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Bloomfield Blossoms: p. 120-121

Smith, Kay, 1925-

Bloomfield Township Public Library

Real estate development -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township -- History

Farms -- Michigan -- Bloomfield Township -- History

Oakland Hills Country Club (Birmingham, Mich.) -- History

GB01a062

part of 'Bloomfield Blossoms' by Kay Smith

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FARMS, PLATTED AND SUBDIVIDED, BECOME LOTS, BECOME "HOME" A section of the little book published in 1898, "Birmingham, Its Past, Present and Future" is titled "Prominent Farms in the Vicinity of Birmingham." Of the 15 farms pictured, none remains today as a farm (the Pickering Farm was not included in the book), but several of the old farm houses are still standing, surrounded by new homes in subdivisions which usually bear the farm name. A fascinating portion of the book describes the Miller farm near Maple and Telegraph and pictures a Victorian turreted ark standing on a rise overlooking apple orchards. The write-up notes that the house has hot water heat, a telephone, gas lights and a bath with hot and cold water- not bad for 1898. Then comes a profuse and flowery description of the reception room and the parlor "furnished in a most elegant manner." The startled reader looks at pictures of rooms crowded wall to wall with heavy horsehair furniture covered with antimacassars. The walls are hung with heavy mirrors and pictures draped with fringed swags, runners are on the gate-legged tables, and in every available corner, aspidistras in huge pots rise several feet into the air. The reader then gasps to realize this was the original club house of the Oakland Hills Country Club, and was used as such for four years before the new club house was built in 1920. The development of the condominium complex at "Wabeek" is an example of the orderly change from an estate to a subdivision.