First Thing Farmington-Farmington Hills

Vintage Photo Shows Early 1920s Farmington Switchboard Operators

Operators connected Farmington area residents while working on the second floor of the Farmington State Bank building, now the Village Mall.

This week's AT&T cellular phone outage got us thinking about a time when all phone service was delivered across wires, rather than through the air. Our featured historical photo, published in Farmington: A Pictorial History, by Lee Peel, shows two young women operating the Farmington switchboard sometime during the early 1920s. Their office was on the second floor of the Farmington State Bank building, which is now the Village Mall, at the corner of Farmington Road and Grand River.  You can find Peel's book at the Farmington Community Library. To learn more about current events, browse through the list below. We've also included a list of events for which you'll have to register or buy tickets later in the week.  Check our calendar for …

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First Thing Farmington-Farmington Hills

The Fire That Burned Downtown Farmington

The face of the community changed in October of 1872, when a devastating fire swept through businesses on Grand River and destroyed township records.

Today's historic photograph, taken in the early 1870s, shows a view of downtown Farmington that dramatically changed on Oct. 9, 1872, when fire swept through the business district.  According to 1877 history of Farmington Township, by John Willyard, the fire destroyed more than a half dozen businesses, along with the Masonic Hall, Farmington Township Hall and township records. The new township hall, opened in 1876, is now home to the Farmington Masonic Lodge, which initially leased the upper level of the building.  To learn more, read Willyard's book on the Farmington Community Library website, check out a copy at the library or purchase a copy at the Heritage & History Center in Farmington Hills.  Or just browse through our list of events…

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First Thing Farmington-Farmington Hills

Snowstorm Buckled Winery/Power House Building Roof 100 Years Ago

The 1912 storm heavily damaged the iconic red brick building at Grand River and Orchard Lake Road.

To put this week's chilly weather into perspective, we offer a look back at a 1912 snowstorm that caused heavy damage to the Winery/Powerhouse building still standing on Grand River at Orchard Lake Rd. The pictures with this post show the south side roof collapsed on what was then a powerhouse for the Detroit United Railway (D.U.R.) interurban transportation system. The snow also piled up on the tracks, slowing cars that traveled between Farmington and Detroit, as well as points north and west.  In addition to a trip back in time, we've got a list of events happening in Farmington and Farmington Hills today. Also included are later events for which you'll need to register.  Check our calendar for even more activities, classes and events …

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'Cash & Cari' Estate Sale Taps into Farmington History

Buyers snap up old photos, ledgers from a turn-of-the-century business and more.

From thick, turn-of-the-century business ledgers to anonymous family photos, shoppers at a Friday estate sale on Wesley St. in Farmington took home some Farmington history – and may have found a bit of fame. The sale was filmed for an upcoming episode of Cash & Cari, which follows the adventures of Northville business owner Cari Cucksey as she combs through estate sales. This one, she said, was a perfect fit for her show "It's really all about the story," she said, "and they have a great story here, so it made sense to include it in the show."  The home belonged to Judy Cook, who died in August of 2011 and left behind stacks of old photos, business and family documents, World War II ration books and painstakingly copied family geneaologies…

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Farmington Past

What Were They Thinking?

Records of the first Farmington Township meetings show what was on the minds of early settlers.

Imagine for a moment that you are a pioneer in Farmington Township. You have left your past behind and moved away from family and friends in a well settled area in New York to a vast unpopulated wilderness in an unknown spot in a new land. In your new home there are few roads, no police, no courts, no churches, and no stores. The nearest settled areas are miles away over primitive roads that are often impassable. So when there was enough population to legally form an independent township, the inhabitants took a day off from their daily chores and met to hold a township meeting where they were able to vote on measures that were of highest importance to them. So what was on their mind? What were they thinking? Fortunately, records of that …

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Brian Golden

9:24 pm on Saturday, February 4, 2012

Interesting, John, there was no provision for horses getting loose. I guess the people of the township were used to each others "horsing around"!   more ›

Farmington Past

Mills Provided Power in Farmington Township

At one time, eight mills operated in the Farmington area.

When Farmington Township was first settled in the 1820s, there was no Detroit Edison, or Consumers Energy. Virtually all the power needed was supplied by the pioneers themselves, in the form of muscle power from either animals or people. Houses, wagons, clothes, shoes, furniture, plowing the fields and more were all built and accomplished through sweat and hard work. The first businesses set up in what would become the Village of Farmington included a shoemaker, blacksmith, and wagon maker, all completing their tasks by hand effort. But not everything could be done by hand. The principal source of large scale power in the frontier in those days was water power. One of the great attractions of Farmington Township to the early settlers was …

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Farmington Past

Firefighting in Pioneer Days

A local pioneer's book relates the tale of a tavern consumed by fire.

In thinking back to all the hardships the pioneers faced in settling this area, one aspect can be easily overlooked: The public services we take for granted today were totally absent. There were no police or fire departments to look after the safety of the settlers. Even after the roads were improved, the area lacked a formal fire department, and even the simplest of fires often completely consumed the buildings. In fact, buildings were designed with this in mind. Doors and window shutters, which were expensive items, were often mounted on two-leaf hinges, which allowed them to be lifted off their hinges once opened. Firefighters were simply your neighbors who would usually turn out at the first sign of a fire, to make an initial …

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The Importance of Taverns in Pioneer Days

Centrally located, these gathering places hosted festive occasions and government meetings.

When the first land owners started settling in Farmington Township in the mid-1820s, all they found upon arrival was a vast virgin forest, crossed by some streams and a few Indian trails. They got to work immediately clearing a few acres of their land for subsistence farming, and using the felled trees to construct their small log cabins. As each settler established his farm, they cut crude roads to their property down the section lines along the “line of blazed trees” left by the surveyors in 1817. There were no churches, town halls, police stations, or shopping centers. So whenever a meeting of all the inhabitants was needed, or when elections were held, this was done initially at private homes. For the first three years of settlement, …

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Farmington Past

What Happened to Farmington Township?

As two cities developed, very little remains of the original township.

If you read early histories of the Farmington area you will often see references to Farmington Township. But today the term is not used at all. So, what did become of Farmington Township? Here is the story: The Northwest Territory, which included present day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, was ceded to the United States as Part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War. The British, however, never handed over the area until 1796, then took it back again during the War of 1812. We finally took permanent control of the land after the war in 1815. In order to sell the land to settlers, the entire area first needed to be surveyed. A rectilinear system of townships each 6 miles square, was laid out …

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Farmington Past

Lumen Goodenough, a New Kind of Pioneer

Moving to Farmington in 1918, Goodenough hired architect Marcus Burrowes to build 'Longacres'.

The 19th century development of Power’s Settlement in Farmington Township followed the fortunes of the roads it was built upon. At first, a couple of stores, a post office, a public house, a shoemaker and a blacksmith shop were all that existed at the settlement’s original center at Shiawassee and Farmington Roads. The settlement grew, keeping pace with increasing road traffic until the Plank Road Act of 1850 relocated the town center south to Grand River. Once the plank road was in place, traffic increased and so did the local businesses. The number of residents also increased, resulting in residential additions to the town center until, in 1866, Farmington became a Village. Then, in the 1870s, something unforeseen happened, the railroads…

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