NORTHVILLIANS,

• NCF Holiday Home Tour goes virtual this year. For more info, go online at northvillecommunityfoundation.org or contact Christmas Carol at 248 347 0200.
   
• Christmas in the Village (Mill Race Historical Village) – Take a stroll through the village and experience Christmas of Yesteryear… there will be official walk-throughs on Dec. 4-5, but I suggest you choose any day to do your own guided tour of the Village, beautifully decorated in holiday trim.
   
• December in Downtown Northville – “A Holiday to Remember!”  Fridays will feature music in the streets, Saturdays Horse & Buggy rides and on Sundays, we’ll have live Reindeer.

• Moderna says it plans to release a modified COVID-19 vaccine for the Omicron variant by early 2022. Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson will follow soon after. (news.yahoo.com) 
   
• COVID-19 CONFIRMED CASES:  Northville has had 371 cases/8 fatalities*, Township 3200/53, Michigan 1.5M/25K, Nation 48M/779K, Global 262M/5.2M. (CDC.com) *Wayne County data

• Growing up in a multi-generational family from the Ville, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to dreams of the past, experience concepts of today and assist in guiding the trajectory of the Northville of tomorrow. Today, we focus on dreams past.
• Source of Stories:  Articles from The Northville Record dating back to 1869 (oldest newspaper in the State). These are the foundation for my local history along with our library, stories and files from past generations.
• We’ll look back at dreams from Northvillians who lived in the 1800’s, according to The Record & Jack Hoffman’s Northville - The First 100 Years.  These descriptions romanticize Northville (the town carved out by the glaciers).
• Early on in 1826, the pioneering Yerkes Family came on the scene.  They didn’t come for gold or to speculate on lands or railroads, stocks or bonds – they were homesteaders.
• Northville’s first settlers dreamed of making it a mill town, with its three rivers coming together to provide power for the machinery of flour mills, sawmills, and gristmills. This dream soon became a reality.
• One of the old pioneer mills that played a prominent role in this community’s history is the Northville Mills which sat on the grounds of what is the Mill Race Village today.
• According to Michele Fecht’s book, Northville, the early 1827 gristmills spurred growth in the area and were the catalyst for development of the village.  It was the only place that gristmills could be found in the territory.
• The mills brought production, notoriety and even some prosperity to the area, attracting other industries including foundries who also used the water tributaries. Production of Bells, Scales, School & Church furniture (made by Globe, the largest manufacturer in the country) were centered in Northville.
• With stagecoach teams stopping multiple times each day, along with trains and trolleys, Northville’s downtown started to take shape. Soon, a plethora of businesses sprouted up, offering a variety of products and services. Things were booming so much that Northville started to lay cement sidewalks in 1867 to replace the wood walkways.
• Businesses such as Parmenter’s Cider Mill (still here today), Northville Lumber (oldest business in Michigan), Rogers Condensed Milk, Bells, Scales, and even the finest Fish Hatchery in the nation started here with various patents.
• The town grew, and culture was part of that too, with the construction in 1876 of the largest opera house in the state (seating 800).  Henry Ford spent a great deal of time in the Ville and had his eye set on that Opera House for his Greenfield Village.
• In 1892 a book was printed entitled Northville, the Ideal Suburban Village. The Eagle Steam Printing & Engraving Company published it to promote the virtues and growing popularity of the village of Northville. The book highlighted the community’s extensive manufacturing, its vital downtown and its diverse retail segment, as well as other noteworthy institutions.
• Our community has the distinction of being one of the top areas for Victorian Architecture in Michigan and in the country, with many of our downtown businesses & homes on the National Historic Registry. The Victorian era (1837-1901) corresponds with the growth of our community.

I hope you enjoyed a look back on what made our city special in the 1800’s. Next week we’ll transition to the 1900’s and what was happening locally, followed by the transition into the 21st century. I truly believe we have to know our legacy to plot our trajectory for the future.  We are on the shoulders of those before us, and it is our privilege and duty to ready our beloved town for the next generation.  

Keep that Northville Futuring Faith!