Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Royal Oak
    Royal Oak
    Royal Oak
    Ebook187 pages47 minutes

    Royal Oak

    By Maureen McDonald and John S. Schultz

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Stories describe Michigan's first governor, Lewis Cass, signing a treaty with the Chippewa in 1819 and resting nearby with companions under a swamp oak a few miles north of Detroit. Cass told the story of Prince Charles II, who took refuge in 1651 under a mighty oak tree after the Battle of Worcester and lived to be crowned king. Cass later designated the locality, including the southernmost townships in Oakland County, as Royal Oak. This sector became a village in 1891 and a city in 1921. Strong roots have helped the "City of Trees" maintain its viability through the years. Home to William Beaumont Hospital, assorted high-tech graphic and sound studios, and a world-class zoo, today Royal Oak draws people into its pedestrian-friendly downtown for an eclectic mix of bars, sidewalk caf s, boutiques, theaters, and upscale lofts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 5, 2010
    ISBN9781439639450
    Royal Oak
    Author

    Maureen McDonald

    Utilizing images found in the Royal Oak Historical Society, research from the Royal Oak Public Library, files furnished by the Daily Tribune of Royal Oak, and a host of other sources, authors Maureen McDonald and John S. Schultz plant a parable of the city from its incorporation as a village to the present day. Maureen is a former staffer of the Tribune and a widely published freelance writer and ghost editor of a new book on auto-show models. She lived in Royal Oak in the 1990s. John was most recently an assistant city editor at the Detroit News, former editor at the Tribune, and is the founding editor of the Mirror of Royal Oak. He and his wife, Debra, have lived in Royal Oak for more than 30 years, and their two daughters attended Royal Oak schools. They are members of the First Congregational Church.

    Related to Royal Oak

    Related ebooks

    Photography For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Alley Cats

      Feb 22, 2022

      Alley Cats
      13 min read

    • Article

      Sherman’s Secret Weapon

      Aug 27, 2019

      Sherman’s Secret Weapon
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Explorers

      Sep 24, 2019

      A Tale Of Two Explorers
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rare Lincoln Portrait Unveiled

      May 16, 2023

      Rare Lincoln Portrait Unveiled
      1 min read

    • Article

      Gold Hill, Nevada

      May 23, 2023

      Gold Hill, Nevada
      3 min read

    • Article

      Van Halen

      May 28, 2019

      Van Halen
      2 min read

    • Article

      Must See, Must Read

      Nov 26, 2019

      Must See, Must Read
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Right Mould

      Sep 28, 2020

      The Right Mould
      11 min read

    • Article

      Civil Rights Timeline

      Oct 8, 2020

      The United States Supreme Court makes the landmark ruling that segregation of students on the basis of race is unconstitutional, essentially ending all-white school policies and the ‘separate but equal’ rules of Jim Crow. As part of an ongoing and or

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sanitation Innovation

      Jul 21, 2020

      Sanitation Innovation
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Making Of A President

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Making Of A President
      13 min read

    • Article

      Spotlight On…

      Oct 27, 2022

      Every venture the American business magnate undertook was big - from his blockbuster movies to the planes he constructed. But how did Hughes go from rubbing shoulders with the stars to living a life of seclusion? With the death of his father in 1924

      3 min read

    • Article

      Taking Teddy Down

      Apr 26, 2022

      Taking Teddy Down
      1 min read

    • Article

      Nancy Reagan’s Hidden Power

      May 1, 2022

      Nancy Reagan’s Hidden Power
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hank Adams, The 'Most Important Indian,' Dies At 77

      Dec 25, 2020

      Hank Adams, a lifelong Native American civil rights advocate, died Dec. 21 at the age of 77. Adams is most well-known for his work in getting the federal government to uphold tribal treaty rights.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Pintsize Powerhouse

      Apr 26, 2022

      Pintsize Powerhouse
      3 min read

    • Article

      Slavery Takes Root

      Sep 1, 2019

      Slavery Takes Root
      3 min read

    • Article

      Pondering Privacy

      Apr 26, 2022

      Pondering Privacy
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Crystal Palace

      Mar 21, 2024

      The Crystal Palace
      4 min read

    • Article

      Fort Ticonderoga

      Apr 18, 2024

      Fort Ticonderoga
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Royal Oak

    3/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Royal Oak - Maureen McDonald

      Society.

      INTRODUCTION

      Raise a glass of thanks to Mary Ann Chappell, who was known as Mother Handsome. This rough and boisterous character ran one of the first public houses in Royal Oak and helped create a sense of conviviality and welcome that has endured well over a century of progress.

      According to the 1877 History of Oakland County, her wood-hewn inn was situated about 5 miles outside of Detroit, just off Saginaw Trail, a rutted stagecoach road maintained by a group of investors from a cow path and Native American trail. Mother Handsome was a beacon for immigrants and land-lookers in the 1820s and 1830s, before the railroad came through. Weary travelers heard the liquor was better and so was the food.

      Travelers told of a cordon of tangled forests and dead morass north of Detroit. The legend still circulated about bloody battles between Native Americans in Pontiac and the French and British encampments near the Detroit River. Tribes coursing through Michigan included Wyandot, Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa. As the Native Americans receded from the lands, the settlers plundered dense forests to make their homesteads.

      As they [settlers from New York and the eastern states] cut their way into the Michigan wilderness they saw in the removal of the forests their future homes, log houses and barns, schoolhouses and churches, lumber for better dwellings and for marketing, tillable lands, and the comforts of life, and a competence, wrote James G. Matthews, city historian of Royal Oak, in a 1930 essay Trees of Royal Oak: Their Part in History.

      Much of the early timber was wantonly destroyed, being felled in a manner requiring the least amount of labor for burning it, Matthews wrote. Trees became planks for stagecoaches and rail beds for the fast-growing railroads navigating southeast Michigan.

      By 1854, planks had been laid across the Saginaw Trail from Detroit to Pontiac. Infrastructure for rail lines improved steadily under a series of owners, including the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, making the area more attractive for settlers. Soon its residents were manufacturing cowbells and cultivating farms on the vast flatlands fed by the Red Run that flowed through what is now Vinsetta Boulevard in northern Royal Oak.

      First the rail lines, then the roads brought settlers to Royal Oak, often called the City of Trees, in Oakland County. We owe a large debt of gratitude to the visionary thinking of Horatio S. Good Roads Earle and Frank E. Lift Michigan Out of the Mud Rogers, according to Louis Mleczko in the 1995 anthology The Technology Century, published by the Engineering Society of Detroit.

      These gentleman transformed roads made of dirt and the wood-plank horse trails of 1895—when only 60,000 miles of roads existed in all of Michigan—to the byways we take for granted. By 1903, with a modest budget of $20,000, the early roads became graded enough for the new horseless carriages to rumble across the land. Saginaw Road soon became Woodward Avenue, after the famous Judge Augustus Woodward.

      Industrialization replaced agriculture as the viable source of employment. The automobile economy zoomed forward. People came from all over the world to gain lucrative paying, assembly line jobs. Thanks to automobile manufacturing and soaring sales, Metro Detroit jumped from 13th to fourth place in population between 1900 and 1920. Single-family bungalow dwellers in Royal Oak worked for Oakland automobiles in Pontiac, for Ford Motor Company and Maxwell in Highland Park, and the Dodge Brothers in Hamtramck. Transportation was easy along two streetcars and two passenger rail lines serving Royal Oak. As wages rose, so too did the car-driving population.

      Royal Oak became a village in 1891. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was a full-fledged town. Among its attributes were the Royal Oak Tribune (1902), electric light plant (1903), and the Royal Oak Savings Bank (1907). Soon culture and safety were added. The Idle Hour moving picture house (1910) and a volunteer fire department arrived in 1913, according to Arthur A. Hagman, editor of the 1970 Oakland County Book of History. By 1921, Royal Oak was a full-fledged, incorporated city installing George A. Dondero as mayor.

      The location became magnetic for home seekers. Royal Oak’s population increased nearly fourfold during the 1920s, rising from 6,000 in 1920 to 22,904 in 1930. This boom helped build wealthy mansions on Henrie Avenue and country estates along the Red Run and Vinsetta Boulevard. Autoworkers settled in small bungalows close to the streetcar lines. Magnificent churches and schools rose to meet the needs of the multidimensional community.

      Horse travel diminished as roads became smoother and cars more comfortable. Soon the entire standard of living hiked up, along with ladies’ skirt lengths and closed-coupe autos. The Red Run—once a surging stream for a lumber mill—became a giant drain big enough to ride an automobile through it. Steel waterlines were constructed in 1925 to bring Detroit water to the town, and by 1927, the city boasted the largest telephone exchange in south Oakland County.

      Hagman’s demographic research found that before 1904, Pontiac, Bloomfield, and Avon (Rochester Hills) were the most populous of the nine southeastern townships. Royal Oak leapfrogged above them, holding a third of the county’s residents until 1930, when the Great Depression brought a temporary halt to expansion.

      Royal Oak’s population surged in the 1950s and 1960s owing to generous government mortgages for World War II and Korean War veterans. The town reached the peak population of 100,000

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1