Long before Northville
Downs
became a
reality (mid 1940's), Northville boasted a race track. At the turn of
the century the property was purchased at
Center and Seven Mile Road
for a
private nine hole golf course. A few years later a group of men, led
by the late Ed Starkweather, started an "
Athletic
Park
" on the site where harness
racing occurred. Later, it was here that the Wayne County Fairgrounds
were located. The building in the foreground is the then new electric
light plant, having replaced the generator in the Globe furniture
factory. This picture was taken shortly after the turn of the
century.
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The story is told that
Main
Street
was "paved" with leather
scraps tossed out by shoemakers who operated businesses here early in the
Nineteenth Century. The Phillips family settled here early, and
obviously one of them was a shoemaker. It is believed, although the
author cannot be certain, that this shop was located on the north side of
Main Street
,
between Center and Hutton.
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