The settlement of Strathmoor

[Dexlin]

Does anyone have any kind of history, whatsoever, on the small settlement of Strathmoor that gave the street on the west side its name? All I know is that I have a Rand McNally Metro Atlas as late as 1995 labeling a very general area on a map immediately northeast of Warrendale [[across Greenfield) as "Strathmoor", and passing mentions of it in old geographical narrative atlas as having been in Greenfield Township, and the immediate location would have put it directly west of Redford Township given that Greenfield was the divide.

Unlike the newer community of Brightmoor to the west and Warrendale [[which for a very short time actually incorporated as a village) to the southwest, it seems as if Strathmoor may have even just been a rural corner with a few stores, since its identity seems to have been so quickly subsumed into that of Detroit's.

Anyone have any info on Strathmoor apart from the street name?

[gazhekwe]

William Romig's book, Michigan Place Names, has this note:

VANDELEUR, Wayne County. See Strathmoor.

I couldn't get to Strathmoor in the Google snippet. I have the book at home but am not there now, so can't look it up for you. Studying on the settlement of that area in the past, we learned there were a lot of little crossroads communities, many along the rail line that runs along north of Plymouth Road, and others at connector north-south roads where they intersect with main east-west roads. The past configuration of shopping areas shows many of these old communities. Neighborhoods grew and shopping grew from a gas station and grocery to maybe a dime store and later national stores in some communities.

Strathmoor, Wayne County: Established as Vandeleur Aug. 5, 1916. Name to Strathmoor Jan. 11, 1917. Discontinued. March 31, 1920. In 1927 became a station of Detroit.

http://usaddress.us/wp/?p=13126

Here is some reading on Greenfield Township and its settlements including just the name, Strathmoor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenfi...ship,_Michigan

More interesting reading:

STRATHMOOR: A community in what is now Grand River and Five Mile Road area. There was a post office opened August 5, 1915, which was renamed, Strathmoor on December 23, 1916. Absorbed by City of Detroit.

http://www.reocities.com/michdetroit/oldtown.html
http://www.webcitation.org/query?url...10-26+22:45:25



Reference found to this newspaper:

The Strathmoor press.

Publisher:	Strathmoor, Mich. : Rufus P. Payne, Jr.
Edition/Format:	Newspaper : English

[Zacha341]

^^^ Great info G. Lots of detail here for study. Thank you...

[Hamtragedy]

Strathmoor Methodist Church was on Schoolcraft btw Abington and Memorial, no where near Strathmoor street which is on the other side of Greenfield.

This puts it in the neighborhood of Gd River / Five Mile, Fenkell, 12th Street [[where Fenkell actually begins, and I have seen it referred to that on an abstract from the teens) mentioned above.

[EastsideAl]

Strathmoor [[or Strathmore, as it sometimes appears) seems to have been a name used by the prolific west side developer B. E. [[Burt Eddy) Taylor for several of his subdivisions. Mostly these seem to have been centered around the area where Grand River, Schoolcraft, and Hubbell [[then Church Rd.) meet. Taylor seems to have favored the use the "-moor" suffix for his developments, like the better known Brightmoor [[in fact, one of the subs near Strathmoor was named Monmoor). Maybe he thought it sounded classy, in an old English kind of way.

Incidentally, the reason Hubbell was called Church Road was the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which was at the Grand River corner dating back at least to 1876, until it merged with nearby St. Christoper's in the late 1970s.

Here is a list and maps of Taylor's Strathmoor named subdivisons:
http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps...&Submit=Submit

He also developed the "Schoolcraft Allotment", which appears to have been the main part of Strathmoor:
http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps...&Submit=Submit

Here is a page from a 1925 atlas showing the subdivision of the area:
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/1569756/
[[zoom into the area around Grand River at the far left of the map)

In this area were a few institutions with the name "Strathmoor," including the still-standing Strathmoor Methodist Church at Marlowe and Schoolcraft [[now the Gospel of Christ Ministries Church). As mentioned by Hamtragedy above, this Methodist congregation moved further down Schoolcraft in the '50s to the beautiful building at the corner of Memorial, which is now Greater Burnette Baptist. There was also a Strathmoor State Bank founded in 1921, the building of which still appears to be standing - occupied by a church - at the corner of Grand River and Strathmoor. The Strathmoor Station Post Office, which is now on Schaefer between Grand River and Schoolcraft, was located from the 1920s to the '70s at Ardmore and Schoolcraft. That building looks from Google Maps to be still standing but empty.

And one more thing I found, a charming little article from 1915 discussing the sewage and septic tank arrangements for the new Strathmoor and Westlawn subdivisions [[Westlawn was the original name of the street that is now Strathmoor). Apparently by the time the wastewater drained from the septic tanks into the shallow open ditches around the area it was supposed to be "as clear as spring water" and could "be used for drinking purposes without endangering the life or health of users".

http://books.google.com/books?id=nos...page&q&f=false

[Dexlin]

Than for all of the info. Seems that Strathmoor came along quite a bit later than I had thought, quite a bit further northn than I had though, and though I knew it was short lived, I didn't know it only lasted about five years before being absorbed and reverting to the name of its subdivisions.

[Nathan Detroit]

Look to the bottom of the jpeg ad in this link:
http://wdet.org/media/wdet/assets/20...2/2million.png

[ptero]

Strathmoor Methodist Church was on Schoolcraft btw Abington and Memorial, no where near Strathmoor street which is on the other side of Greenfield.

Yes. I "grew up" at Strathmoor Methodist Church. The congregation moved to that location from the northwest corner of Hubbell and Schoolcraft I believe in the early-mid 50's. Born in 53, I have zero memory of the older bldg.

edit: my memory of the exact corner may be off as it comes from my parents comments back when. I agree w/Eastside Al that it began over near Strathmoor street.

[ptero]

In the useless trivia dept: One day about 1968, Friends and I rode our bicycles 30 miles in circles in the big parking lot behind the church at Abington/Memorial. It was a warmup to riding out Grand River past Kensington Metropark for a wknd.

Useless trivia #2: we provided spaghetti dinners in '67 for the National Guard when they were... in town that summer. They came to the church for these.

[d.leon]

Although I grew up on Strathmoor, I never knew the history of that street and area. I lived just north of Puritan. Went to Cerveny Elementary and eventually Cooley High. I understand they are trying to save Cooley. Hope it happens. Beautiful old school! I left that area in 1964 and got married and moved down river. I often look at my old house on Google Earth. It is really sad to see the condition of the old homestead and surrounding area! A lot of fond memories of growing up there.