Oak Park (Michigan)

Description

Oak Park is a city in south Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of the city of Detroit, which is located in neighboring Wayne County, and part of its metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population of Oak Park is 29,319.HistoryThis area was designated as within Royal Oak Township; it was first settled by European Americans in 1840, but remained sparsely populated for many decades following. The first major housing development was constructed in 1914 at the time of World War I, when the township sold land to the Majestic Land Company to be developed as the Oak Park subdivision. The subdivision was incorporated as a village on May 3, 1927. Two petition drives during the Great Depression to dissolve the village government and return it to the township, citing "excessively high cost of village government," failed in 1931 and 1933, respectively. The village incorporated as city on October 29, 1945 following the end of World War II.Stimulated by the GI Bill which aided veterans in buying new housing, highways to improve commuting, and planned developments in the late 1950s, Oak Park from 1950 to 1960 was named as "America's Fastest Growing City". Its population increased sevenfold, from 5,000 to more than 36,000. Much of its population were second and third-generation children of European immigrants who had settled in Detroit in the early 20th century. These included many Jewish Americans descended from immigrant ancestors from the Russian Empire, including present-day Poland and Ukraine. Major civic improvements in this period included construction of an outdoor swimming pool and an ice rink in Major Park (now known as Shepherd Park, after former mayor David Shepherd, but long known informally as Oak Park Park).