The city that named itself after its mall

Westland really did take its name from a shopping center, but the order of events matters. Wayne County says Livonia tried in the early 1960s to annex the part of Nankin Township where Westland Shopping Center was planned. The mall opened in 1965. In reaction to the annexation attempts, Nankin voters chose on May 16, 1966, to turn the rest of the township into the City of Westland. The city’s master plan confirms that the new city took the mall’s name.

The mall’s directional name fit a Metro Detroit pattern. Wayne County notes that Westland joined Northland in Southfield and Eastland in Harper Woods. By 1960, Nankin Township already had about 70,000 residents, so the 1966 vote reorganized a large suburban community as a city. The familiar shopping-center name became the name on the map.

There is more to Westland than that origin story. Wayne County says it took more than 20 years to assemble the hundreds of parcels that became the William P. Holliday Forest & Wildlife Preserve in 1958. Today the preserve protects about 550 acres along three miles of Tonquish Creek, with thickets, upland woods, wetlands, meadows, and more than 10 miles of hiking trails.

The county lists several trail entrances, and the parking situation is not the same at each one. For example, its Newburgh Road entrance has no parking. Check the county map and entrance notes before choosing where to start. It is a practical little reminder of Westland’s two stories: the shopping center supplied the name, but a long ribbon of creek valley supplies some of the city’s most interesting ground.