  Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 798 Registered: 08-2006 |
I really appreciate the Mile Road system of metro Detroit. Why is it that counties are able to change road names and not follow a uniform standard. It must be confusing to out of towners. I know Macomb changed a lot of theirs but why havnt Oakland and St Clair followed suit or even Livingston? Is it because of their distance from the city? I never liked how north of 14 all the Mile Roads change to their local or original name. such as 15 to maple in Oakland or 30 Mile to Putty gut in St. Clair. Anyone know when MAcomb changed to the Mile road system or why? Was it when Macomb adopted Detroits address system? | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 416 Registered: 07-2007 |
The mile roads exist because of how the townships are laid out, not some organized plan to have all of your major roads each mile. There is no uniform standard for naming those roads. In essence, we're lucky that the ones that have kept a common name have done so. | ||
Sturge Member Username: Sturge Post Number: 208 Registered: 05-2007 |
Why would they list gravel pits on the map? | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 3207 Registered: 10-2003 |
"Why would they list gravel pits on the map?" It is Macomb County. What are they gonna highlight? Museums? Concert Halls? Universities? Hospitals? | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5035 Registered: 10-2004 |
Roads were commonly constructed with gravel up to the 1930s. One special type was called a Macadam road. In Milwaukee, a street 1/2 block from where I lived as a preteenager--Sherman Boulevard (43rd Street)--was one of the final Macadam roads there, built around 1932. It was a fairly wide street with a grass median strip, but it has weight restrictions, and no trucks (larger than pickups) were allowed. The city had special lighter "Green buses" built specifically for Milwaukee's longest and most important bus route, which in part used Sherman Blvd. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7105 Registered: 02-2004 |
Before Warren become a big booming suburban city. The villages of Fritzgerald, Van Dyke, and northwest portion were independent until Warren annexed them all. Center Line escaped from Warren's annexation by incorporating itself into a city. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 417 Registered: 07-2007 |
Did Warren actually annex those villages? I thought it just incorporated as one large city including everything within the township, except Centerline which had already incorporated as a city. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 799 Registered: 08-2006 |
The only incorporated area in Warren was the village of Warren at Mound and Chicago Rd. The Fitzgerald and Base Line areas were proposed but never incorporated. Those south areas even sought to be part of Detroit at some point. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6069 Registered: 11-2003 |
Rustic, HOF post. You made jjaba LOL. Good job. Really funny. Although previously mentioned elsewhere, Base Line Road AKA Eight Mile Road is a major divider of Michigan Counties all the way to South Haven, Michigan. Then, it picks up again as the Illinois-Wisconsin border to Dubuque. You learned it here on The Forum. So if you stand at Lake St. Clair, looking West, imagine a beeline to Dubuque. Now that's engineering, eh. jjaba. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 418 Registered: 07-2007 |
http://www.davidrumsey.com/rum sey/Size3/D0018/00183068.jpg?u serid=38&username=browserRumse y&resolution=3&servertype=Brow ser&cid=8&iid=RUMSEY&vcid=NA&p rofileid=13&usergroup=Rumsey3x &language=0 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi kipedia/commons/8/83/Meridians -baselines.png | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 801 Registered: 08-2006 |
So. . . . .anyone know when or why the name change took place then? Or if there are or were ever plans to expand Mile Road naming in Metro Detroit | ||
Kellyroad Member Username: Kellyroad Post Number: 199 Registered: 04-2007 |
Hope this helps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M ile_Road_System_(Detroit) | ||
Thegryphon Member Username: Thegryphon Post Number: 34 Registered: 11-2007 |
Well, Troy changed all the roads too, Big Beaver, and all those Lake roads (Sq, Long, Lone Pine). The cities that changed the names just thought they'd sound better than 10,11,12 mile. All about image. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6075 Registered: 11-2003 |
Thanks to Novine and Kellyroad for the great reference pieces. jjaba, standing at Six and Wyoming. | ||
Detroitej72 Member Username: Detroitej72 Post Number: 652 Registered: 05-2006 |
Hey Jjaba, don't you mean West McNichols and Wyoming? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6077 Registered: 11-2003 |
Detroitej72, technically you are right. Practically, jjaba goes by the numbers. However said, jjaba does call it Schoolcraft, not 4 Mile. But Six Mile Rd. is Six Mile Rd. as it was explained in the Wikipedia reference. jjaba, standing at Seven and Grand River. | ||
Detroitej72 Member Username: Detroitej72 Post Number: 654 Registered: 05-2006 |
As an east sider, I ALWAYS called it 6 Mile over here. See Jjaba, the east side isn't so different from the west side! | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2662 Registered: 01-2005 |
Pop always called Fenkell Five Mile. I don't know what the equivalent to Five Mile would be over on the east side. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 1493 Registered: 09-2007 |
Let's not forget the N-S Mile roads either such as Hayes, Schoenherr, Van Dyke, Wyoming, Schafer, Greenfield, etc. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6079 Registered: 11-2003 |
Five Mile on the Eastside is the Detroit River. jjaba, LOL. | ||
Clark1mt Member Username: Clark1mt Post Number: 124 Registered: 06-2005 |
Technically, Jjaba, the baseline doesn't extend across to form the state line between Illinois and Wisconsin. There is an offset of ten miles or so. | ||
Htpscott82 Member Username: Htpscott82 Post Number: 3 Registered: 11-2007 |
On the eastside you could call Lynch Rd. "Five Mile," it almost fits the grid, but only for a short while. When I was a kid, my parents always called McNichols and Seymour "Six Mile." If you look on a map, however, Seymour doesn't fit the grid at all, it is just merely continues where McNichols leaves off. Anyone else on the eastside call Seymour "Six Mile?" | ||
Ro_resident Member Username: Ro_resident Post Number: 296 Registered: 11-2003 |
Standardizing names would take a while and a lot of effort. Wayne County DPS is still trying to get all the communities within its border to standardize two road names--"Northline" and "Middlebelt". And that doesn't even change what people call the roads.. My favorite road that changes names--Coolidge in Oakland County to Schaefer in Detroit to Coolidge in River Rouge. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 420 Registered: 07-2007 |
"Technically, Jjaba, the baseline doesn't extend across to form the state line between Illinois and Wisconsin. There is an offset of ten miles or so.' Geographically, I think this is correct. But wasn't that due to a mapping or political issue? I have a vague recollection that Illinois insisted on the line being pushed north. Guess I'll have to do some Googling. | ||
Dave70 Member Username: Dave70 Post Number: 31 Registered: 08-2007 |
My parents called Seymour "Six Mile". | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6084 Registered: 11-2003 |
MikeM who's a NWA pilot told us that 11 Mile Road is the exact location of the Wisconsin line, but jjaba loves the Baseline Rd. story so much, he uses that. The truth is 11 Mile. So ass-end at Lake St. Clair, looking West to Dubuque on 11 Mile Rd. jjaba, geographer. | ||
Ro_resident Member Username: Ro_resident Post Number: 297 Registered: 11-2003 |
The Illinois/Wisconsin border is defined at 42* 30' north. However, the Michigan Baseline is not defined by a line of latitude (plus it meanders a bit). The grid in our area is rotated slightly counterclockwise. The Illinois/Wisconsin line intersects Martin (11 1/2 Mile) between Hoover and Schoenherr in Warren.  | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 803 Registered: 08-2006 |
The survey lines which the Mile roads run on are not very straight either but surprisingly straight considering the time and landscape at the time they were laid out. Often along town lines mile roads ado not meet up as a new township may have been off a bit from the other one. The Martin Road image shows how off the straight lines can be. Martin is not a Mile road but a half mile road and is built along the center line of the section. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6087 Registered: 11-2003 |
Fareastsider, excellent post. Ro resident, excellent post. The scholarship on The Forum always impresses us. Thanks. jjaba. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 6088 Registered: 11-2003 |
The concept of half-mile roads must be a suburban concept. Detroiters don't use such terms. It is quite amazing, and the Wikipedia article bears this out, that Metro Detroiters call all manner of roads by mile or half-mile when the signs say otherwise. jjaba was recently referred to 9 and a Half Mile Rd. when the sign said Woodward Heights. He was in Hazel Park, Michigan at the time. jjaba. |
