Immanuel Methodist Episcopal Church (Eastpointe)
Registered Site L2123 Erected 2003
German immigrants began organizing Methodist churches in Michigan in 1846. In 1849 a small group founded the Immanuel Methodist Church in Roseville to serve Detroit's northeast side. In 1933, when the Roseville church was razed to widen Gratiot Avenue, the congregation relocated here. This Neo-Gothic sandstone church, the congregation's third was designed by Merritt and Cole of Detroit and was dedicated on November 5, 1933. Location @ 23715 Gratiot Avenue, Eastpointe, Macomb County, Michigan.
Village of Warren
Registered Site L0833; Erected 1982
Pioneers, mostly farmers, from New England settled in the Warren area in 1832. Virgin forests supplied logs for the sawmills, which were located on Twelve and Fourteen Mile roads. A strap railroad, one of the first of its kind in Michigan, connected the settlement to Detroit and Utica. By 1875 the community had two churches, a school and several business establishments. It was called Beebe's Corners after John L. Beebe, who operated the toll gate for the plank road that led to Detroit. In 1893 the predominantly German community voted to incorporate as a village, electing Dr. J. D. Flynn as president. Though work and cultural activities draw residents into the Detroit metropolitan community, Warren retains its individual identity in its historic churches, homes and business establishments. Village of Warren [Village of Warren]
Pioneers, mostly farmers, from New England settled in the Warren area in 1832. Virgin forests supplied logs for the sawmills, which were located on Twelve and Fourteen Mile roads. A strap railroad, one of the first of its kind in Michigan, connected the settlement to Detroit and Utica. By 1875 the community had two churches, a school and several business establishments. It was called Beebe's Corners after John L. Beebe, who operated the toll gate for the plank road that led to Detroit. In 1893 the predominantly German community voted to incorporate as a village, electing Dr. J. D. Flynn as president. Though work and cultural activities draw residents into the Detroit metropolitan community, Warren retains its individual identity in its historic churches, homes and business establishments. Location: Mound Rd at Chicago Rd., Warren, Macomb County, Michigan. Sign is located in the center of the Mound Road median, so care should be used.
Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery (Warren)
Registered Site L0392. Erected 1976
This cemetery is actually located in two sections: one in Warren and the other in Redford, Michigan. The Warren cemetery is located on 85 acres. The cemetery grounds is divided into several different sections and gardens, especially special sections for children and veterans. Detroit Memorial Park was created by the city's black community and continues as once of the most profitable African American businesses in the state. Roberta Wright, a desendant of one of the original founding members wrote a book, Detroit Memorial Park: The Evolution of an African American Corporation, which tells the story of the cemetery, from its inception in 1925 to the present time. Located @ 4280 E. Thirteen Mile Road, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
Clinton Grove Cemetery (Clinton Township)
Registered Site L1963. Erected 1996
Clinton Grove Cemetery was established in 1855 and exhibits an exquisite array of funerary art in a wooded landscape. This combination of nature and monuments reflects the rural cemetery movement of the nineteenth century, which popularized park-like pastoral planned landscapes in both rural and urban settings. The grounds include a caretaker's house, built around 1885, and a Tudor office and chapel building, designed by Mount Clemens architect, Theophilus Van Damme, which dates from 1914. Many business and political leaders are interred here as well as veterans of American military conflicts from the Revolutionary War through the Vietnam War. Six thousand burials date from the nineteenth century. Clinton Grove Cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Located @ 21189 Cass Avenue, Clinton Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Simpson Park Campground (Washington Township)
Registered Site L0927; Erected 1981
In the early nineteenth century Methodists began holding camp meetings, an outgrowth of their early revivals. Revival services were held during the winter months, and late summer was generally reserved for the district camp meeting. Simpson Park Campground was begun as the Romeo District Summer Camp for the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1865. It is one of the oldest camp meetings in continuous service in Michigan, The Reverend John Russell, district presiding elder was its founder. (in 1869 he also helped found the Prohibition party.) During the late 1860s families came here from over fifty miles away to gather under the foliage for three weeks of almost uninterrupted religious exercise.
Since the late 1890s Simpson Park Campground has been operated by a private association made up predominately of United Methodists. In 1907, it was reorganized and the Reverend William G. Nixon was elected its first president. A tabernacle was built and named in his honor in 1910. Many of the children and young people who have attended camp meetings have become preachers and missionaries, as well as camp leaders. Today only ten-day camps are held. The meetings are less rigid than in the 1860s, and social and recreational are included. The annual Simpson Park Camp Meeting is held during the first two weeks of August. The original camp of thirteen acres has grown to forty-four acres. Location: Campground Road at Gates Road, Romeo, Washington Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Macomb County Heritage Alliance
Michigan
Warren Union Cemetery
Registered Site L1774; Erected 1992
In 1845 pioneer farmer Peter Gillete sold a parcel of land to eighteen families for use a burial ground. The Warren Union Cemetery Association was organized in 1852 to maintain the cemetery, which consists of two and one-quarter acres. Some of the headstone inscriptions are in German, and 325 of the graves date from the nineteenth century. Many prominant citizens are buried here. Warren Union Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the city. Location: Chicago Rd east of Ryan, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
Religious Society Church (Ray Township)
Registered Site L1389. Erected 2002
The First Religious Society of Ray organized in 1869 and built this church on land donated by Arad Freeman, a member of Ray's founding families. Known for a time as the Ray Union Church, it originally had a steeple and was similar in design to the Mill School. The church became the township hall when the society disbanded in 1950. Although Congregational in character the society had encouraged all Christian denominations to worship together. Location: 64255 Wolcott Road, Ray Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Carnegie Library (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L0575. Erected 1975
The Carnegie Library building in Mount Clemens was erected in 1904 and was the first Carnegie Library that was built in Macomb County. It is one of 1,681 such libraries across the United States that was financed by Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and philanthropist. The columns, stairs, and large windows of this Neo-Classical design make the structure one of the distinguished public edifices in this vicinity. This site is part of the original land granted in 1811, private claim number 141, to Christian Clemens, founder of Mount Clemens. Initially used as a public library, this facility had an outstanding local history and genealogy collection. In 1969, the Carnegie Building became the Art Center, a community based non-profit organization, which fosters visual arts through exhibits, classes, and tours in the area. Located @ 125 Macomb Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Selfridge Field (Harrison Township)
Registered Site S0168; Erected 1958
Selfridge Field, previously known as Joy Aviation Field, Michigan's first real airport began operations as a training base in July 1917. It has progressed to a leading role in America's air arm. It is often called "The Home of the Generals" because Selfridge has been a springboard to success in the careers of 145 Air Force generals. It is named for Lt. Thomas Etholen Selfridge, the nation's first military pilot. In 1908 he was killed while flying with Orville Wright, becoming America's first military casualty of powered fight. Location: M-59 east of I-94, Harrison Township, Macomb County, Michigan. (Museum is located on the base just off Perimeter Road and Doolittle Drive.) For more information on the history of Selfridge, visit the Selfridge Military Air Museum website.
Warren Township District No. 4 School (Bunert School)
Registered Site L1654; Erected 1992
This building was commonly named the Bunert School, for August and Mine Bunert, who sold the land to Warren School District No. 4 in January 1875. The school was built later that year on the north east corner of the intersection of Bunert and Martin roads. When classes ceased on 1944, it was the longest-serving one-room school in Warren. In 1987 the board-and-batten building was donated to the Warren Historical Society which moved it to this site and restored it as a museum. Location: 27600 Bunert Road at Martin, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
State Historical Markers
Macomb County, Michigan
Wolcott Mill (Ray Township)
Registered Site L2234 Erected 2012
Wolcott Mill is among the oldest mills in Michigan. Built in the mid 1840s by the Arad Freeman family, early Macomb County settlers. it passed through several owners before Frederick Wolcott purchased it in 1878. The Wolcott family upgraded the business as technology changed. in 1881 the breastshot waterwheel was replaced by a turbine. The millstones where changed to more efficient metal rollers in 1890, and again improved in 1917. Waterpower was used until the mill closed, but it was supplemented by electric power in the 1920s. Declining business caused the Wolcott family to sell the mill in 1967. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks acquired the mill in 1879 for use as an historic interpretive site. Located at Wolcott Mill Metropark, Ray Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Saint Clement Catholic Church and Parish (Center Line)
Registered site L1903. Parish was founded in 1854.
Priests from Detroit served the Catholics of Kunrod's Corner, present-day Center Line from 1852 to 1857. The church was erected on land sold to the Diocese of Detroit by Hermann and Magthalina Cramer and Anthony Joseph Clemens. Belgian, French, German, and Irish Catholics worshipped in the wooden church built on this site. The Reverend Henry H. Meuffels became the first resident pastor in 1857. In 1880-81 a spacious brick church was constructed to serve the growing parish. In 1892, the Sisters of Saint Dominic from Wisconsin reorganized the Saint Clement Elementary School and opened the high school in 1923. The present church was build in 1960-61. Saint Clement is Center Line's oldest religious institution. Location at 25320 Van Dyke Road, Centerline, Macomb County, Michigan.
Edsel & Eleanor Ford House (Grosse Pointe Shores)
Registered Site S0498. Erected 1980
Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919-1943, and his wife, Eleanor Clay, completed this 87-acre estate in 1928. Architect Albert Kahn derived the design from Cotswold, England, and many of the materials, including the staircase, paneling, and fireplaces, were brought from old English homes. Noted landscape architect Jens Jensen developed the grounds. The Fords collected art and antiques, and were benefactors of local and national institutions. Edsel was instrumental in the creation of the Ford Foundation in 1936. He died on May 26, 1943. His wife, who lived here until her death in 1976, endowed the property and directed it be maintained for public use. Location @ 1100 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
St. John Lutheran Church and Schools (Fraser)
Registered site L2278, erected 2016
In 1864, local residents asked Pastor Herman Lemke of East Detroit to help them organize a Lutheran Church in Fraser. That same, a small wood frame building was erected on land sourth of 14 Mile Road. Following the Sunday service each week, they would move the pews aside to make room for the desks and chairs, so that the church building could be utilized as a Lutheran school. The original church was replaced with a larger wood frame church and school in 1867, however it was destroyed by fire on Christmas Eve 1884. In 1884-85, the members build a new-two story school and a separate church with a seating capacity of 600. The school had two classrooms, on each floor. St. John School was the only school in Fraser until the village built a one-room school at 13 Mile & Utica Roads around 1882. As the population of the area grew, the members requested schools closer to their homes. In 1877, two additional schools were built: one at Cady's Corners on Utica Road and the Krim School at Plumbrook and Dodge Park Roads in Sterling Heights. The Krim School served the residents until 1894 and Cady's Corners until 1929. Both of these schools were closed as improved transportation options allowed to students to be educated elsewhere, including the St. John School in Fraser. During the 1940s and 1950s, the St. John pastors drove school busses daily. In 1957, the church moved all classes to a school building built in 1948. The school that was built in 1884-85 became the Fraser Public Library in 1964. A new church was built here in 1985-86. Located at 16339 14 Mile Road, Fraser, Macomb County, Michigan.
Grace Episcopal Church (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L0412. Erected 1976.
The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan sent Edward Magee to Mount Clemens in 1849. The interest generated by this missionary visit culminated a year later when the Grace Episcopal congregation was formed. In December of that year Michigan's first Episcopal Bishop, the Right Reverend Samuel McCoskry, conducted services in the courthouse. Six members were confirmed and Magee was ordained. In 1870 this simple Gothic Revival church was built. Location @ 115 South Main Street at Church Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Holcombe Beach (Sterling Heights)
Registered Site S0309. Erected 1977
Near this site in 1961 archeologists from the Aboriginal Research Club and the University of Michigan uncovered evidence of an early Paleo-Indian settlement. Here about 11,000 years ago these first prehistoric dwellers in the Great Lakes region inhabited a lake shore. Excavations of artifacts and bones reveal that for food the Paleo-Indian hunted Barren Ground caribou, a species suited to the tundra-like terrain of that era. As their environment changed, these Indians were forced to adapt to new ways of living, Different climate and sources of food required modified tools and methods of subsistence and the Paleo-Indian pattern of life developed into the culture of the Early Archaic people. The site known as Holcombe Beach is a reminder of basic changes in Michigan's physical and biological environment over the ages. Location @ Dodge Park, north of Metro Parkway, Sterling Heights, Macomb County, Michigan.
"The Thing" (Memphis)
Registered Site L0824; Erected 1981
Thomas Clegg (1863-1939) and his English-born father, John, built "The Thing," the first recorded self-propelled vehicle in Michigan (and perhaps the country) in 1884-85. The Thing, driven by a single cylinder steam engine with a tubular boiler carried in the rear, seated four. The vehicle was built in the John Clegg & Son machine shop here in Memphis. It ran about 500 miles before Clegg dismantled it and sold the engine to a creamery. The shop was razed in 1936, just a short time before Henry Ford offered to buy it for Greenfield Village.Location: Location: Boardman Road at east village limits, Memphis, Macomb County, Michigan.
New Baltimore & St. John Lutheran Church (New Baltimore)
Registered Site L0636. Erected 1979
French explorers led by Pierre Yax first settled in the area now known as New Baltimore in 1796. Chippewa Indians inhabited this vicinity then. Fabian Robertjean made the first government land purchase in 1820. Twenty-five years later, Alfred Ashley of Mount Clemens came here and built the first sawmill and dock, and in 1851, platted the village of Ashley. He also managed a hotel and general store, opened the first post office in his store in 1852. German pioneers arrived here in 1853 clearing land along the Salt River for their settlement. Renamed New Baltimore in 1855, this area was incorporated as a village in 1867 and as a city in 1931. New Baltimore is a popular place for fisherman and hunters and is noted for its expansive shoreline dotted with summer cottages and homes.
In 1863, during the stormy days of the Civil War, Lutheranism had its beginning in the New Baltimore area. Seven German families made up the original congregation of St. John's Lutheran Church, holding worship services in the home of Fritz Turkow. Five years later the worshipers moved to an old chapel which was rented from the Baptists. In 1870 the Lutherans erected this structure on property given by Gilbert Hatheway in January of 1869. Services and religious instruction were offered in German until 1916 when English was introduced with one English service a month. German services were discontinued in 1934. St. John's houses a Hinners mechanical action organ, which was acquired in 1905. Location: 51161 Maria Street, New Baltimore, Macomb County, Michigan.
Thomas Edison (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L0239; Erected 1978
While working as a railway newsboy on the Detroit - Port Huron line, Tom Edison often stopped in Mount Clemens, New Haven, etc. He made friends with station agent J. U. MacKenzie and in 1862 saved MacKenzie's young son from death by a train. In gratitude Mr. MacKenzie taught Tom Edison railroad telegraphy. From his training Tom became a qualified railroad telegrapher and worked during the 1860s at this occupation. Some of his earliest inventions were based on the telegraph. Location: 198 Grand at Cass,
Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Weller House / Sanford Stone (Richmond)
Registered Site L2049; Erected 1999
Mabelle Streibig Weller purchase the former Sanford Stone House in 1920. Built in 1878 in the Victorian era Eastlake Style, the house was reconstructed for Weller and her husband Harold, to reflect the more "modern" Colonial Revival style. The Weller's named the house Roseburn Place for Mabelle's late mother Rose Burns. In 1993 Weller descendants sold the house to a Richmond businessman. Restored during the 1990s, the house remains a Richmond landmark.
Sanford Stone (1828 - 1888) came to Richmond in 1843. In 1875 he platted "Sanford M. Stone's Addition to the Village of Richmond." which included Jefferson and Washington Streets between Ferguson and Beebe. Stone held many public offices including state representative, village president and county coroner. On this site in 1878, he built an Eastlake style house which sported ornate chimneys and decorative trim in the gables, making it one of Richmond's most elaborate buildings. Location: Washington @ Stone Streets, Richmond, Macomb County, Michigan.
Methodist Episcopal Church (Mount Clemens)
Registered site L1925, Erected 1995
When this Collegiate Gothic Church, designed by Cleveland architect Herman W. Maurer, was dedicated during the week of of January 3, 1926, the Mount Clemens Daily Leader called it a "Monument to Unity of Action." Over a century earlier, in 1820, the Reverend John Kent had held the area's first Methodist Episcopal services. He formally organized the congregation in 1836. The first church was erected in 1841 on land donated by Christian Clemens, who helped plat Mount Clemens in 1818. In 1849, under the inspiring leadership of the Reverend Seth Reed, the Methodists acquired a larger structure, formerly used by Congregationalists and Presbyterians. A third church, remembered as "The Green Church," was built in 1882 and served until the present one was erected. Location @ corners of Cass Avenue and Gratiot, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Governor Alex J. Groesbeck (Warren)
Registered Site S0284. Erected 1975
Son of a pioneer Dutch-French family, Groesbeck was born in Warren Township near the corner of Mound and Twelve Mile Roads in 1872. His father's election as sheriff in 1880 caused the family to move to Mount Clemens. In 1893 Alex graduated from the University of Michigan and began a long and distinguished legal career in Detroit. After serving as state attorney general from 1917 to 1920 he became governor for the first of three successive terms in 1921. His Republican administrations were noted for governmental reorganization, prison reform, and expansion of state highways. Highway M-97 was, subsequently, named after him. In 1927 he returned to Detroit, retaining active interest in public affairs until his death in 1953. Location @ GM Tech Center, Mound Road, between 12 and 13 Mile Roads, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
Kolping Chapel (Chesterfield)
Registered Site L1962. Erected 1997
Father Joseph Wuest established the Detroit chapter of the Catholic Kolping Society in 1926. Wuest inscribed "Honor by means of untiring work," on a plaque for this chapel, which he built in 1932. Constructed of stones and shells sent from Kolping societies, churches and missions worldwide, the Neo-Gothic chapel is reminiscent of European wayside shrines. Father Adolph Kolping founded the society in 1846 to benefit German tradesmen and their families. This chapel used to sit in Kolping Park, Sugarbush Road, Chesterfield Township, however in 2016 it was relocated to the Chesterfield Historical Society's historical village. Location @ 47275 Sugarbush Road, Chesterfield Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Richmond Center for the Performing Arts (Richmond)
Registered Site L0393. Erected 1988
Built in 1887, this structure formerly served as the First Congregational Church. When the congregation merged with St. Paul's Evengelical and Reformed Church in 1973, it sold the building to the Richmond Community Theatre. That group adapted the interior for reuse as a theater and carefully restored the exterior. The building is a significant example of Gothic Revival architecture. The Richmond Center for the Performing Arts was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Location: 69619 Parker Street, Richmond, Macomb County, Michigan.
Zion Church (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L1251; Erected 1986
Organized on July 3, 1864, Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was the first German Protestant congregation in Mount Clemens. Its founding trustees were John Rossow and Abraham Devantier from Prussia, John William Miller and Carsten Roecker from Hanover, and John Charles Riemold and John Geirge Murthum from Wuerttemberg. Zion Church operated as a free congregation, welcoming all Christians. It served primarily German-speaking Catholic and Protestant immigrants, including Lutherans, Calvinists and Huguenots. Worshipping at first in the Macomb County Courthouse, the congregation purchased this site, the former Methodist Academy, in 1862. The nave of the present brick sanctuary was built by Minard Barr in 1880. The tower and transepts were added in 1895.
The itinerant ministers who served Zion Church in its formative years were Methodist, Lutheran and Evangelical. The first resident pastor was the Reverend William Kies (1862 - 1864). He was followed by the Reverend Hermann Gundert (1864 - 1903), who contributed $4,000 of his own money to help fund the tower and transept of the present church building. It was not until the 1920s, during the pastorate of the Reverend F.A. Roese (1903 - 26), that English became the language of the worship service and of church records. In the early twentieth century, the congregation turned to humanitarian work. Lead by the Reverend Jacob Wulfmann (1927 - 49), the congregation helped support the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital and the Evangelical Home for Children and Aged in Detroit. In 1961 the church received its present name, Zion United Church of Christ. Location: 68 New Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Alexander Macomb (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site S0418. Erected 1974
In 1818, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass proclaimed the third Michigan county to be called Macomb. At that time, the young General was Commander of the Fifth Military Department in Detroit. Born in that city in 1782, son of prominent local entrepreneurs, Macomb had entered the U.S. Army in 1799. He had gained national renown and honor during the War of 1812 for his victory at Plattsburgh, New York in September 1814 over a far superior force of British invaders. Later as Chief Army Engineer, he promoted the building of military roads in the Great Lakes area. From May 1828 to his death in June 1841, Macomb served as Commander in Chief of the Army. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C. His birthday, April 3, is honored as Macomb County Heritage. Located @ the corner of Gratiot and Macomb in Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
First Methodist Episcopal Church (Davis)
Registered Site L0804. Erected 1998
In 1844 the Reverend Jonathon Davis Founded the Methodist Episcopal Church to serve the community of Davism known then as Brooklyn. In 1846 the congregation built the town's first church. The present one, which dates from 1895, is a unique Victorian era church due to its spindles, shingles and sunbursts, more typically found on residences of the period. In 1968 the church was renamed Davis United Methodist Church. Location @ 59024 Romeo Plank Road, Davis, Macomb County, Michigan.
Erin-Warren Fractional District No. 2 "Halfway" Schoolhouse (Eastpointe)
Registered Site L1706. Erected 1995
This school is a one-story front-gabled structure with clapboard siding trimmed with cornerboards and surmounted with a frieze. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1990. Christian Gerlach, a German farmer, held the first school in his home. In the 1840s a log building was utilized as the first schoolhouse, later being replaced by a red frame schoolhouse in the 1850s. In 1872, the latter schoolhouse was replaced with this structure and served the children in Erin and Warren townships. A wing was added to it in 1901 and classes were held here until 1921. In 1984, the East Detroit Historical Society purchased the building and moved it once more within 60 feet of its original site. The historical society restored the building to its original appearance.Located @ 15500 Nine Mile Road, Eastpointe, Macomb County, Michigan.
Blossom Heath Inn (St. Clair Shores)
Registered Site L0705. Erected 1982
Matthew Kramer, a hotelier and yachtsman, built this roadhouse in 1911, naming it the Kramerhof. In 1920, the building was sold to William McIntosh, who renamed it the Blossom Heath Inn and added two large wings, which included an ornate ballroom. Blossom Heath was one of the most luxurious roadhouses in Michigan. Nationally known big bands, such as Ben Pollack's drew people from Detroit and Canada. Blossom Heath became notorious for illegal drinking and gambling during Prohibition and the Depression. After McIntosh's death in 1930, the roadhouse was run by his heirs. By the late 1930's, the heyday of roadhouses was over and in 1943, Blossom Heath was again sold. The building fell into disuse, but in 1946, the Village of St. Clair Shores purchased it. On May 19, 1946, it reopened as a civic center with village offices in the north wing. It became the St. Clair Shores Recreation Center in 1957. Located @ 24800 Jefferson Avenue, St. Clair Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
Village of Romeo
Registered Site L1424; Erected 1988
Originally known as Indian Village, Romeo was platted in 1830 on the former winter campgrounds of a band of Chippewa Indians. Nathaniel Taylor, Ashael Bailey, and a Major Larned laid out the village, which was incorporated in 1838. Named Romeo by Taylor's wife, Laura, the village became an agricultural and mercantile center. Many of its early settlers were from New England and upstate New York. In 1835 the Romeo Academy was established, and in the 1840s the Romeo Branch of the University of Michigan opened in the village. The many examples of nineteenth-century architecture that remain in the village led Michigan and the federal government to list Romeo as a historic district in 1970. Location: Historic marker is located Main at Church St., Romeo, Macomb County, Michigan.
Upton House (Sterling Heights)
Registered Site L1127; Erected 1985
Constructed in 1866-67, the William Upton House is one of the oldest surviving nineteenth-century brick dwellings in Sterling Heights. Italianate in style, the house features a reconstructed open porch topped by a second-story balustrade, a cupola, period chimneys, and refurbished window units. According to oral tradition, the interior building materials were imported from England. Most farmsteads of this era were constructed of wood; the brick used on this one demonstrates the affluence of its builder. By 1891, the Upton farm consisted of 138 acres. Upton farmed the land and sold fish from the Clinton River. When the exterior restoration of the house was done in 1981-82, the interior was adapted for use as public offices.
William Upton, a wealthy farmer and merchant, built this stately Italianate house in 1866-7. Born in 1835 in Leicestershire, England, Upton came to this country with his parents in the fall of 1841. The family lived in Detroit for several years before settling in Sterling Township in 1845. In 1861 William marries Sarah Jeanette Aldrich. He built this house on his farm, where he, his wife and their children lived until 1891 when they moved to Utica. There Upton purchased a three-story business block from he sold Shropshire sheep and ran a successful mercantile and real estate business until 1897. In 1904, fire destroyed the Upton Block. Shortly afterwards William moved to Rochester, Michigan. He died in 1923 at the age of eighty-eight. Location: 40433 Utica Rd., Sterling Heights, Macomb County, Michigan.
Loren Andrus House (Washington Township)
Registered Site L0104. Erected 2006
Loren Andrus (1816 ~ 1901) came to Macomb County from New York State in 1828. He served as an assistant engineer on the survey of the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal, but gained prominence in agricultural work. In particular he focused on the breeding of fine wool sheep, and he helped organize both the Macomb County and Michigan Agricultural Societies. Loren and his wife Lucina, hired his brother-in-law David G. Stewart, a Macomb County builder and architect, to construct this house. Stewart built an Octagon, popularized by phrenologist Orson Fowler, who touted the Octagon as a spacious building form that offered healthier air circulation and an abundance of light. Andrus himself made the bricks with local clay. The house has an elaborate central spiral stairway that leads to the cupula.
Loren Andrus built Michigan's most elaborate remaining example of the Octagon house form in 1860. In 1945 Detroit businessman Albert Schmidt donated money to the Detroit Board of Education for the purchase of a farm which gave "city boys" paractical experience in their agriculture studies at Wayne (State) University. By 1952 the 330-acre self-supporting farm had 90 Holstein cattle and 1,200 hens. Eggs were sold in green and gold cartons (Wayne's colors) with the slogan "Educated Eggs from the Wayne State University Farm." Despite the efforts of subsequent owners, the house eventually deteriorated and was ravaged by vandals and wildlife. In 1986 a non-profit organized to save the house. The Friends of the Octagon continued to restore and maintain the property into the twenty-first century. Location: 57500 Van Dyke Avenue, Washington Twp., Macomb County, Michigan.
Source for this information was the book, Traveling through Time: A Guide to Michigan's Historical Markers (Rev. edition), edited by Laura Rose Ashlee and the website: http://www.michmarkers.com/
St. Lawrence Parish of Utica (Utica)
Registered Site L1799; Erected 1991
In May 1866, the Reverend Amandus Vandendriessche of Detroit recited Utica's first Catholic mass. Forty Irish families at Utica Junction (present-day Roseville) formed what became a mission of Sacred Heart Parish. On 15 August 1874, Bishop C.H. Borgess dedicated St. Lawrence Parish's first church. Four years later a cemetery was consecrated one-half mile north of here. In 1904, a fire swept through Utica, destroying the church. Parishioners worshipped in homes and a rented hall until a new church was built in 1908. The present Neo-Romanesque church was designed by Detroit architect Arthur DesRosiers and erected in 1951. The broad nave seats eight hundred people. St. Lawrence Parish remains the oldest religious community in Utica. Location: 44633 Utica Road, Utica, Macomb County, Michigan.
Erin United Presbyterian Church (Roseville)
Registered Site L0906. Erected 1983
Under the leadership of the Reverend Harry N. Bissell of Mount Clemens, several families organized the First Presbyterian Church of Erin in 1860. The original thirteen members held their first services in a small schoolhouse. They were the first congregation in this community to conduct services in English. In early 1861 Thomas Common donated the present site to the church. The first church on this site, which cost less than $500 was completed in October 1861. The congregation built a new church here in 1930 and added a more modern sanctuary onto it in 1967. Dedicatory services for the expanded church were held on September 17, 1967. The church's name was changed to the First Presbyterian Church of Roseville in 1929 and to the Erin United Presbyterian Church in 1953. Located @ 3000 Gratiot Avenue, Roseville, Macomb County, Michigan.
Crocker House Huseum (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L0181. Erected 1988
This home, of Italianate design, was built by the first mayor of Mount Clemens, Joshua Dickinson in 1869. His daughter, Katherine, the great-granddaughter of city founder, Christian Clemens, and his son-in-law, George Crocker, moved into the home in 1870. Upon the death of Joshua Dickinson, George Crocker, a former prosecuting attorney and justice of the peace became mayor. The house was moved in 1908 to make room for a new post office, but the Crocker family remained in the home and owned the house until 1921. It was purchased by Max Cohen and remodeled into four apartments. It was then purchased by Harry Chevalier in 1934 and he resided there until the 1970s, when the Michigan State Highway Department purchased it. It was slated for removal and/or destruction in 1975, but was rescued by the Macomb County Historical Society and moved it to its current location in 1976.
Located @ 15 Union Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
St. Mary's School (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L1939; Erected 1998
In 1870 Father Camillius Maes of Saint Peter Parish erected Saint Mary's school on this lot, adjacent to the Church. When the grammar school opened in that year, it was the first Catholic school in the city and in Macomb County. Three nuns from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Convent in Monroe were chosen to teach the students, eighty in the first year. The school was a two-room, two-story wooden structure. The boys were taught in one room and the girls in the other. All received instruction in basic elementary education subjects and chuch doctrine. By 1882 Saint Mary's numbered about 170 students. The first class -- all girls -- was graduated in 1885. The boys had their first graduation in 1909. The sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary taught at the school until 1986, when lay teachers look over the instruction.
When the original portion of the present Saint Mary's School opened in 1889, the Mount Clemens Monitor called it "one of the most substantial and best finished buildings in Mount Clemens." Built in the Second Empire style, it was a square, towered, three-story building with classrooms and offices on the first two floors and an auditorium on the third floor. The third story burned in 1957 when a fire at Saint Peter's Church caused the steeple to topple onto the school roof. Fortunately only the third floor auditorium was lost. The school's four distinct stages of construction typify the evolution of schools as the grew to serve an ever increasing population. In 1903 an addition was erected on the back of the original building. A high school wing was built in 1911, and an addition to it was constructed in 1921. This building no longer exists as it was torn down in 2017 and St. Mary's School was relocated to 2 Union Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Lake St. Clair (Lac Sainte Claire)
Registered Site S0520. Erected 1979
French explorers discovered and named Lake Saint Clair on August 12, 1679. Among the party of 34 men were voyageur Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle and Roman Catholic friar Father Louis Hennepin. Aboard the Griffin, the first sailing vessel on the Upper Great Lakes, the group sailed from the Niagara Falls area on August 7, 1679, and entered the Detroit River on August 11. They reached Lake Saint Clair the following day and named it Lac Sainte Clairin honor of Sainte Claire of Assisi whose feast day fell at that time. It was Sainte Claire who established the order of Franciscan nuns, the Order of the Poor Claires. Government officials and map makers later changed the spelling to the present form of Saint Clair. This led to some confusion as to the true origin of the name of the lake. Location @ Jefferson Avenue at 11 Mile Road, St. Clair Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
Crawford Settlement Burying Ground (Macomb Township)
Registered Site L2170. Erected 2006
Revolutionary War veteran John Crawford and his wife, Ann, founded this cemetery in 1837. Ornate headstones exhibit trends in funerary art over two centuries, and the German script on markers reflects the migration of European immigrants after the Erie Canal opened in 1825. Veterans of every major war since the American Revolution are buried here. The community was named Meade in 1863, but remained locally known as the Crawford Settlement. Location @ Meade about 26 Mile Road, Macomb County, Michigan
Grand Pacific House (New Baltimore)
Registered Site L1431. Erected 1996
Frederick Losh opened the Grand Pacific House in 1881, during New Baltimore's golden era. The Italianate hotel and saloon was built of bricks made locally at Streits's brickyard. Losh quickly profited from the city's popularity as a summer resort. Following Losh's death in 1890, his widow Emma ran the hotel until 1909, when she sold it to her brother Amos Springborn, who converted it into a boardinghouse. In 1986 a descendant sold the building to the New Baltimore Historical Society. Location @ 51065 Washington Street, New Baltimore, Macomb County, Michigan.
Moravian Road (Clinton Township)
Registered site S0142. Erected 1972
In 1782 marauding American militia massacred nearly one hundred Christian Delaware Indians at their village in eastern Ohio. Seeking refuge, the Delaware settled on the Clinton River two and one-half miles north of here on land granted by the Chippewa. In time the settlement numbered over one hundred, ministered to by the Moravian missionaries. This highway, the first interior road in Michigan, was laid out in the winter of 1785-86 to connect the village with the fort at Detroit, twenty-three miles away. At the close of the American Revolution, the Chippewa withdrew their land grant and in April 1786, the mission was closed. Some of the members returned to Ohio and others moved to Canada. Located at the NE corner of the intersection of Moravian Road and Metropolitan Parkway, west of Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Selinsky-Green Farm House (St. Clair Shores)
Registered Site L0618; Erected 1981
In 1868, when this area was covered with small farms, Prussian immigrants John and Mary Selinsky bought farm land in Erin Township and built this salt-box house using solid log construction covered with clapboards. The Selinskys gave the house to their daughter Ernestine when she married John Green in 1874. The property was owned by their descendants until 1974. Moved to this location in 1975 because of the construction of I-696, this house is now restored as a museum. Location: 22504 11 Mile Rd, St. Clair Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
General Motor Technical Center (Warren)
Registered Site S0676. Erected 2002
An American icon of modern architecture, the General Motors (GM) Technical Center stands as a model corporate research and development park. Thirty-one buildings were constructed between 1949 and 1985. Conceived by Board of Directors Chairman Alfred P. Sloan, the center centralized GM's research, design and engineering efforts. Vice President for Styling Harley Earl chose Eliel and Eero Saarinen to design the campus. Eero Saarinen's International Style buildings complemented by the grounds he planned with landscape architect Thomas Church. Saarinen also worked with GM's Argonaut Division, which designed many of the structures. The center is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Location @ Mound Road between 12 and 13 Mile Roads, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
Packard Proving Grounds
Registered Site S0686. Erected 2005
The Packard Motor Car Company began building a proving ground on this site in 1926. Packard, like its competitors, had previously tested cars on city streets. Architect Albert Kahn designed the principal buildings. By 1929 the complex included the Gate Lodge, warehouses, laboratories, a high-speed test track, and twelve miles of roads simulating the worst conditions of the day. During World War II (1941 ~ 1945) Packard built aircraft and marine engines while leasing the grounds to Chrysler for tank testing. Packard ceased production in 1958, and the Ford Motor Company purchased the site in 1961. In 2000 Ford and the Packard Motor Car Foundation began working to preserve the design complex portion of the site.
In 1899 brothers James Ward and William Doud Packard founded the Ohio Automobile Company in Warren, Ohio. In 1902 Detroiter Henry Joy and several other local investors purchased the company, moved it to Detroit and renamed it the Packard Motor Car Company. During the 1920s and 1930s, Packard set the standard for luxury and design. Under the direction of chief engineer Jesse G. Vincent, Packard, known as "America's Master Motor Builder," also made advances in aviation technology. Vincent contributed to the development of the Liberty aircraft engine during World War I and predicted the growth of commercial aviation. He considered a proving ground to be essential to high quality. Location: 49965 Van Dyke Ave
Shelby Township, Macomb County
Baumgartner House (Fraser)
Registered Site L1957. Erected 1996
John Baumgartner, a native of Bavaria, purchased this property in Erin Township in 1856, becoming one of Fraser's first landowners. Around 1866 he and his wife, Samantha, moved there with the first three of seven children. In 1875, they erected this house in the Rundbogenstil (round arch mode), a German architectural style popularized in the United States from the 1840s through the 1860s. The round windows, square plan and perfect symmetry reflect the style. The farm included outbuildings and orchards. Located @ 18577 Masonic in Fraser, Macomb County, Michigan.
Shoreline Interurban Railway (St. Clair Shores)
Registered Site L2071; Erected 1999
The Detroit, Lakeshore, and Mt. Clemens Railway, also known as the Shore Line, began interurban rail service on September 28, 1898. The twenty-six-mile route from Detroit followed Jefferson Avenue through Grosse Pointe and St. Clair Shores to Crocker Boulevard and on into Mount Clemens. The interurban was a major factor in the growth of Detroit's suburbs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It made the city easily accessible to those who lived along the line and brought Detroiters to the St. Clair Shores area for summer outings. Rail service between St. Clair Shores and Mount Clemens ended in 1927. Interurban railroads were eventually eliminated as automobiles and buses grew in popularity. Location: 24800 Jefferson Ave., St. Clair Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
Sacred Heart Church (Roseville)
Registered Site L1354; Erected 1987
n June 1, 1861, the Reverend Amandus Van Den Driessche, from the Detroit Diocese, helped establish a Catholic mission at Utica Junction (now Roseville). The Sacred Heart mission, composed of Irish, German, Belgian and French families, completed its first permanent church, a moderate log structure with seating for 300, in 1864. The mission became a parish in 1872. The next year, the parish purchased land for a cemetery. In 1915 expansion of the Detroit to Port Huron interurban railway necessitated moving the church building to the east. The basement of the current church was constructed in 1930, but the Great Depression and World War II delayed construction of the upper church until 1950. Location: Gratiot Ave near Utica Rd. Roseville, Macomb County, Michigan.
John Theisen House (Warren)
Michigan Historic Site #L1727. Erected 1991. This home is privately owned.
The home is a compound massed plan, two-story structure built circa 1857. This variant of a gabled ell-type dwelling displays a cross-gabled roof and a hipped roof entry porch tucked into the ell. The land the home sits on was originally patented by William Cummins in the 1830s, but John Thiesen owned the tract and house by 1859. Thiesen was one of the earlier settlers of Warren Township, though little historical data is available on hi. The house is referred to as the "old homestead" in abstracts.
Location @ 12240 East Ten Mile Road, Warren, Macomb County, Michigan.
Saint Joseph Sanitarium and Bath House (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L1344; Erected 1997
Opened in 1899, the Saint Joseph Sanitarium and Bath House is the only building remaining from the Mount Clemens bath era. Beginning in 1870, people suffering from rheumatism, blood poisoning, diabetes and skin diseases, among other ailments, sought the curative powers of these baths. The city was hailed as "The Great Health & Pleasure Resort of Michigan." By 1911 the city boasted 78 hotels and 11 bath houses. Elegant and modern, Saint Joseph Sanitarium sported parlors, a library, steam heat, electric lights and a hydraulic elevator. It offered mineral baths until 1952.
In 1900 the Sisters of Charity of Mount Saint Joseph established a fifty-bed hospital in the Saint Joseph Sanitarium and Bath House, which they operated. That same year Sister Immacualata D'Arcambal, founded one of the first state-licensed nurse training programs here. Saint Joseph's eventually became the major hospital between Detroit and Port Huron. The present structure comprises the original Colonial Revival building designed by local architect Theopholus Van Damme. In 1990 Saint Joseph's was transferred to the Sisters of Mercy. Location: 215 North Avenue, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Saint Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church (Eastpointe)
Registered site L2093. Erected 2001.
Erin Township's German immigrants first worshipped together in a log church amid an oak forest in 1846. The following year the Reverend John Friedrich Winkler helped organize St. Peter's Church as a "country church" near Detroit. This is the third building occupied by the congregation. Dedicated in 1950, the church and school were designed by Merritt and Cole and are fine mid-twentieth-century interpretations of the Neo-Gothic style. The church bells were brought from the congregation's second church, which stood two blocks south of here from 1859 to 1950. The adjacent cemetery was dedicated in 1888. Located at 23000 Gratiot Avenue, Eastpointe, Macomb County, Michigan (two blocks north of Nine Mile Road).
Ray Township Distict School No. 1
Registered Site L1624. Erected 2002
In 1863 Ray area farmers built what became known popularly as Mill School. Kindergarten through eighth grade students attended here until 1953. That year the school district consolidated with Romeo School District and it transferred the property to the township. Elections and community meetings were held in the building for many years. In 1983 the simple Greek Revival-style School became the Ray Township Library. Location: 64255 Wolcott Road, Ray Township, Macomb County, Michigan.
Mount Clemens Mineral Bath Industry (Mount Clemens)
Registered Site L0643. Erected 1979
For seven decades, Mount Clemens was internationally renowned as a mineral bath resort city. In 1865 the first well was sunk to obtain brine for salt production. Because of the high cost of separating the salt from the various other minerals and elements in the water, this process proved unprofitable. In the fall of 1870, however, a local mill operator, Dorr Kellogg, decided to bath in the warm sulfurous water. Impressed with its therapeutic qualities, city businessmen were inspired to invest in a bathhouse. Known as the Original Bath House, it was completed in 1873. At the turn of the century, nine bathhouses and over thirty hotels operated in Mount Clemens. Owing to the Great Depression and increasing use of internal medicine, this "spa era" ended by 1940. Location: Originally MacArthur Park on North River Road
Relocated to Cass Between Gratiot and Walnut Street, Mount Clemens, Macomb County, Michigan.
Utica Cemetery (Shelby Township)
Registered Site L2048; Erected 2001
John and Mary Stead deeded 4.45 acres of Land to the Utica Cemetery Association in 1863. Included in that parcel was a section referred to as the "Old Burying Ground" and a family plot called "Stead's Reserve." The first burial occurred in 1817 upon the death of Thomas Squier, who was among Shelby Township's first white settlers. Businessmen, doctors, farmers, and teachers who influenced the history of the area are buried here, including Lyman T. Jenney, the county's first doctor and anitslavery activists Peter and Sarah Lerich. Also interred here are Joseph Stead, who platted the village of Harlow in 1829, and Gurden C. Leech, who in 1833 suggested that the town be renamed Utica. Location: 46325 Shelby Road, Shelby Township, Utica, Macomb County, Michigan.
Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant (Warren)
Registered Site S0674. Erected 2002
This was the first manufacturing plant ever built for the mass production of tanks in the United States. Established in 1940 under Chrysler, this plant was owned by the U.S. government until 1996. It was designed by architect Albert Kahn. The building was designed originally as a "dual production facility, so that it could make armaments and be turned into peaceful production at war's end. This 113-acre site is located in Warren, Michigan. Chrysler maintain operational control of production until March 1982, when its defense division was sold to General Dynamics Land Systems. The M1 Abrams was produced at this facility until 1996, when this plant was closed and tank assembly and maintenance operations were consolidated at the Lima, Ohio plant. The plant and some of the adjoining property were then transferred to the City of Warren in 2001 and is now dedicated to civilian use. The portion of the property not sold to the city remains an active Army installation.
Just two decades after the end of World War I, Europe was again at war. Construction of the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant began in 1940, before the U.S. became directly involved in the conflict. The 1941 Lend-Lease Act committed the U.S. to supplying arms to its allies. During World War II the U.S. government contracted with automakers to make tanks, trucks and planes. William Knudson, president of the General Motors Corporation, led the government's defense production effort. Capitalizing on the auto industry's mass production capabilities, he called on Chrysler Corporation president K.T. Keller to build tanks. By the war's end the arsenal built 22,234 tanks, over one quarter of the tanks produced in the U.S. Located @ 65011 E 11 Mile Rd, Warren, Michigan.
Milk River Settlement (St. Clair Shores)
Registered site L2100, Erected 2001
The strip of land at the mouth of the Milk River was named Point a Guignolet for a grape-link berry that the French fermented into brandy. It later became known as Gaukler Point. The 1702 map of Lac Sainte Claire,attributed to Detroit founder Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, shows an Ottawa village near the Milk River. This is the earliest documented settlement at the point. As early as 1796 some thirty French families lived in the same vicinity. Well into the nineteenth century, the Milk River settlement was called L'Anse Creuse (Deep Bay). At one time part of Erin Township and later Lake Township, the community was incorporated as the village of St. Clair Shores in 1925 and became a city in 1951. Location @ west side of Jefferson Avenue at Milk River Bridge, St. Clair Shores, Macomb County, Michigan.
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