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The Origin and Early Development of The City of Grosse Pointe

Grosse Pointe Township was established as the first governmental entity for the area from Lake St. Clair inland beyond Gratiot and Waterworks Park to Baseline Road (Eight Mile Road) in 1846. Grosse Pointe Township was required by law to regulate villages within its boundaries. Its first municipality, the Village of Grosse Pointe, was incorporated in 1879; it reached along the shore of Lake St. Clair from above Provencal Road to Fisher Road. In 1889, the boundary was extended to Cadieux Road. This community, following a cottagers’ failed attempt to create a separate, shoreline hamlet, was divided in 1893 at Fisher Road, with the eastern portion becoming the Village of Grosse Pointe Farms and the western part forming what is the boundary of today’s City of Grosse Pointe. In 1907, when Detroit annexed the Village of Fairview to Wayburn Avenue, the area from there to Cadieux Road was incorporated as the Village of Grosse Pointe Park. In 1911, residents along the lake established the Village of Grosse Pointe Shores, which extended into Macomb County's Lake Township. Inland, residents waited until 1927 to create the Village of Lochmoor. In 1934, The Village of Grosse Pointe was reincorporated as a City.

 Key Dates

• 1679   Lake Sainte Claire was so christened by Father Louis Hennepin, Chaplain to LaSalle, because their vessel, the "Griffin," entered the waters of the Lake on August 12, the feast day of Sainte Claire.

• 1712 The only warlike event in the history of Grosse Pointe is a battle which took place at Windmill Pointe in 1712, and which probably gave Fox Creek its name. There are two somewhat conflicting accounts but both agree on the following: The Fox Indians from Wisconsin established a fortified village within pistol shot of Fort Pontchartrain.  Trouble developed between them and the French, and Dubuisson, the acting Commandant who had succeeded Cadillac, was able to gather quickly an army of 1200 friendly Indians. The Fox warriors, only about 300 in number, cut off as they were from food and water, after nineteen days of siege, took advantage of a stormy night to try to escape.  The pursuing French and Indian allies overtook the Fox at Windmill Pointe and a hard fought battle took place. A great many Indian skeletons, tomahawks and other implements of war have been unearthed in the higher ground of Windmill Pointe near the mouth of Fox Creek.

• 1740   Burton's History of Detroit states that most of the river front has been taken up for farms, from which we may conclude that at least a part of Grosse Pointe was settled that early by the French.

• 1760  The surrender of Detroit to the English caused many of the French settlers to leave Detroit and occupy their farms in Grosse Pointe.

• 1763  Grosse Pointe farmers, because the French had befriended the Native Americans, were able to continue living almost as usual in spite of the siege of Detroit by Chief Pontiac.

• 1774  Captain Alexander Grant, commander of the British Navy on the Great Lakes, married Therese Barthe, a sixteen-year-old French Catholic of Detroit. Grant had previously served in the same army with Washington at the surrender of Fort Duquesne, and with Lord Amherst on Lake Champlain, where he had been detailed to Naval Command. Probably in 1775 Grant bought a 640-acre farm in Grosse Pointe and built a house know as "Grant's Castle," described in an early newspaper as being sixty feet wide and two hundred and eighty feet long, just south of where the unfinished John Dodge house once stood. Grant bought the farm from his brotherin-law, John Askin, and Askin later became the father-in-law of Elijah Brush, the founder of the well-known Brush family, which has also been much associated with Grosse Pointe.

• Grant was also Lieutenant Governor of the county, which caused him to entertain the great Tecumseh and other Native American chiefs at his Grosse Pointe estate, and he was a member of the Governor's Executive Council, which for many years ruled nearly half the continent. In addition to his family of one son and eleven daughters, who are described in an existing letter as the finest girls in this part of the country, Grant purchased from the Indians a three-year-old boy stolen from his home in the Ohio Country.  He adopted this boy and when he married Judith Campau, gave him the farm later owned by T. P. Hall.

 It is still a mystery how Grant was able to continue in Grosse Pointe after the United States took over the Michigan territory in 1796, but he lived there until his death in 1813, a few months before Perry's victory on Lake Erie.

• 1796  Detroit was taken over by the United States. This led to the establishment of a Land Board, which determined the ownership of all Private Claims out to Gaukler's Point.

• 1796  The following families, still well known in Grosse Pointe, were already in possession of farms: Poupard, Campau, Socia, Rivard, Ellair, Vernier, Renaud, Allard, Kerby.

• 1798  Father Gabriel Richard came to Detroit, and first came to Grosse Pointe as a visiting priest in 1800.

• 1805  A crucifix twenty feet in height, which had been carved by a Native American, stood on the bank of the lake just beyond Vernier Road.

 • 1819  Pierre Provencal retired from business in Detroit and built a house in Grosse Pointe. Part of this house still stands, but was moved in 1899 to the southeast corner of Lakeview and Kercheval, a block beyond Moross Road. 

• Between 1825 and 1833 a log hut was built at the site of the Crucifix. This was the first St. Paul's Catholic Church.

• 1846  All that part of Hamtramck Township beyond the Detroit Waterworks was organized into Grosse Pointe Township.

• 1846  Four acres on the Lake, site of St. Paul's Church, were bought for $200.

• 1850  The second St. Paul's Church was built on the site of the present one.

• 1850-1860  Summer homes were built in Grosse Pointe by D. Bethune Duffield and by Francis Palms. Before 1860, the brick house which still stands at the corner of Three Mile Drive and Jefferson Avenue, once owned by H. F. Wardwell, was built by Henry Seitz. This is the oldest brick house in Grosse Pointe.

• 1871  Charles and Edward Moran of Grosse Pointe reclaimed the Grand Marais, about 900 acres of land between Jefferson and the lake and river, by throwing up a dike and using a steam pump.

• 1875  John S. Newberry and James McMillan, later United States Senator, built quite similar houses on a property known as Lake Terrace, and they owned together with their neighbor, Mr. Brush, a long dock where was moored the Newberry yacht "Truant" and Mr. Brush's yacht "Lillie". These boats were used partly for pleasure but were also the best way to get to Detroit during the summer months.  Driving a horse and buggy to Detroit in muddy weather was, at this time, likely to take between 4 and 5 hours.

• 1876  Rufus M. Kerby was operating the Grosse Pointe Post Office and a small store next to the Church.  In 1893, the building was moved back on Kerby Road and was used as the first Village Hall until 1912.

• 1879  Grosse Pointe Village was organized and included only the property between Fisher Road and Weir Lane.

• 1880  Theodore P. Hall, a banker, built a home which he called "Tonnancour," with a frontage of 600 feet on the lake, where Tonnancour Road is now.

• 1884  The Grosse Pointe Club was organized, purchased for either $8,000 or $16,000 as the eight acres where the Dillman house, "Rose Terrace," later stood, and opened its club house in 1886.

• 1885  Most of the property between Ridge and Mack Avenues in Grosse Pointe Farms was a heavily wooded swamp which extended several miles north and south. About 1885, the County dug Black Marsh Ditch (now St. Paul Avenue), which drained the northerly part of the swamp into Milk River and the southerly part into Fox Creek. In the early days, the Native Americans were able to use the two creeks and marsh in times of high water as a canoe route, which enabled them to avoid rough water on Lake Sainte Claire.

• 1887  A railroad to operate by steam or electricity was built by Calvin K. Brandon, Hibbard Baker and Hoyt Post, out Jefferson from the Waterworks to Fisher Road. Another line known as the East Detroit and Grosse Pointe Electric Railway was built from the Waterworks  out Cadillac to Mack along Mack to St. Clair Road in Grosse Pointe and down St. Clair to Jefferson.  Both lines at first used steam engines known as dummies and neither showed a profit, but helped considerably in the development of Grosse Pointe.

• 1889  Grosse Pointe Village was extended south to Cadieux Road.

• 1890  Grosse Pointe Waterworks Co. was organized and a pumping station was built at Moross and Lake Shore Road.

• 1893  An argument arose as to the sale of liquor in a roadhouse called "Termont's," which stood on part of the Frederick M. Alger property.  It resulted in the organization of a new village, Grosse Pointe Farms, which took the boundaries of Fisher Road and Weir Lane.

• 1893  The Village of Grosse Pointe establishes new boundaries from Fisher Road to Cadieux Road.

•  1895  John B. Dyar, in spite of considerable opposition from lake front property owners, acquired franchises and built the Detroit and Lake St. Clair Railway from Fisher Road to Mt. Clemens. Through the efforts of Senator McMillan and others, Grosse Pointe Boulevard was opened from Fisher Road to Weir Lane, making it possible to keep the railway off the lake front in Grosse Pointe Farms. 

• 1899   The present St. Paul's church was first used for the funeral of Father Elsen, through whose efforts it had been built. It was planned to name the new church and parish Saint Clair's but the necessary permission could not be secured from Rome.

• 1906   New bridges were built at Connors and Fox Creeks and a wide brick pavement was built from St. Jean in Detroit to Cadieux in Grosse Pointe.

• 1907   The Village of Grosse Pointe Park was incorporated. It extended from a point 200 feet east of Alter Road to Cadieux Road, its present limits, but at that time ran from the lake to a line 500 feet south of Mack Avenue.  Until 1907 the Village of Fairview had included all that part of Grosse Pointe Township between Bewick Avenue, near the waterworks and Cadieux Road.  In 1907, all the lower part of Fairview was annexed to Detroit which necessitated the organization of Grosse Pointe Park.

• 1911  Village of Grosse Pointe Shores was incorporated and its limits have never been changed. One of the principal reasons for its incorporation was the necessity of a dependable water system; wells and windmills having been the supply up to that time.

• 1912  A community house was established under the name of the Neighborhood Club. In 1927, a generous citizen of Grosse Pointe gave the Club 8 acres of land and $150,000 was raised through popular subscription to build and equip the Club.

• 1917  The Cottage Hospital was organized as a unit of the Neighborhood Club because of the war time influenza epidemic. In 1928, the present Cottage Hospital was built. 

• 1922  The various Grosse Pointe public schools were consolidated into the present school district under the administration of the Grosse Pointe Board of Education.

• 1925  The Country Club of Detroit’s new club house was destroyed in the greatest fire in the history of the Pointes.

• 1926  The Parish of St. Clair of Monte Falco was established, and built a Catholic Church and School on property at Audubon and Charlevoix.

• 1928  Grosse Pointe's first public golf course, the "Renmor," was opened on property just south of the Lochmoor Club.

• 1929  The Grosse Pointe Yacht Club was built on filled in property at the foot of Vernier Road.

• 1930  Grosse Pointe Farms built a filtration plant and pumping station to supply water to its own residents, all of the City of Grosse Pointe and a part of Grosse Pointe Shores.

• 1934  The Village of Grosse Pointe was re-incorporated as a city.

• 1939 The Grosse Pointe School Board sells a portion of Maire school property to extend the Village commercial district.

• 1978 City of Grosse Pointe firefighter Richard Tucker was killed in the line of duty while fighting an arson fire in Grosse Pointe Park. He is the only public safety officer to die in the line of duty.

• 1980 The City of Grosse Pointe established a new Public Safety Department by combining the separate Police and Fire Departments into one. The newly formed Department merged the existing police officers and firefighters into this Public Safety Department by cross-training the employees with both disciplines.

• 1993   The City of Grosse Pointe celebrates its 100th year. 

• 1997  President Clinton declares the Grosse Pointes a disaster area after the July storm that killed 5 people and damaged hundreds of homes throughout the Pointes. 

• 2002 The liquidation of Jacobson’s Department Store in the Village ended an era of its presence since 1944. 

• 2013  The marina channel at Neff Park is dredged to facilitate boaters due to low water levels in Lake St. Clair.

• 2013 The Cities of Grosse Pointe and Grosse Pointe Park receive a presentation of a ICMA report on Public Safety Consolidation.  An agreement with Grosse Pointe Park is approved for public safety dispatch operations.

• 2017  City of Grosse Pointe authorizes financing for City facilities, and adopts a Resolution to call a special election for the Public Safety and Public Service Bond Proposal. 

• 2018  The City of Grosse Pointe reviews plans and options for the Public Safety and Public Service facilities and approves preliminary designs and authorizes a single bond issuance for the projects.