BicycleThe first automobile driven on Detroit's streets wasn't Henry Ford's — it was Charles Brady King's, in 1896, with a young Ford following on a bicycle.
- History and cultureThe Grand Steamers to Boblo Island Carried a Civil-Rights Case to the Supreme CourtThe Boblo Island steamers carried Detroiters to an amusement park — and carried Sarah Elizabeth Ray's 1945 stand against segregation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- History and cultureThe Little House on West Grand Boulevard That Changed Music ForeverOne of the most important record labels in history started in a two-family Detroit house bought with an $800 family loan — and the hits poured out of its little Studio A.
- History and cultureThe Queen of Soul Learned to Sing in a Detroit ChurchAretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, was born in Memphis but raised in Detroit, where she learned to sing gospel in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church.
- History and cultureThe Rosa Parks bus, Lincoln chair, and Kennedy limousine are in DearbornThe Henry Ford pairs nationally significant artifacts with Greenfield Village, a landmark open-air museum of nearly 100 buildings, structures, and objects.
- History and cultureThe Square Pizza Born in Auto-Parts PansDetroit's square pizza got its crispy, cheesy edges from blue-steel pans first made to hold parts in the auto plants.
- History and cultureThe World's First "Stoplight" Was Born in Detroit — Invented by a Cop From the ThumbThe world's first tri-color, four-way traffic signal was built in 1920 by Detroit police officer William Potts, who was born in Bad Axe and never patented it.
- History and cultureThe World's First Airport Hotel Was Henry Ford's IdeaThe Dearborn Inn, conceived by Henry Ford and designed by Albert Kahn, opened in 1931 as the world's first airport hotel — and reopened, restored, in 2025.
- History and cultureWhat Is "Superman" Ice Cream, and What Flavor Is It Supposed to Be?Superman ice cream is a red-blue-yellow swirl of lemon, Red Pop, and the famously undefinable Blue Moon — invented, the story goes, by Detroit's Stroh's brewery during Prohibition.
- History and cultureWhy Detroit calls the Fisher Building its "largest art object"The phrase is a nickname, but the craftsmanship is measurable: a 1928 Albert Kahn landmark with more than 40 kinds of marble and a richly painted arcade.
- History and cultureWhy Detroit Hockey Fans Throw a Dead Octopus Onto the IceDetroit Red Wings fans throw octopuses onto the ice — a tradition born in 1952 when two fish-market brothers tossed one for the eight playoff wins it then took to win the Stanley Cup.
- History and cultureWhy Is Detroit Called the "Motor City" and "Motown"? (And What's a "Big Three"?)Detroit is the 'Motor City' for building America's cars — and 'Motown' is both that nickname (Motor Town) and the record label Berry Gordy named in its honor.
- History and cultureWhy Is Vernors Ginger Ale Such a Big Deal in Michigan?Vernors is an old Detroit soft-drink brand surrounded by family rituals, a Civil War origin legend, and the more complicated history of the Boston Cooler.
- History and cultureDearborn: a center of Arab American lifeDearborn is central to one of the country's largest Arab American communities and is home to the first and only U.S. museum devoted to recording the Arab American experience.
- History and cultureA $10,000 Bet on Pizza Built a Detroit EmpireMike and Marian Ilitch bet their $10,000 life savings on a Garden City pizza shop in 1959 — and Little Caesars money later bought the Red Wings and Tigers.
- History and cultureCarhartt Started in a Detroit Loft in 1889Carhartt, the rugged workwear brand, started in a small Detroit loft in 1889 and is still family-owned and based in metro Detroit today.
- History and culturePaczki Day: Hamtramck's Donut HolidayHow Polish immigrants made the Tuesday before Lent into Hamtramck's biggest donut day.
- History and culturePunk Rock Has Michigan Roots — Meet the MC5 and the StoogesBefore anyone called it punk, the MC5 of Detroit and the Stooges of Ann Arbor were already playing it — and the world's punk bands took it from there.
- 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.
- Cars and drivingThe Line Down the Middle of the Road Was a Michigan IdeaMichigan transportation officials credit Wayne County road commissioner Edward Hines with conceiving the highway centerline in 1911.
- History and cultureThe Motor City Also Kept Your Food Cold: The Kelvinator StoryKelvinator, founded in Detroit in 1914, didn't invent the refrigerator — but it made it practical, controlling 80% of the U.S. market by 1923.
- History and cultureWhat Exactly Is a "Coney Dog" — and Why Do Flint and Detroit Argue About It?A coney is a hot dog under a meaty, beanless sauce — and Detroit (wet and smooth) and Flint (dry and crumbly) have argued about how to make that sauce for a century.
- History and cultureWillow Run: where Rosie the Riveter built a bomber an hourYpsilanti Township's Willow Run plant turned out a B-24 bomber roughly every hour at its WWII peak — the 'Arsenal of Democracy' made literal, now honored by the Yankee Air Museum.
- Cars and drivingThe 'Michigan Left' — Why You Turn Right to Go LeftMichigan's oddest turn makes you drive past your street and U-turn back — and it cuts crashes by 30 to 60 percent.
- OutdoorsDownriver's secret: an international wildlife refuge at the front doorNorth America's only international wildlife refuge grew from U.S.-Canadian cooperation and protects more than 30 separate habitat parcels along the lower Detroit River and western Lake Erie.
- Rules and licensesRenting out a home? Your city may make you register it and pass an inspectionMany Michigan cities require rental homes to be registered and inspected before a tenant can legally move in.
- History and cultureThe Pointes: five towns on one famous shoreThe Grosse Pointes share Lake St. Clair's most storied shoreline — Lake Shore Road, the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, and a century of lakefront civic life.
- OutdoorsHines Park: seventeen green miles through the western suburbsEdward Hines Drive strings 25 parks along the Middle Rouge from Dearborn through Dearborn Heights, Westland, and Livonia to Northville — western Wayne County's shared backyard.
- History and cultureWayne: Michigan's first county, named for Mad AnthonyWayne County — organized in 1796 and named for General 'Mad Anthony' Wayne — is where Michigan began, and it's still the state's center of gravity.
- 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.
- 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.