Subdivision Stories: Oakland View

The Oakland View subdivision was laid out at the southeast corner of Rochester and Avon Roads in March, 1920. The developer was Detroit's largest bank at the time, the Union Trust Company, represented by vice-president John N. Stalker and secretary Merrill C. Adams. The property had been owned by Mrs. Olive Bromley Fisher Adams and before that was part of the William Fisher farm. The north/south side streets in the subdivision were originally named Wood Avenue (presumably for Walter C. Wood, the civil engineer who laid out the development), Adams Avenue, and Wayne Avenue. The original plat contains a notation that Adams Avenue was changed to Pleasant Street by resolution of the Avon Township Board in 1941, probably to avoid confusion with Adams Road on the west side of the township. The subdivision's east/west street was named Overlook Boulevard, honoring J.J. Snook's Overlook Farm, which was located directly across Rochester Road to the immediate west of the new plat.

None of the street names in the Oakland View subdivision remain today as they were originally platted. In 1950, the Avon Township Board accepted recommendations of the Oakland County Road Commission to change Wood Avenue to Rainier, Pleasant Street (formerly Adams Avenue) to Princeton, Wayne Avenue to Thames, and Overlook Boulevard to Avon Road.

The Oakland View subdivision celebrates its 91st birthday this year.

Memory's Eye: 129 East University

If you're like me, and you've lived in the community long enough to have observed many changes to the local landscape, there is sometimes a big difference between what your eye sees and what your mind's eye, or memory shows you. As I look around Rochester, I find myself "seeing" things that aren't really there any longer. The image shown here is a digital attempt to show you what I see when I look at the building at 129 East University. I created it from a contemporary photo, snapped yesterday, and a vintage shot taken in the early 1980s. I hope you enjoy this "memory eye" look at Rochester's past.

At Home in Rochester: The Marcus E. Carlton Residence

The handsome residence at 428 East Street, on the east side near the corner of University, was built in the summer of 1884 for Marcus Eugene Carlton and his wife, the former Lydia E. Shoup. Lydia's parents, Lemuel W. and Laura Shoup, were pioneer settlers of Oakland Township who lived on East Street in Rochester after they retired from farming. Lydia Shoup married M. Eugene Carlton in 1881, and three years later her parents sold a lot on East Street to the young couple so that they could build a home.

In May 1884, the Rochester Era announced that "M.E. Carlton will soon commence the erection of a beautiful Swiss cottage on the lot just north of his father-in-law L.W. Shoup's residence." A few weeks later, the newspaper's readers learned that the house would be a substantial one, designed by a prominent architect who was well-known in Rochester. The Era reported on June 19, 1884:

M.E. Carlton has let the contract for building his residence on North Oliver st., to Arkin & Jones, for $2,000. The design is Swiss cottage, with all the modern attachments, combinations and improvements. According to the plans and specifications, which were executed by John Scott, of Detroit, "Gene" will have, when completed, one of the handsomest and best appointed residences in this section of country.

(In the late decades of the 19th century, East Street was referred to as Oliver Street and is even so labeled on some maps, even though it was named East Street on the original plat of Rochester and is so named today.)

John Scott, architect of the Carlton house, was not only becoming a prominent Detroit architect at the time, he was also the son-in-law of Lysander Woodward of Rochester. John Scott designed a number of buildings of note, some of which are now on the National Register of Historic Places, including the 1902 Wayne County Courthouse, the 1888 Gogebic County Courthouse, and his personal residence on East Ferry Street in Detroit. In Rochester, John Scott was also the architect of the old Congregational parsonage house on Third and Pine.

The Carltons had lived in their beautiful new home on East Street for only a few years when they relocated to Flint and established the M.E. Carlton book and stationery store. The business prospered and was a major office supply outlet in Flint for decades during the first half of the twentieth century.

Today, the John Scott-designed Carlton residence serves as an apartment house. The building celebrates its 127th birthday this spring.

Bygone Business: Nowels Lumber

Nowels Lumber Yard was located at 412 Water Street, just south of the Rochester Elevator. Owner and operator Russell W. Nowels first came to Rochester in 1920, just after he had been released from the army at the end of World War I. He was an investor with a group of business men who were operating several lumber yards, and the investor group hired Nowels to manage their Rochester yard. He was successful in building up the business and was able to buy it in 1932, when he changed the name to Nowels Lumber & Coal. The Nowels family business grew and eventually included three lumber yards in the area.

Russ Nowels told a Clarion interviewer in the mid-1950s that the Federal Housing Act of 1936 had transformed his industry by popularizing the "do-it-yourself" movement among homeowners. Nowels tried to stay out front of this development with a training program that equipped his employees to instruct homeowners in selection and use of building materials and tools, and he credited this program with the success of his lumber business in the post-WWII era.

The Nowels lumber yard closed in October 1966, and Houghton Power Center took over the building at 412 Water St. Russell W. Nowels died in 1976.

This Month in Rochester History

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Rochester's B.P.O.E. Lodge No. 2225, popularly known as the Rochester Elks. A group of interested men gathered at Knapp's Restaurant on Main Street in late February of 1961 to discuss the formation of a Rochester lodge, and at the end of March, they were granted a charter.

The Elks met for a time in the old Congregational church building at the corner of Third and Walnut, which had just been vacated when the congregation moved to its new, larger campus on North Pine. Eventually, the lodge was able to build its own club building on East University, on land that had been reclaimed from the old Chapman Pond lake bed. That building was torn down to make way for the development of the Sunrise Senior Living facility, and the Elks moved to the corner of North Main and Lysander, to the building that had once been Davey's Market.

Happy Birthday, Rochester Elks!

Ora Foster's Fifteen Minutes

Once upon a time, there was a young man from the Rochester-Pontiac area named Ora Archie Foster. When he was 21 years old, he left his work as a welder and enlisted in the U.S. Army just a couple of weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ora advanced quickly from private to corporal, and was sent to England, where he would serve as a member of the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

On a September day in 1942, Ora Foster found himself traveling on foot through the countryside in Gloucestershire, England, when he decided to hitch a ride from a passing automobile. Apparently he did not consider, as any of us would today, that such an act might get him into considerable trouble or danger. Instead, he accepted a ride from two pleasant ladies in a large automobile and spent about forty-five minutes in their company, entertaining them with a constant stream of chatter, and commenting about his host country that "there's no place like home, but this is a nice place for a vacation." When he reached the end of his journey and thanked his hostess for the ride, she said to him,"You don't know who I am, do you?"

Cpl. Foster recalled that he could have been "knocked over with a feather" when his traveling companion identified herself as the Queen Mother, Mary, widow of the late King George V and mother of the reigning monarch, King George VI. Ora Foster's story made international news a few days later. His encounter was reported in the New York Times under the headline "The Private and the Queen," and he rated a mention in the "People" column of Time Magazine in the September 14, 1942 issue.

The New York Times account claimed that Foster was from Rochester, Michigan, but other accounts identified his home as Pontiac. I don't know which is accurate, but Ora Foster lived in Lake Orion after the war and was employed by Fisher Body for 30 years. He died in 1998 and is buried in Ottawa Park Cemetery in Waterford Township. His obituary mentioned his military service in World War II but omits any mention of his friendly chat with the Queen Mother.

A photo of Ora Foster is included in this news story from the St. Petersburg Times.

Subdivision Stories: North Hill Gardens

Lying east of Rochester Road and south of Tienken, the North Hill Gardens subdivision was opened in 1941 in part to answer the community's desperate need for additional housing for defense workers. During the summer of 1941, National Twist Drill & Tool Company was expanding its factory on the northeast corner of Tienken & Rochester in order to take on more defense contracts to fill the nation's Lend-Lease orders. McAleer Manufacturing had just moved to Rochester from Detroit in June of 1941, and was readying its factory at Fourth and Water to fill military requisitions for polishes and abrasives. Both companies were hiring more workers, and the Rochester area didn't have enough housing to accommodate their needs.

Three Rochester businessmen joined in partnership to develop the North Hill Gardens subdivision and provide affordable housing for factory workers. They were Ford dealer Larry Jerome, clothier Roy J. McCornac, and lumber dealer Russell Nowels. When the opening of the subdivision was announced in October 1941, the Rochester Clarion made these remarks, which give us a clue to the reason for subdivision's name:

The choice of this site on Tienken road southeast of the new National Twist Drill and Tool Co. plant is especially fortunate. It offers all the conveniences of the village with the low cost of land and beauty of country life. The gracious plots of ground in North Hills subdivision make it possible to have large gardens. Families should have an abundance of fresh vegetables - making it healthful and an economical place to live.

The story went on to comment about the affordability of the housing:

The lots will sell for from $235 to $495. Houses will be built as quickly as needed, the interior roughed in to be finished by the owner.

The street running through North Hill Gardens was named Orchard - a fitting label since the property in the area was an orchard, but the Township of Avon renamed it Red Oak in August 1950, when dozens of street names were changed at the recommendation of the county road commission.

William Clark Chapman

Most of us who live in Rochester admire the stately Chapman House as we travel down Walnut Street, and the Chapman name is visible elsewhere in our community - in the names of subdivisions, the name of a former lake, and even in the name of a recently-opened restaurant. So who was William C. Chapman, whose home still stands at 311 Walnut?

William Clark Chapman was born in Proctorsville, Vermont on March 1, 1866. He was the third of four children and the youngest son of Clark Howard Chapman and Ellen M. Sherwin. William Chapman's father was a prominent man in Windsor County, Vermont; he was an attorney, delegate to a state constitutional convention, and Register of the Probate Court. The family variously lived in Ludlow, Cavendish, and Proctorsville, Vermont, all neighboring towns within Windsor County, until 1882, when Clark H. Chapman decided to move his family to Detroit.

Young William was sixteen years old when his family came to Michigan. His older brother and only living sibling, Charles Sherwin Chapman, was eighteen. William attended a business college and then took a position as bookkeeper for Detroit lumber and real estate magnate William C. Yawkey. He also spent three years learning the lumber business in Wisconsin before returning to Detroit. In 1891, Yawkey and William's brother, Charles S. Chapman, organized the Western Knitting Mills in Detroit and brought William on board as secretary-treasurer of the company. WKM moved to Rochester in 1896, building a state-of-the-art factory on Water Street at the foot of Fourth, and establishing itself as the community's primary employer for a generation. Both Charles and William Chapman built impressive homes in the village of Rochester.

Chapman married Ada Josephine Barney in his old home of Ludlow, Vermont in 1890, and the couple had one son, Carroll Barney Chapman. Though William and Ada Chapman made their home in Rochester for almost all of their married life together, they remained in close touch with their family and friends in Vermont and made frequent visits to their childhood home.

Charles Chapman died in 1912, but William continued with Western Knitting Mills until the company closed about 1927. He also owned and developed many parcels of real estate in Rochester, and was involved in a variety of community organizations. When William Clark Chapman died, at the age of 80, on May 20, 1946, his remains were sent back to Ludlow, Vermont for burial with other members of the Chapman and Barney families.

This portrait of William Clark Chapman is from the collection of Rod and Susan Wilson.

What Do They Have in Common - Answers

Here are the answers to the "What Do They Have in Common?" quiz:

1. Keith Crissman, Larry Jerome, Dick Davis? - automobile dealers
2. Hale's, Stapp's, Zimmerman's, Burr's? - shoe stores
3. Deaton's, Byers', Potere's? - gas stations
4. Milton Weaver, Maurice Watson, Nina Martin? - real estate offices
5. Alward, Johnson, Plassey, Young? - groceries
6. Oberg's, Avon Theater, National Bank of Rochester, Varsity Shoppe? - all were located, at various times, at 435 S. Main
7. Lucille's, Carpenter's, Buzzell's? - clothing stores
8. Brooks, Reading, Terry? - dentists

What Do They Have in Common?

Here's another little quiz for those of you who remember Rochester of the 1950s and 1960s. For each numbered item, decide what all the named elements have in common with one another. Answers will be posted here on Wednesday, February 9.

What do these have in common?

1. Keith Crissman, Larry Jerome, Dick Davis?
2. Hale's, Stapp's, Zimmerman's, Burr's?
3. Deaton's, Byers', Potere's?
4. Milton Weaver, Maurice Watson, Nina Martin?
5. Alward, Johnson, Plassey, Young?
6. Oberg's, Avon Theater, National Bank of Rochester, Varsity Shoppe?
7. Lucille's, Carpenter's, Buzzell's?
8. Brooks, Reading, Terry?

This Month in Rochester History

Fifty years ago this month, in February of 1961, Rochester residents were saying goodbye to a familiar business on Main Street. Verne Sutton, who had operated Sutton's Market on the southwest corner of Third and Main (where Mind, Body & Spirits is today), announced his retirement in the February 23, 1961 edition of the Rochester Clarion.

Sutton told the Clarion that some of his original customers who had started out with him when he opened the market in 1934 were still with him after 27 years, and he would miss them. The day of the small grocery store was fading fast, however, as more chain supermarkets came on the scene, and Sutton's was one of the last to leave the downtown business district. Verne Sutton sold the building and liquidated his grocery inventory, and soon after a gift shop called The Dants opened in the former Sutton's location.

This view of Sutton's Market is from the collection of Marjorie and the late Walter Dernier.

Main Street Stories: DeBaene Building

The building at 419-423 S. Main Street was completed in late 1926 by local businessman Camille J. DeBaene on a lot that for half a century before had been the location of the offices of Doctors Jesse and Jerry Wilson. A native of Belgium who came to the U.S. with his family as a child, DeBaene settled in Rochester after his marriage in 1905. In 1926, the Clarion announced that a new, one story stone and brick building was going up on the Wilson site and would house the A&P grocery store when complete. The DeBaene building was part of a mini building boom on Main Street that was sparked in anticipation of the construction of the South Hill bridge, scheduled for the summer of 1927.

Over the years, the DeBaene building has house two or three businesses at a time in its three sections. Among the tenants have been the A&P, DeBaene Lunch Room, DeBaene Tax Service, The Thimble Shop, Martin's Men's Wear, Cap' Tele-Tec TV Service, Avon Printing, Avon Recreation, Shepard's Bar, Birmingham Camera, Boulevard Bridal, and most recently, Mr. B's Food and Spirits, and the Spy Shop.

The DeBaene building celebrates its 85th birthday in 2011.

This 1940s postcard view of the DeBaene building is from the collection of Rod and Susan Wilson.

Subdivision Stories: Woodward Heights

There are several places in Rochester named in honor of pioneer farmer and businessman Lysander Woodward, and one of them is the Woodward Heights subdivision located west of North Main Street between Woodward Street and the northern city limits. The property on which the subdivision was laid out was formerly part of the farm of Lysander Woodward, which totaled nearly 400 acres and included land on both sides of Main Street.

In 1920, Woodward's daughter, Emma, and her husband, noted Detroit architect John Scott, sold a part of the Woodward estate to the Rochester Development Company. Local business leaders William Clark Chapman and Milton H. Haselswerdt were the officers of the development company, and William J. Fisher, a partner in the Fisher Brothers architecture and engineering firm of Pontiac, was the surveyor who laid out the streets.

One of the street names shown on this plat of the Woodward Heights subdivision has changed; Sugar Avenue, so named for the Detroit Sugar Company factory built upon in 1899, was renamed Woodward Street by the village council in 1927. Also notable among the subdivision's street names is Scott Street (highlighted in red on the plat), a very short street - now an alley, really - between Glendale and Ferndale, presumably named for proprietors John and Emma Woodward Scott.

When the lots in Woodward Heights were offered for sale, lot #1 was purchased by Rochester businessman A.R. Dillman, and lot #2 was purchased by Milton H. Haselswerdt. The fine homes these two men built upon those lots still stand today along North Main.

The Woodward Heights subdivision celebrates its 91st birthday this summer.

At Home in Rochester: The George Flumerfelt Residence

The home on the southwest corner of Walnut and Fourth streets was built in the summer of 1895 by George M. Flumerfelt (sometimes also spelled Flummerfelt). Flumerfelt was born in Oakland Township in 1838, one of nine children of pioneer Oakland farmers William and Esther Flumerfelt. After seeking his fortune in an extensive tour of the western United States as a youth, George Flumerfelt returned to the Rochester area where he farmed a large tract of land. He also invested in the local banks, and served as officer and director of several local businesses. He was also active politically and served as village clerk, village councilman, and member of the school board.
Flumerfelt's first wife, the former Rebecca Cummins, died in 1890 and two years later he married Clara E. Crissman. The couple built their new home in Rochester at 339 Walnut Street, on the corner opposite Fourth Street from the Baptist church. The Rochester Era of May 24, 1895 reprinted this announcement from the Pontiac Gazette:

Fisher Bros. have completed plans and specifications for a very fine modern frame house for G.M. Flummerfelt, of Rochester. The structure will be 56x40 feet, two stories and an attic, with octagon corner tower.
The basement will be divided into furnace and coal rooms, vegetable cellar, etc., with cement floors, with outside and inside entrances.
The ground floor will have a parlor, hall, sitting, bed and bath rooms, kitchen and summer kitchen, pantry, dumb waiter, etc. The hall and front stair case will be of panel work; the sitting room with have mantel, grate and tiled hearth, and the whole first floor is to be finished in oak; and the dining room floor to be of inlaid beech and oak. A colonial porch will extend across two sides, divided by a corner tower.
The second floor is to be divided into four chambers and store room, with closets throughout, all to be finished in Georgia pine, and have balconies over porches. Attic unfinished.
The roof will be hipped, with gables and dormers and of slate and with galvanized iron crestings and finials. All windows to be of double thick American glass and doors of double polished plate and art glass.
This will be the finest residence in the village, and reflect credit upon Mr. Flummerfelt, as well as its young designers.

The Fisher Brothers, Charles and William, had just launched their architecture and engineering firm in Pontiac in 1895. The company went on to great success and designed many buildings that were prominent in Pontiac in their day. They also designed the granite fountain donated to the village of Rochester by Samuel Harris in 1917.

George Flumerfelt died in 1917, and in 1929 his residence became the location of the Alanson C. Hobart Funeral Home. After William R. Potere bought out Hobart in 1950, he made several additions to the house to accommodate the needs of his growing funeral and ambulance business, but the features of the original house are still clearly visible today. John and Mary Modetz purchased the funeral home from Potere in 1986 and continue to operate it in the former George Flumerfelt residence.

The George M. Flumerfelt residence will celebrate its 116th birthday in 2011.

Vanished Rochester: Old St. Andrew

St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church is one of Rochester's largest congregations today, and has most certainly not "vanished," but the building that served as its home for nearly half a century has, indeed, disappeared from Rochester's landscape.
The congregation had celebrated its first mass in Rochester in 1912, and two years later purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Walnut and Third streets. In 1923-24, construction of a new church facility was begun with the excavation of the basement. The congregation used the enclosed basement for several years and completed the construction of the church building on a pay-as-you-go basis over the next several years.
As Rochester experienced robust population growth in the post-World War II era, so did the St. Andrew congregation, and the church on Walnut Street became increasingly inadequate for its needs. A new site in the northeast corner of town was purchased and the parish began using its new facility there in 1969, placing the Walnut Street property on the market.
The old church was first optioned by a developer who envisioned placing boutique businesses in the building, but those plans fell through and the City of Rochester purchased the site with the intention of adding much-needed parking spots for the downtown business district. The planned demolition of old St. Andrew sparked a major public outcry, and an effort to stop it was led by a local architect. More than 500 petition signatures were gathered during a two-day demonstration on Main Street, complete with a parade and band music, and letters of support were gathered from local industrial leaders. The Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society weighed in as well, calling the impending destruction of old St. Andrew an "irreparable loss." On the other side of the argument, city council members were firmly convinced that their duty lay in solving downtown's critical parking shortage, and after some last-minute legal wrangling, gave the order for the bulldozers to roll. On July 24, 1972, old St. Andrew passed into the pages of vanished Rochester.

This Month in Rochester History

Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to the third year of Remembering Rochester!

This year, I've decided to make a small change in my "This Month in Rochester History" posts. On the first day of each month in 2011, I'll look back fifty years in Rochester's history to find out what was making big news in town during the corresponding month in 1961. Those readers who were in town at that time are encouraged to post comments with their own memories of these events.

So, here we go - in January 1961, this is the Rochester Clarion story that caught my eye:

New Group Offers Help to Library
A group of volunteers moved this week to ease the strain on facilities of the Avon Township Public Library.
The newly-formed "Friends of the Library" will hold its first general meeting at 8 p.m. Friday in the library, 210 W. University Drive.
Persons attending the meeting will be able to become charter members of the group.

Today, this half-century-old organization is known as the Friends of the Rochester Hills Public Library, and it continues to support the library's programs and services with grants made possible through fund-raising efforts such as used book sales and the Friends' Library Store.

Happy 50th birthday, Friends of RHPL!

Rochester Elevator Listed on National Register of Historic Places

The Griggs Brothers/Rochester Elevator Company Grain Elevator, located at the corner of Water St. and East University Drive in Rochester, has just been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Brothers Charles K. and Albert G. Griggs built the elevator in 1880 on what was then the Detroit & Bay City Railroad line. At the time, the opening of the elevator was important news for the Rochester area, because it connected local farmers with state and national grain and produce markets and saved them from having to haul their crops to Detroit to sell them. The elevator was a center of commerce for Rochester and contributed to the economic success of the farmers in the surrounding townships.

Charles K. Griggs operated the elevator for about 20 years, then sold it to a business partner, E.S. Letts. In 1909, the building was enlarged at both ends to form the structure that we know today, and the name was changed to the Rochester Elevator Company. The business passed through several other owners before the Smith family took over more than half a century ago. Although it no longer ships grain to market, the Rochester Elevator is the oldest continuously operating business within the city limits of Rochester, and has been housed in the same structure for 130 years. Earlier this year, the Rochester Avon Historical Society nominated the Rochester Elevator for the National Register of Historic Places, and that designation has just been awarded by the Office of the Keeper of the National Register at the National Park Service. Congratulations, Rochester Elevator, on a well-deserved honor!

At Home in Rochester: The Lloyd G. Satterlee Residence

The cement block home on the southwest corner of North Main and Griggs streets was built by Lloyd Garrison Satterlee, an inventor and entrepreneur, in 1905. Satterlee had invented a process for manufacturing cement roofing tiles and designed the house to showcase his product. He began construction in the fall of 1905, and in the spring of 1906, the Rochester Era reported on his progress:

L.G. Satterlee is busy finishing his house in the Albertson addition, the cement walls of which were up last fall. He proposes a roof of cement shingles of his own patent and manufacture -- both house and barn -- which will furnish a practical test of their utility in all respects. The residence is a model of convenience and is to be finished in the best possible manner.

The house must have attracted positive attention, because Satterlee and other local investors including E.S. Letts, William C. Chapman and George A. Hammond formed the Twentieth Century Cement Tile Roofing Company in Rochester in 1907 to manufacture and sell Satterlee's invention. The company lasted but a few years, and Satterlee moved on from Rochester, eventually settling in Santa Cruz, California.

Eventually, houses on North Main Street transitioned from residential to business use, and the Satterlee residence became the home of Norman Hastings' Culligan Soft Water Service. Today, it is occupied by law offices.

The L.G. Satterlee house is 105 years old this year.
The accompanying photograph shows the Satterlee residence as it looked in 1907.

Subdivision Stories: Elmdale

The Elmdale subdivision at the southwest corner of Crooks & Auburn roads was platted in June 1925 on part of the farm lands of Harry J. and Kate L. Davis Serrell. The Serrells were dairy farmers, and owned a large tract of land in sections 32 and 33 of the Township of Avon, lying immediately south of Auburn Road.

When they platted their subdivision, Harry and Kate Serrell named the streets lying within it for their three children: Grant J. Serrell (1897-1956), Donald J. Serrell (1900-1981) and Alice D. Serrell (1906-1997). Grant St. still exists within the subdivision today, but in 1950 the Township of Avon renamed a number of streets at the suggestion of the county road commission. At that time, Alice St. was renamed Alsdorf, and Donald St. was renamed Donley.

The Elmdale subdivision is 85 years old this year.

This Month in Rochester History

Anyone who regularly travels on M-59 has doubtless enjoyed the recent completion of the road widening through Rochester Hills which has had the highway under construction for the past year and a half. It's an appropriate time to look back thirty-eight years to December 1, 1972, when the public dedication and ribbon cutting ceremonies took place for the original M-59 expressway between Pontiac and Utica.

On the drawing boards since the early 1960s, the road construction got underway in May 1971 and was completed at a cost of $9 million (not including the property purchases for right-of-way). In contrast, the recent widening project begun last summer to add a third lane between Crooks and Ryan cost $50 million.

At the same time that the Utica to Pontiac expressway was under construction, Macomb County officials were planning to extend it eastward all the way to I-94. At that time, Hall Road still ran through mostly undeveloped property, and the route was feasible. However, the plan never moved forward and retail and housing development along Hall Road ruled out the project after a few years.

This photo, taken by Macomb Daily photographer Robert Sassanella, shows local officials huddling against the December cold for the 1972 ribbon cutting ceremony. Shown from left are: Ron Poli, Kirby Holmes, Gail McCauley, George Nickson, Carol Harris, Thomas Guastello and Donald Bemis. (Photo used with permission from the Macomb Daily).