Farmington Hills Celebrates 50th Anniversary

This year marks the 50th anniversary of our city, established as Farmington Hills in 1973.

The Anishinaabe or “Three Fires” people lived around the Great Lakes, probably including the Farmington Hills area, before the Europeans arrived in the region during the 17th century. This included the Ojibwe, Odawa and Botawatomi (also known as the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi).

The first known white settler in the now-FH area was Arthur Power, a Quaker from Farmington, NY, who acquired land in 1823 and created a settlement of family and friends. It was organized as Quakertown in 1827, with a post office established with the name “Farmington.” Later, in 1866, the village of Farmington was incorporated and officially named after Power’s home in NY.

While the city of Farmington and township of Farmington developed, two separate entities (though part of Farmington Township) existed, one of which was the Village of Wood Creek Farms, established in the 1930s. It had its own civic association governed by a “Men’s Association” and later with elected officers. It became a formal legal entity in 1957. It occupied the same geographical square mile as WoodCreek today, but had very few streets and few buildings south of Wellington Road. WoodCreek Farms (the southern area of the square mile) was developed in the 1960s, and Wood Creek Elementary School was built in 
the 1970s.

Wood Creek Village, Quaker Valley Farms and the rest of Farmington Township (as established in the Northwest Territories legislation) were incorporated into the City of Farmington Hills in 1973.

FH is currently about 22 square miles in size and close to 84,000 population as of the 2020 census.

Celebrations and projects for FH’s 50th anniversary took place this past summer at the Hawk and the Costick Center, culminating with food, games, entertainment and fireworks at Founders Sports Park on July 6. An anniversary mural has been placed on the front door of City Hall and residents are encouraged to post photos of themselves at the mural #FH50.

—Aimee Ergas,
 Resident and Historian