Interesting facts about Southfield, Michigan
The first stable roads in the metropolitan area were Grand River and Woodward and the first road to pass through the area now known as Southfield was Shiawassee. In 1817, the area was surveyed according to the plan established by Governor Lewis Cass, dividing the state into counties, and counties into townships of 36 sections. Southfield was designated as Township 1N Range 10E, since it was the first township north of the base line (Eight Mile Road) and 10 ranges east of the meridian line.
It is believed that most of the township's early settlers entered from Birmingham and Royal Oak.
Early records indicate some of the first settlers came from Fort Utica and Fort Dayton (today known as Utica and Herkimer) in the Mohawk Valley region of central New York State, as well as Newburg, New York and Rutland County, Vermont. Mostly of Irish, English, and German descent, they traveled west to Michigan by way of the Erie Canal.
In the early years of Oakland County, the two southern townships were considered one and referred to as Bloomfield Township. On July 12, 1830, Township 1N Range 10E was designated as Ossewa Township; seventeen days later, a group of citizens petitioned the state and changed the name to Southfield. It is believed the citizens chose this name because of the township's location in the 'south fields' of Bloomfield.
A town hall was built at The Burgh in the Civil Center Drive / Berg Road area in 1873. Before its construction, township meetings were held in private houses and at John Thomas' tavern, then at the ballroom of Cornelius Lawrence's hotel. After the hotel closed, meetings were held at Murphy's wagon shop and several locations. In 1933, the Southfield Post Office was established and a mail route to Birmingham opened.
Township voters instituted the Southfield Fire Department on April 6, 1942. That November, volunteer firemen elected Chet Tolman as Southfield's first fire chief. The first two full-time firefighters also were hired that year.
A red barn behind the township hall was used as the first fire house. By 1949, the department moved to a new station at Ten Mile and Evergreen Roads. The first full-time fire chief, Alfred Kruck, was hired in 1948.
On April 28, 1958, Southfield became a City
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