Northville Historic District

White settlement began in the Northville vicinity in the mid-1820s. The community, located on the West Branch of the Rouge River twenty-seven miles northwest of Detroit, grew quickly and by 1831 it was a post village. In 1838 Northville boasted a population of 250, flour and saw mills, a furnace, 'cloth dressing establishment,' and a chair factory. Throughout the nineteenth century furniture manufacture, powered by what a gazetteer termed the 'great hydraulic advantages here,' was the most prominent industry in the town. A plat of the town made in 1840 showed that two streets, still in existence and called by the same name, were named after Thomas Dunlap and D. L. Cady, the 'village proprietors.' Growth proceeded slowly, although in 1860 it was claimed that Northville had 'unsurpassed facilities for milling and manufacture.' By the 1870s the population had climbed to seven hundred but only a few blocks had been added to the original plat. Industry had finally come to Northville, even though it was still said that the town was 'settled largely by rich farmers.' A factory turning out school and church furniture was the principal manufacturing concern and remained so into the twentieth century. Political growth paralleled social development. Northville was incorporated in 1867 and in 1897 the Township of Northville was formed which encompassed half of the former township of Plymouth. Until mid-twentieth century Northville existed as a semi-rural community surrounded by rolling farm land. The post-World War II boom changed this traditional pattern. The town is now surrounded by housing developments, and a race course brings in thousands of fans daily during the season. Soon Northville, which still possesses a quiet, nineteenth century aura in its core, will be engulfed in the rapidly expanding suburbs of the Detroit metropolitan area. It is planned to preserve the heart of the town as a historic district.

The Northville historic district is a twenty block area encompassing the 1840 town plat. It is bounded on the north by Randolph, Dunlap, and Main Streets, on the west by Rogers St., on the south by Cady Street, and on the east by Cady and Hutton Streets. Seventy-three buildings within these boundaries have been determined by the Northville Historical Society to possess architectural and historical significance of at least a local level. Although the town was well established in the 1830s there are very few examples of the then-popular Greek Revival style. Rather, the majority of buildings that were surveyed are small frame, Gothic Revival cottages constructed in the 1860-70 period. An unusual subtype, found elsewhere in Michigan but nowhere in such great concentration, is a double-gabled cottage with highly ornamented vergeboards. Several examples of this type are included with the photographic documentation. There is a sprinkling of other popular nineteenth century styles such as Queen Anne and Italianate.