Westland 50th Anniversary

8/17/2019 Westland 50th Anniversary

1/8

Before Westland was incorporatedas a city May 16, 1966, it was NankinTownship. But before that, the area thatis now Westland was part of the muchlarger Bucklin Township.

Covering an area that included whatis now Westland, Livonia, Garden City,Inkster, Wayne, Dearborn, DearbornHeights and Redford, Bucklin wasformed in 1827.

It was named for Joseph Bucklin,credited with firing a musket in 1772

and severely wounding a British navalcaptain — the first intentional andplanned attack on British forces in theAmerican Revolution.

Even earlier, Algonquin tribes —Potawatomi, Ojibwa and Ottawa — meteach year at the middle fork of theRouge River near where it joins withTonquish Creek to establish huntingterritories. Today, their meeting placeis the site of Nankin Mills.

Bucklin’s namesake didn’t last long.There was a proposal in 1829 to divide

WESTLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Palace Inn was an old Nankin Township watering hole, located on AnnArbor Trail and Merriman. The photo was taken sometime in the 1940s.

hometownlife.com O & E Media | Thursday, May12, 2016 (WGRL ) C1

50TH

WES TLAND ANNIVERSARY

A LOOKAT HISTORY

The city of Westland

celebrates its 50th an-

niversary of incorpora-

tion with a day-long

party. In this special

eight-page section, the

Westland Observer

looks at some of the

people who’ve been a

part of that move-

ment, the leaders and

events that shapedhistory.

Inside this section,

you’ll find photos from

the city’s past, as well

as details of some of its

development and com-

ments from people

who led the city.

Enjoy!

City’s history began in Bucklin TownshipLeAnne Rogers

Staff Writer

SeeHISTORY, Page C5

An overview photo of Westland City Hall on Ford Road, looking south. It served as Nankin Township Hallbefore the 1966 incorporation as a city and was demolished last month. Note the big empty field beyond theparking at the top of the photo. That’s were the Bailey Recreation Center, Central City Park and Tattan Parkwere later developed. At the bottom of the photo, the vacant land across the street is home to the Krogerstrip center today.

It will be an all-day celebrationMonday, May 16, as Westland cele-brates 50 years to the day since itchanged from Nankin Township toincorporate as a city.

The festivities kick off at WestlandCity Hall on Warren Road, east ofCentral City Parkway, at 11 a.m. with aceremony that will include the open-ing of a time capsule that was buriedin front of the old city hall 50 yearsago.

There will be refreshments servedthroughout the days as guests cantake self-guided tours of city hall, seehistorical displays and art displays in

the gallery.At 6 p.m., there will be the regular

city council meeting, including a spe-cial 50th anniversary recognition anda cake.

The Mayors’ Homecoming Recep-tion will be held 7-9 p.m., with all theliving mayors invited to participate inreminiscing about the city’s 50 years,followed by a question-and-answerperiod.

The city’s former mayors (firstMayor Thomas Brown, namesake ofCentral City/Thomas Brown Park, isdeceased) are expected to join currentMayor William Wild at the celebra-tion.

Everyone is invited to the festiv-ities.

Celebrations mark 50th anniversary

Lyndon Johnson was presi-dent of the United Statesand George Romney was

governor of Michigan. Thebiggest hits of the year wereFrank Sinatra’s “Strangers inthe Night” and Percy Sledge’s“When a Man Loves a Wom-an.”

“Star Trek” and “Batman”(the TV shows, not the movies)premiered, along with thepopular “Hollywood Squares,”but nothing was more popularwith TV watchers than “Bonanza.”

Miniskirts were at the peak of theirpopularity as a group of dedicated

residents of Nankin Township sawtheir dreams and hard work come tofruition in the birth of a city.

The year was 1966 — the yearWestland officially became a city.

At that time, my parents rented ahome from former state Rep. JustineBarns on Alpena Court, which is locat-ed in what is now known as The His-toric Norwayne District, and theywould soon bring into this world a sonwho would grow up to be the mayor ofthis new city 40 years later.

I am extremely proud to serve asthe eighth mayor of this great city andhave had the honor to do so since2007. I love my city and I hope you seeand feel my passion in my work. Ican’t think of anywhere else I would

want to raise my fam-ily.

It’s hard to believethe area which wasonce inhabited by Pota-watomi Native Amer-icans would becameBucklin Township andthen Nankin Township andwould one day emerge asMichigan’s 10th largest citywith more than 85,000 resi-dents.

It wasn’t always easy, butafter the city’s founding fathers hadthe foresight to fight off an annex-ation attempt by the city of Livonia

for the land that would soon encom-pass the Westland Shopping Center,Westland soon became a city. It hasn’tlooked back since.

Westland was led from the start byits first mayor, Thomas H. Brown,through the late ’60s, and by MayorsEugene McKinney and Thomas F.Taylor throughout the ’70s. It’s note-worthy that both of these intelligentgentlemen still call Westland homeand have helped with its upcomingcelebration.

The ’80s saw the leadership ofMayors Charles W. Pickering andCharles “Trav” Griffin, who servestoday as a Wayne-Westland Communi-ty Schools trustee. Mayor Robert J.Thomas led the city through tremen-

dous growth from 1990-2002and still stands as the long-est-serving mayor in thecity’s history.

Sandra Cicirelli becamethe city’s first female mayorin 2002 and served through2006 before being elected to

serve as an 18th District Court judge.All the mayors worked with vari-

ous city councils, commissions andemployees to continue to move thecity forward. While all had their ownchallenges and politics to overcome,you can still see the mark that eachmade on the city, in their own way,yet today.

Westland is now 22 square milesand is home to 25,000 single-familyhomes and more than 22,000 multi-family residences and condomini-ums. Our proud city boasts a thriv-ing local economy that has histori-cally been retail-based, but has di-versified to meet the demands ofFord plants in nearby Wayne andLivonia and is currently attractinginvestments in the manufacturing,medical, bioscience, cloud comput-ing and nanotechnology sectors.

Westland has long been known asa great place to raise a family. Withplenty of clean safe neighborhoods,award-winning police and fire de-

All-American city still the place to be

William

Wild

MAYOR OF

WESTLAND

See WILD, PageC5


2/8

C2 (WGRL ) O & E Media | Thursday, May12, 2016 hometownlife.com


3/8

FRIENDS OF ELOISE

The staff at Eloise, circa 1963.

Despite origins as apoor house serving theindigent, Eloise’s rootsare a rich part of West-land’s background, dat-ing back more than 175years and providing avaluable history of abygone era.

The history that sur-rounds the Wayne Coun-ty Infirmary, Psychiatricand General HospitalComplex — most com-monly referred to asEloise — includes anoriginal 208-acre plot ofland near the intersec-tion of Merriman Roadand Michigan Avenue.

With physicians andmedical professionalsintently focused on pro-viding care and assis-tance to the needy, thefacility opened in 1839with 35 residents. Eloisesaw dramatic growththroughout the next cen-tury, expanding to servemore than 10,000 peopledaily at its pinnacle dur-ing the 1930s on morethan 900 acres.

Eloise eventually be-came one of the largestpublic health facilities inthe United States, saidJeffery Koslowski, aWestland resident andpresident of the West-land Historical Commis-sion.

“Eloise has a remark-able history and I thinkthat it is important thatpeople recognize thatfact,” he said. “There arepeople that think of Elo-ise just as a spooky oldbuilding on MichiganAvenue and it is so muchmore than that. We needto erase the notion that itwas a sad and depressingplace. ”

One of a kindIn fact, Koslowski

noted, for most, Eloisewas just the opposite: Acompletely self-suffi-cient community with 75buildings housing notonly hospital residents,

but more than 2,000 em-ployees and their fam-ilies.

Owned by WayneCounty, it was the onlyone of its kind in Michi-gan, perhaps the country,dedicated to providingcare for those in need ofphysical, psychologicaland financial help, Kos-lowski said.

Eloise was unique,agrees Patricia Ibbotson,a Westland resident andpresident of the Friendsof Eloise, a volunteerpreservation groupaimed at keeping alivethe memory of the in-stitution.

Ibbotson worked as anurse at the facility for

23 years in and is theauthor of 2002 book “Elo-ise: Poorhouse, Farm,Asylum and Hospital1839-1984,” providing adetailed look at daily lifeat the institution and itsexpansive grounds.

Within those groundsexisted a “city withinitself,” Ibbotson said: “Itwas practically self-sustaining.”

A lot going onAlthough only two

buildings on the groundsare currently operating,at one time the burgeon-ing property included notjust a psychiatric facility,a general hospital, aninfirmary and sanitariumfor tuberculosis patients,it also accommodated afarm, a piggery for pro-viding meat, a bakeryand a greenhouse, whereplants for landscapingand maintaining the spa-cious grounds were tend-ed.

The grounds also in-cluded a tobacco-curingbarn, a cemetery, a postoffice and public ser-vices such as a policeand fire department.There were also Eloise

trolley and train stations.“There was so muchgoing on at Eloise; itreally was an integralpart of the community.Not just Westland, but

surrounding communi-ties as well,” Ibbotsonsaid, recalling a storyabout an Eloise physi-cian’s wife from Waynewho visited the groundsweekly to ensure thatchurch services wereprovided for interestedresidents.

“This was a facilitythat provided assistanceand care for many, manypeople,” Ibbotson said.“Some were long-termresidents with physical

or mental health issues,some were short-termpatients. From the bak-ery to the farming andthe canning, it took a lotof work to keep it going.

Eloise touched manylives.”

The facility truly wasextraordinary, Koslowskiagrees.

State of the artAt its height, physi-

cians at Eloise were re-sponsible for providingstate-of-the-art medicaltreatments, attractingsome of the best medicalminds in the Detroitarea. Physicians at thefacilities were pioneer-

ing in many fields, hesaid.“Physicians in the

facility were the first inthe United States to per-form X-rays for diag-nostic purposes – some-time around the late1890s — and they weresome of the first to dokidney dialysis,” he said.In addition, Eloise physi-cians were among thefirst the first to exploreadvanced therapies formental health, includingmusic and recreationtherapies and even tele-vision therapy in the

1950s.Although some maytell tales of lobotomies

and electric shock thera-py to treat mental ill-nesses (both of which

were performed at Elo-ise), it must be estab-lished that these mea-sures were medicallyaccepted procedures atthat time, Koslowskinoted.

“Yes, these thingswere done, but they weredone with the best in-tentions in mind,” hesaid. “The physicians atEloise were trying to findways to cure people andhelp them re-establishthemselves into society.”

Unique historyFor longtime Westland

resident Jo Johnson,

Eloise’s history is unique-ly interwoven with histo-ry of the city of West-land, with the facilityexpanding as the cityitself grew.

When Eloise moved tothe area from Ham-tramck Township in 1839,the city of Westland didnot even exist, Johnsonsaid.

“The area was knownas Nankin Township andit was considered ‘thewilderness’ by some,”she said. “There weren’tany paved roads – just alot of corn fields.” Theproperty and its andsurrounding area re-mained part of NankinTownship until it wasincorporated by the cityof Westland in 1966.

After its peak in the1930s, growth at Eloisebegan to decline andoperations slowly groundto a halt. Farming opera-tions ceased in the 1950s,when outside vendorsbegan supplying food,Ibbotson said, and thepsychiatric facilityclosed in 1973, with pa-tients transferring toother state institutions.

As Wayne County

sought to divest itself of

Eloise remains a rich part of city’s historyJill HalpinCorrespondent

FRIENDS OF ELOISE

The Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric and General Hospital Complex — most commonlyreferred to as Eloise — includes an original 208-acre plot of land near the intersection ofMerriman Road and Michigan Avenue.

SeeELOISE, Page C6


WESTLAND 50TH ANNIVERSARY


4/8



The Norwayne subdivision,formed nearly a quarter-centu-ry before the city it now callshome, has seen prosperoustimes, survived an attempt toraze it and come out rebuildingon the other side.

Now activists, neighborhoodmembers and various volun-teers and groups are trying tomake sure that revitalizationcontinues — and they’re work-ing at it from the inside out.

At the heart of it now is theJefferson Barns CommunityVitality Center, a gem in themiddle of the neighborhoodthat has long taken pride in itshistory. And the man at thecenter of the revitalization,

Hank Johnson, believes thecommunity is worth the effort.

“I know the history of Nor-wayne. I know the people whocome from Norwayne and Iknow the spirit of Norwayne,”said Johnson, president of theNorwayne Community CitizensCouncil. “We’ve made a contri-bution to our country.”

The history is as good aplace as any to start. Norwaynewas formed in 1942, a responseto the “Arsenal of Democracy”attitude of the World War IIera. It was developed by theNational Housing Agency aspermanent housing for work-ers at the Willow Run plant,where B-24 bombers werebeing built, and other nearbyplants.

According to Johnson, peo-ple working in those plantswere “living in cardboard box-es” and other substandardhousing at the time. Nearly1,200 buildings were construct-ed, containing some 1,900dwellings (one- and two-bed-room row houses, two- andthree-bedroom duplexes andtwo-bedroom single homes).

The plants became thearea’s biggest employers. Wil-low Run peaked at some 42,000workers. Dormitories andtrailer parks constructed tohouse the workers weren’t

enough, which (according topapers submitted during Nor-wayne’s Historic District des-ignation application process)led to the development of Nor-wayne. Norwayne was grantedits historic designation in 2012.

The initial projection forNorwayne population wasestimated at 20,000, but neverhit that level, according to thehistoric documentation. By1958, for a federal application

to the National Park Service,population was given as ap-proximately 9,500. The pop-ulation dwindled through theyears; in 1979, it was down to5,000.

Sprawl hit Nankin Townshipin the 1950s, Johnson said, andNorwayne began to thrive. Theneighborhood became so pop-ulous, he said, that it had notonly a positive effect on Nor-wayne and Nankin Township,but also on business in sur-rounding areas, such as thevillage of Wayne.

“It definitely had an impacton Wayne,” Johnson said. “Weare much closer to Wayne than,say, the Westland ShoppingCenter. All of those (Wayne)businesses were important tofamilies in Norwayne.”

Families were also key toNorwayne, according to for-mer Mayor Gene McKinney,

who grew up just outside Nor-wayne, in the area aroundWayne Road and Cherry Hill.McKinney, who would laterbecome the second mayor ofWestland, said Norwayne’sbiggest impact may have beenon the school district.

“Norwayne was very in-strumental in the developmentof Nankin Township,” McKin-ney said. “Thousands of peoplecame in here. It completely

changed the school district.”Like many areas through

the ’60s and ’70s, Johnson said,Norwayne fell on hard times.Residents beat back an attemptby then-Nankin Township Su-pervisor Joe Tattan to raze theneighborhood and eventuallybegan the long trek back.

It took a realization of theproblem. Johnson said land-lords started being more ab-sentee in nature and “didn’tcare” to whom they were rent-ing. He said the once-proudNorwayne neighborhood to“being known as “Shacktown.”

But the neighborhood hasalso produced residents withgreat achievements. Accordingto Johnson, the area has pro-duced, among others, threemayors (Tom Brown, BobThomas and Bill Wild) and acouple of state representa-tives.

“People had forgotten thehistory of Norwayne,” Johnsonsaid. “We needed to re-educatepeople. (Norwayne) peoplehave contributed locally andeven nationally.”

Johnson said McKinney,who grew up just outside theneighborhood, was one of thefirst to start the effort to bringit back.

“(McKinney) recognizedNorwayne was beginning to

falter in the 1970s,” Johnsonsaid. “He was the first mayorto recognize it, and he pulledpeople together to start lookingat ways to fix it.”

Now Johnson — who movedfor a time to Royal Oak, butcame home to take care of hismother — is among the leadersof the revitalization effort.Much of it centers aroundJefferson Barns, the renovatedformer Jefferson ElementarySchool, which sits in the middleof the neighborhood.

Wayne-Westland Schoolsofficials were going to closethe building and tear it down;instead, the Norwayne commit-tee secured a lease for $50 for50 years and have spent tens ofthousands of dollars reno-vating it.

The building now contains,among other things, a boxinggym, a library, a recreational

gym and various other class-rooms and facilities. The com-mittee is currently building aFairy Garden it hopes to openlater this year.

The effort, as Johnson isquick to point out, is being ledby current and former Nor-wayne residents. For instance,former resident Jeff Styressingle-handedly built the box-ing gym at Jefferson Barns.And Michael Cayley, a Nor-

wayne resident who now ownsa manufacturing company inChicago, is a consistent con-tributor to the revitalizationeffort.

Cayley feels an affinity forhis old neighborhood, whichincludes a park named for hisfather.

“I wanted to help keep upthe park ... I drive by it everytime I go to visit,” Cayley said.“I hope they can (revitalize).Everyone involved is workingvery hard to do it.”

The effort is working. Ac-cording to Johnson, some 47blighted homes have beenremoved. Dorsey Road hasbeen improved. The city ofWestland, he said, is puttingmoney into the community.Johnson attributes the successof the revitalization to currentMayor William Wild, whomJohnson said vowed to “move

Norwayne from the back burn-er to the front burner.”As Norwayne eyes its 75th

anniversary next summer, oneof its native sons is happy to beinvolved.

“I didn’t want (Norwayne’s)end story to be, ‘We were beat-en up,’” Johnson said. “It’simportant to me.”

[email protected]

Twitter: @bkadrich

Historic Norwayne benefits from revitalization effortBrad Kadrich

Staff Writer

A view of Norwayne, circa 1948.

BILL BRESLER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Norwayne activists say contributions from Norwayne residents like JeffStyers, who funded the boxing facility at Jefferson Barns, are instrumentalin the neighborhood’s revival. Arenac Court in Norwayne.

The advertisement in theDetroit Times screamed ofopportunity and, before long,hundreds of African-Americanfamilies were taking advan-tage of it.

It was the 1950s and De-troit’s African-American pop-ulation had doubled from some150,000 to 300,000. Familieswere looking for a place to live.

With discrimination ram-pant in the housing industryand banks reluctant to backmortgages for black families,Julius Schwartz decided togive them that opportunity.

Schwartz, a white devel-oper, and his brother Williambought some 85 acres of landin what was then Nankin Town-ship, in the area between Hen-ry Ruff and Middlebelt, southof Annapolis and north of VanBorn, and divided it into morethan 350 lots.

Since banks wouldn’t lend toAfrican Americans, theSchwartz brothers workedwith their brother-in-law, JackKellman, to form the FranklinMortgage Co.

And Annapolis Park, one ofthe first suburban neighbor-

hoods to cater to African-American home buyers, wasborn.

Reasther Everett and herhusband Arnell were one of theearliest families to settle there.The Everetts moved in in 1955and still live there 60 yearslater. Reasther Everett said themove to build the black neigh-borhood was a brave one.

“They were courageous todo it,” Everett said of the de-velopers. “At the time, itwasn’t popular.”

One of the reasons bankersweren’t willing to offer mort-gages to black families was aconcern they wouldn’t staylonger than five years. Accord-

ing to Delores Flowers, presi-dent of the Southeast WestlandHomeowners Association,there was also a concern thefamilies wouldn’t take goodcare of the homes.

It’s a kind of discrimination,Flowers said, that was preva-lent at the time. But both Flow-ers and Everett point out thequality of the neighborhood,still quiet and well-kept 60years later, shows how wrongthey were.

The brick homes containedtwo or three bedrooms andcost some $11,000 in 1954; the

price jumped to about $15,000by 1957. Apparently, the fearthe homes wouldn’t be takencare of was unfounded: Ever-ett points out her home isworth about $80,000 today.

“(Banks) perceived you hadthese black families who weregoing to let it fall apart,” Flow-ers said. “We’re still here, 60

years later.”The neighborhood has at-

tracted residents of all occupa-tions, including professionalssuch as engineers, teachers,nurses and pharmacists. Somefolks have left for Hollywood;there’s even a Marvelette (theall-girl group from the 1960s)in the area.

“People come out of thiscommunity and go on to doother things,” Delores Flowerssaid.

In the early 2000s, residentsstarted working on makingAnnapolis Park a historic dis-trict. Residents were inter-viewed, tax records re-searched and other back-ground material collected.

And it worked: In 2006,Annapolis Park became West-land’s first district to be listedon the National Register ofHistoric Places.

It’s a close-knit community,no longer all African American(though largely still). Originalresidents still dot the land-

scape and the children of otheroriginal families frequentlycome “home” to raise theirfamilies.

Reasther Everett takespride in being the self-appoint-ed “mayor” of Annapolis Park.She and Arnell raised fivechildren in Annapolis Park andwouldn’t have had it any otherway.

“The only place I’d ratherlive than living here is in heav-en,” Reasther said.

[email protected]

Twitter: @bkadrich

After 60 years, Annapolis Park is still going strongBrad Kadrich

Staff Writer

Annapolis Park covers the area between Henry Ruff and Middlebelt, southof Annapolis and north of Van Born.


5/8



partments, great schools,shopping, dining and a strongfocus on parks, senior ser-vices and recycling, currentand prospective home buyers

continue to be attracted to thehigh-quality, affordable life-style the city offers. Testimo-ny to this was Wall Street 24/7naming Westland to its 50Best Cities to Live in Under100,000 Population in 2015.

Westland residents haveenjoyed a resurgence in homevalues following recent cityinvestments in Central CityPark, which includes the in-credible Farmers & ArtisansMarketplace, the H20 ZoneSplash ground and the GiantPlay Planet play structure.

Westland has also been

addressing aging city build-ings with the recent award-winning project that saw thetransformation of a vacant bigbox building on Warren Roadinto a new spectacular energy-efficient modern city hall thathas turned into an economicengine for the city’s centralbusiness district surrounding

the mall and a gathering spotfor residents with its friendlyballrooms and meeting spaces.

And as our city ages like afine wine, we are also seeingthe emergence of the arts andculture within the communitywith the recent openings of anArt Gallery at city hall and aCommunity Theatre in theformer WLND Cable Building.

You can learn more aboutWestland’s history by attend-ing a Special HomecomingCeremony at 11 a.m. May 16 atcity hall, where local digni-taries and members of the

Westland Historical Commis-sion will be helping me unsealthe time capsule that was bur-ied 50 years ago. We will alsobe starting to fill another thatwill be buried later this year tobe opened 50 years from now.

There will also be an openhouse throughout the day andformer mayors will join me at

3 p.m. for a moderated dis-cussion that will be filmed byWLND. The Westland CityCouncil will meet for a shortmeeting at 6 p.m. We will closeout the night with a specialHomecoming Reception, host-ed by the mayors, with freefood, music, refreshments anda special champaign toast tothe next 50 years.

For more info, check outwww.cityofwestland.com orFacebook.

William R. Wild is the eighth mayor of

Westland.

WILDContinued from Page C1

Bucklin into two townships,

Lima and Richland. Due to aprohibition on duplicate placenames, Lima became Nankinafter the Chinese city Nankingand Richland become Pekinafter Peking.

The changes continued asPekin was renamed RedfordTownship in 1833, with thesouthern part later split off asDearborn Township. LivoniaTownship, now the city of Livo-nia, was established and splitoff from Nankin in 1835.

Over the years, GardenCity, Inkster and Wayne in-corporated, taking more landfrom Nankin Township.

“Garden City, Wayne andInkster took what they wanted

(of Nankin) and we had whatwas left,” said Jo Johnson ofthe Westland Historic Commis-sion.

There is a strip of land thatdog-legs south of Warren Roadon the east side of Merrimanthat many people assume isGarden City, but is actuallyWestland.

“Hawthorne Valley wasgoing to put in stables andother things on the east side ofMerriman,” Johnson said.

Early settler Marcus Swift,an ordained Methodist Episco-pal minister, served as the first

Nankin Township supervisor.He also held the post of over-

seer of the poor. C.D. Chubb,a member of another pioneerfamily, was the first townshipclerk.

Nankin Township saw itspopulation grow until theearly 1960s. Efforts by Livo-nia to annex land, includingthe site of Westland ShoppingCenter, led Nankin voters toapprove city incorporation in1966.

[email protected]

734-883-9039

Twitter: @LRogersObserver

WESTLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

An undated photo of Nankin Mills, located near where the Middle RougeRiver and Tonquish Creek join. On Ann Arbor Trail, it is home to a WayneCounty interpretive center.

HISTORYContinued from Page C1

Early settler Marcus Swift, anordained Methodist Episcopalminister, served as the firstNankin Township supervisor.

Former Westland Mayor

Gene McKinney got a surprisewhen he recently attended aWestland Democratic Clubmeeting.

“Everyone was so polite. Inthe old days, it was rough-and-tumble politics — all Demo-crats and heavily UAW,” saidMcKinney, the city’s secondmayor who served from 1969-75.

A journalist by training,McKinney worked for a num-ber of newspapers and eventu-ally was managing editor withAssociated Newspapers, whichpublished the Eagle newspa-pers.

“We opposed (Nankin Town-ship) Supervisor Joe Tattan.

There was a fundraiser at theVFW,” said McKinney, 80.“One of Tattan’s guys threw meout of the party. I was with mygirlfriend.”

McKinney grew up in Nan-kin Township when, as a 5-year-old in 1940, his familymoved into a home on CherryHill near Wayne. Cherry Hillwas a two-lane gravel road atthe time.

“My parents paid $2,000. Mymother would hate to hear me

say, it but it was a shack withno indoor plumbing — we hadan outhouse,” said McKinney,who lives in a second house onthe property later built for hismother. “We were the firsthouse in the neighborhood withelectricity.”

McKinney and his threesiblings attended Cady School,then went to Wayne for highschool. “I went to Wayne Highfor three years and in 1953 was

in the first graduating classfrom Wayne Memorial,” hesaid.

In the early 1960s, township

residents began to considerincorporation as Livonia waslooking to grab the north endof Nankin Township south toWarren Road, including theplanned site of Westland Shop-ping Center.

Stories written by McKin-ney and editorials make itclear that The Eagle was fullyin support of the incorporationand keeping the mall, fromwhich the city would take itsname.

“The mall was a factor.Livonia was taking steps toannex the mall. (The newspa-per) wanted the WestlandShopping Center ads,” saidMcKinney, who was elected to

the city charter commission.“Nankin Township was grow-ing so rapidly. There was noway, in my view, that the town-ship could handle the problemsit was facing.”

Cities are able to levy moremillage for additional services,he said, along with wantingWestland to have its own policeand fire services.

“I thought I would run forthe city charter commission. Iwasn’t a political partisan. I

felt as a newspaperman, Icould review the charter. Ididn’t plan to be in politics,”said McKinney, who ended up

being elected to council in 1967and mayor two years later.Once the charter commis-

sion did its work, McKinneysaid he attended about 25 PTAmeetings along with civic asso-ciations in an effort to sellresidents on the charter.

The late Thomas Brown,after whom Central City-Thomas Brown Park wasnamed, was elected the city’sfirst mayor. Like himself, Mc-Kinney said Brown was a Nan-kin native.

When he was elected mayorin 1969, defeating Brown, Mc-Kinney said he discovered anoversight in the charter.

“We made a real goof in the

charter. There was no time fortaking office, so you becamemayor the next day after theelection,” he said. “I walkedinto city hall and they wouldn’teven speak to me — they sup-ported Tom Brown.”

During his tenure as mayor,McKinney said he was proudthat a fire station was built onPalmer, a police station con-structed on Ford and that hetook steps to create civic in-stitutions such as establish-

ment of a local symphony or-chestra. A building was rentedto house district court opera-tions, which had been using

city hall.“(Next mayor) Tom Taylorfound a way to build a court —we already owned the proper-ty,” McKinney said. “Thingskind of evolve. In my admini-stration, we started things thathad to be carried on, like thatbeautiful library. I dreamed ofa Westland library. We got itthanks to (former supervisorand later state senator) BillFaust.”

The biggest disappointmentfor McKinney was the failureof his road paving program,which proved unpopular withresidents.

McKinney was also sorry tosee the recent demolition of

the old city hall — built beforethe incorporation.

“Every mayor overlookedthe building being watersoaked,” he said, noting he hadwritten the text to a plaquededicating the building to thememory of President John F.Kennedy, who had recentlybeen assassinated.

[email protected]

734-883-9039

Twitter: @LRogersObserver

Nankin native McKinney one of Westland’s early leadersLeAnne Rogers

Staff Writer

BILL BRESLER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Nankin Township native GeneMcKinney was in the firstgraduating class at WayneMemorial High School and becamethe second mayor of Westland.

50 years of Westland’s leaders

Charles “Trav” Griffin(1986-90)

Bob Thomas (1990-2001)

Charles Pickering(1982-86)

Gene McKinney (1969-75) Thomas Taylor (1975-82)Thomas Brown (1966-69)

Willliam Wild(2007-present)

Sandra Cicirelli (2002-06)


6/8



the Eloise property,buildings were razed andthe acreage was divided.

Although some land par-cels have already soldand redeveloped, someproperty remains forsale.

Beneficial role“That property in-

cludes Kay Beard Build-ing, the old fire hall, theold power plant and theremains of the bakery,which was victim of anarson fire in late March,”Ibbotson said.

Ibbotson and othersare hopeful that what-ever the fate of the prop-erty, Eloise can be recog-nized for its beneficial

role.“Eloise played an

important role in thecommunity by offeringassistance and aid to

those in need in Westlandand surrounding commu-nities,” Johnson said. “Ithink it deserves to beboth recognized andremembered.”

A Westland historiccommissioner, Johnson

was part of a group re-sponsible for the state ofMichigan HistoricalMarker commemoratingthe site’s significance.

Johnson has alsoworked with Koslowksiand others worked toestablish the Eloise Mu-seum to house remainingartifacts from the facil-ity. The artifacts, on a49-year loan from thecounty, include medicalbags and equipment,cups and silverwarestamped with the Eloiseinsignia and more.

The museum will belocated at 857 N. Wayne

Road on the grounds ofthe Westland HistoricVillage Park and isscheduled to open some-time in late 2016.

Mayor William Wildsaid that the Eloise pro-vide museum will be avaluable addition to thecity.

“Eloise is Westland’soldest and most histori-cal landmark,” he said.

“Scholars continue toresearch the history ofthis once thriving self-sustaining city. It’s excit-ing knowing that theEloise Museum, whichwill be located at theWestland Historical Vil-lage Park, will open laterthis year as the city ofWestland celebrates its50th anniversary.”

Koslowski agrees.“It is important for

people to know the truthabout Eloise,” he said.“This was a facility thatcared for people whensociety cast them out,that baked bread to feed

people when they werehungry and provide carefor people when theyneeded it. It was a placethat helped others.”

ELOISEContinued from Page C3


7/8



8/8


Westland 50th Anniversary

Documents

Transcript of Westland 50th Anniversary