Maple Lane Golf Course Farmhouse Fire [[early 1980s)

[msawyer91]

I remember as a kid riding with my parents west on 14 Mile Rd. to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Clawson and there was a pretty eerie looking farmhouse and adjacent barn on the grounds of Maple Lane Golf Course. The house sat about 1/4 mile west of Maple Lane/Chicago Rd. on the north side [[Sterling Heights) of 14 Mile.

I remember going by it one day and seeing that it had burned, and if it was eerie looking before, it was outright frightening looking after the fire. OK, so I was a little kid but for some reason even now, at 33, I cannot get that image out of my head. it was permanently burned into my brain.

Not long after the fire the house was demolished, and all that remains is the foundation and boarded up basement, and the last time I went by there, the barn is still standing.

Needless to say I've searched in vain to find pictures of that farmhouse, using Google and Bing with all kinds of search terms but to no avail. The amount of luck I've had is zero.

The Sterling Heights Public Library has a page for the Sterling Heights Historical Commission which talks about the history of the golf course: http://www.shpl.net/SHHCArticles.html#Maple_Lane

The write-up was done by SHHC commissioner Laura Szpont, but there is no contact information for her on either the SHPL or Sterling Heights' municipal website. Interestingly, while Ms. Szpont's write-up talks about the history of the farm that existed there, and the golf course, it speaks nothing about the farmhouse or the fire. Two family names were given as early owners of the farm, the first being the Stickney family and the second being the Wieg family.

Does anybody have any pictures of the farmhouse that they'd be willing to share, either before or [[preferably) after the fire [[before demolition, of course)? Also, does anyone recall what year the fire occurred? What about the cause? And if memory serves me right, I think it was an elderly lady who lived there and she may have passed in the fire.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Matt

[Ray1936]

Can't help you, Matt, but I had to chuckle at how this 'event' burned itself into your brain as a

youngster. I have a number of similar "remembrances" that have no earthly reason for being embedded in my grey cells, but there they are.

Good luck on your search.

[msawyer91]

Thanks Ray. Like you I have a few "remembrances" that found permanent homes in my memory. Around the same time [[early 1980s), not far from the aforementioned farmhouse, a natural gas pumping station exploded. It was very cold out, and one of the pipes cracked. I can recall the rumbling of the gas escaping the damaged pipe, and the subsequent explosion. I lived in Roseville at the time; as the crow flies, about 4 miles from the gas line that exploded. I can still see the bright orange flames leaping hundreds of feet into the night sky. My parents said that the flames cast light that could be seen as far north as Bay City.

EDIT: Found a forum thread that talks about the compressor station explosion, with pictures. Alas, if only I could find ones of the farmhouse! http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1203375684

[dodgemain]

Here is a aerial from 1967[[DTE) that shows some buildings.

[old guy]

Not to thread jack, but I still have the vision of a clown from a Shriner Circus emblazoned in my brain from 55 years ago. Really creeps me out to this day.

[msawyer91]

@dodgemain Thanks for the picture. Wow, I didn't realize that those three apartment buildings existed back in the 60s. It's interesting to see the small subdivision [[the "U" shaped streets) being developed. I compared your picture with a current Google map [[satellite view) and other than some new development, not much has changed. The yellow arrow on the right is probably the biggest change--that looks to now be a senior apartment building. The one on the left is the farmhouse, and the boarded-up basement/foundation is very visible in the Google satellite view.

I was just hoping that perhaps someone took pictures after the fire, whether it was a nearby resident or perhaps one of the local newspapers. I tried searching the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News Archives; they have pretty decent archive search but I couldn't find anything useful. I might give the Macomb Daily a try. It's too bad the Sterling Heights Historical Commission doesn't have a "contact us" link, whether it's an email address or a phone number. If that farm had historical significance to Sterling Heights, it would only make sense they'd have more info.

@old guy Not a problem. I've been to a handful of circuses--not very many--but those I've been to had some pretty scary looking clowns.

[JTistle1]

There was a plane crash on that golf course in 79, the pilot and her teenage passenger were killed. The pilot's boyfriend was flying behind her in another plane and watched it happen. As a kid, I used to hang out at McKinley airport, not far from there, and pilots would always take kids up for rides in the planes when they were around. I had actually been in that plane several times and was in it's last full flight a day or two before that.

[East Detroit]

SHHC runs under the Library.

Tammy Turgeon, Library Director, at 586-446-2640.
Community Relations at 586-446-2470.

[Detroitej72]

I remember the farmhouse well, we used to pass it going to my grandparents who lived in the subdivision behind there. I don't ever remember it being occupied. It seems for many years the house stood with the roof caved in. Then the house was demolished and the basement covered. My grandpa said the golf coarse used the basement and barn for storage, which still continues to this day. I always wondered if the golf coarse is the old farmland.

[msawyer91]

@East Detroit - thank you. I sent an email to Tammy Turgeon with the details, including a link to this forum thread. I was tempted to call her, but I figured she has more important things to do than seeking a picture of a burned out house from someone's childhood. I did request that she forward my query on to Laura Szpont, who appears to have researched the golf course and farm history.

@Detroitej72 - I wish I could remember how long the house stood after it burned. My recollection was that it was maybe a few weeks at most, but I could be wrong. My gut feeling is that it was in the 1980-82 timeframe when it burned, and if you take the high end of that I would've only been 5 years old. But that very roof cave-in is what stands out most in my mind. I don't know why it had such a profound effect on me...maybe it's because I thought the house was spooky to begin with, but to quote Ray1936 from earlier in this thread: "...have a number of similar 'remembrances' that have no earthly reason for being embedded in my grey cells, but there they are."

Thanks for the help folks! Of course if anyone has pictures...

[Detroitej72]

That's funny because the caved in roof is what stands out in my mind as well. You may be right about the timeframe, I was a youngster then myself, and a year back then seemed like a decade now!

[msawyer91]

That's funny because the caved in roof is what stands out in my mind as well. You may be right about the timeframe, I was a youngster then myself, and a year back then seemed like a decade now!

I think it's just how the minds of youngsters work. My daughter is 3 and my son is 1; it's been interesting to see how my daughter has become more acutely aware of the concept of time as she's gotten older. She understands the concepts of days, hours, weeks, etc. a lot better. It used to be if you told her "in a little while" it could be weeks from now, even though I may have meant half an hour. But now if you say "tomorrow" or "next Tuesday" she's completely on board.

I called my mom and asked her if she remembered the farmhouse, or the compressor station that blew up in 1982 only a couple miles away. Her reaction was, "how do you remember that kind of stuff?"

I don't know how anybody could forget that compressor station blowing up...

[msawyer91]

I received an email back from one of the librarians, Debbie Vercellone, at the Sterling Heights Public Library. She asked me for clarifications on the farmhouse fire. She indicated she had found a newspaper article on the farmhouse that was on 14 Mile; the article indicated the house was owned by the golf course when it burned, and it was vacant.

Debbie also indicated that another farmhouse in Sterling Heights exploded and burned, and it was located at 16½ Mile and Van Dyke. An elderly lady lived there and she passed away from her injuries.

The farmhouse on 14 Mile burned in November 1979; the farmhouse at 16½ Mile burned in 1983. That puts both fires reasonably close to the timeframe I recalled [[I was thinking 1980-1982).

However, my recollection seemed to be the house on 14 Mile was occupied, and that's where the lady lived; my recollection also seemed to be that the house was razed within a few weeks of the fire. I do not recall the 1983 event at all. However, being at 16½ Mile, that was not a way we normally went, whereas 14 Mile was a road we traveled with much greater consistency.

Being born in July 1977, the 1979 fire would've made me just over 2 years old. I'm not sure that I would remember something in such vivid detail from that age. Detroitej72, however, seems to recall that the home sat burned for several years before demolition. If he is correct, then perhaps I recall seeing the house in the early 1980s prior to its demolition.

On the other hand--starting to question myself here--perhaps my recollection is from the 1983 event [[that seems too recent, though). My parents may have driven to see where this explosion was, and maybe that is what burned itself into my memory.

The other possibility is that I am, to some extent, confusing the two events as one. Maybe I recall hearing about the lady passing in the 1983 event, and maybe the farmhouse on 14 Mile was demolished around the same time, hence me combining the two events into one.

Debbie said the library has newspaper articles, with pictures, from both events and that she was going to scan and email me both pictures to see if either are what I recall. I think a visit to the library will certainly be in order so I can check out both articles in their entirety. She did note that the articles come from the Macomb Daily and Advisor and Source newspapers, and that the library has a clipping file.

I'm eager to see the pictures and we'll see how good my "photographic" memory is.

Matt

[msawyer91]

Well, I received a picture from Debbie at SHPL. She warned me that the quality was poor, but I think the picture is better than that. While the roof does not appear to be collapsed in this picture, you can see the burned and exposed trusses where the two sections of the roof come together near the center. It's certainly possible that as the house stood in that condition and weathered a few Michigan winters that the roof would collapse further. It would certainly also support my recollections of the roof collapse being in the early 1980s [[Detroitej72 believes it stood for several years after the fire). The very collapse of the roof may have caused the golf course to hasten its demolition. If the structure was that unsound, it's better to knock it down before it falls down.

Attached is the newspaper clipping Debbie sent me. Hopefully this jogs a few memories. If someone has a color photograph and can scan it that would be awesome.

Thanks again,
Matt

[Detroitej72]

Thanks for the article Matt.

I can't say for sure if the house stood for a couple years, I was about 7 or 8 at the time, and time seems to move slowly the younger you are! It may have been only a year or so and my sense of time was off.