I would strongly urge you to send in the request by mail. I used to always go to the office in person to make my requests, but when I tried it by mail for the first time recently, I actually got better results [[e.g., fewer gaps) because I think the supervisor handled the request personally.

You will need the legal description of the property, which for that address is:

CE70 71 LOTS 70 AND 71 ALSO ELY 1/2 ADJ VAC ALLEY PENNSYLVANIA GARDENS SUB PC 50 L48 P12 WCR

This means that the property consists of lots 70 and 71, plus half of the now-vacated alley behind the property in the Pennsylvania Gardens subdivision, part of Private Claim #50 as recorded in Liber/Book 48, Page 12 of plats, as recorded by the Wayne County Register of Deeds.

The initial search costs $15, so you will also need a money order in that amount made out to Wayne County Register of Deeds. Write a letter to that name at 400 Monroe Street, 7th Floor, Detroit MI 48226, attach the money order, and state that you are making a search and copy request for the address you mentioned, and include the legal description above. Tell them you want just the first page of each deed going back to the platting of the property. And of course, include your phone number. It has taken as long as three weeks for the search to be completed, but when it is done, you will know exactly who owned the property throughout its existence.

I've never asked them for copies of platting maps, but there is another way you can see them. You can find them on a website run by the state of Michigan, as long as you know the subdivision name:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps/sr_subs.asp

The property you are looking for is part of this subdivision:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps...SUBINDEX=19564

Just as the legal description notes, that house is on lots 70 and 71. They were probably combined at some point. If you can find out which one the house was originally built on, note that in your request so that you don't get the whole history of the vacant lot next to it [[unless you really want it).

It looks like that land was platted in 1923, so your request shouldn't take too long. When your documents are ready, you will have to pick them up in person and pay for the rest of the pages. The $15 search fee includes the first five pages of documents, but you will have to pay $1 per page after that. For a property that only goes back to 1923, I can't imagine it would be any more than $10 pages, and probably a lot fewer.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.