Recreation

NORTHVILLIANS,

Summer activities are booming in your Northville Community! I wanted to share some opportunities for these long summer days, including various options from venues downtown to refreshing green space areas to explore at your leisure. Engage in your “Hamlet in the Hills” with its unique topography and waterways.

Let’s take a look at some opportunities for recreation around the Ville…

• Through most of our first 200 years, Northville has been quite a summer destination for many in Southeast Michigan, via trolleys and trains.
• Many folks in Michigan through time have visited Cass Benton Park for recreation, walks and sporting events (High School football games were played there nearly 100 years ago). The Park has sports fields, play structures, picnic areas and beach volley ball courts among other attributes. The Bennett Arboretum (oldest in the State) is a jewel with an easy two-mile walking trail through it.  Developed nearly a hundred years ago, the Arboretum contains hundreds of unique tree species and offers everyone a refreshing chance to slow down and take in its beauty.
• As you travel the parkway, note the many former Henry Ford Mill sites (we will talk in more detail about them next week).
• The Fish Hatchery Park on Seven Mile was the location of the original National Fish Hatchery. The community recently invested almost a million dollars in grant funds to rejuvenate the park. Located along the Johnson Creek, it is one of the few cold water creeks in southeastern Michigan that supports trout fishing (fly fishermen can be seen on the river from Northville Downs to the Fish Hatchery Park). Trails, sports fields, tennis courts, recreation and picnic areas abound in this scenic site on the river. Check it out!
• Northville Downs has been a sports park since the end of the 1800’s, serving as a golf course, horse track and even host to High School sporting events. Today, there is still live racing — the next season begins in September and runs through the 4^th quarter. Take advantage of the only remaining Horse Track in Michigan… Make an evening of it and witness night harness horse racing, pioneered at Northville Downs in 1944.
• The Chamber’s award-winning regional Farmers’ Market is hosted at 7 Mile & Sheldon every Thursday from May through October. The Market offers incredible Michigan items including honey, baked goods and much more beyond the traditional fruits, vegetables & flowers. Start your Thursdays at one of the largest and most popular markets in the State.
• Maybury State Park’s 1000 acres of gently rolling terrain, open meadows, forests and waters provide a haven for biking, hiking, horseback riding and fishing. It offers educational programs, a riding stable and a working farm for our youth to discover. This wonderful area of nature was first developed as a County Tuberculosis Center in the 1920’s and transitioned to a State Park fifty years later. Explore its trails and playgrounds and try to take in a summer evening concert, held Mondays at 7:00 PM.
• Parks & Rec sponsors the “Tunes on Tuesday” concerts for the youth weekly at 10:30 AM. Everyone’s invited to the Band Shell (City Square) to enjoy the outdoor music.
• After all those hikes (see above), you can relax and stroll about town with an “elixir of life” in hand on the closed streets of our social district.  Visit the shops & restaurants while listening to live music every weekend night. You can also quench your thirst at the Northville Winery and Brewing Company at the historic Parmenter’s Cider Mill location or relax with a local libation at Northville’s Main Center Brewing on 410 N. Center.
• And, you know by now, I always suggest you take a self-guided walking tour of the area (Historic District, Cabbagetown, Bealtown or Orchard Heights). Try to envision this community as it once was in the early 1900s – one of the top industrial areas in the State, second only to Detroit. Check out a walking tour book that my father helped write to navigate through the historic downtown streets (available at the Library) … OR, for a personalized touch, feel free to call me for a guided tour.
• If you want to see a glimpse of what may be in store for our future Northville, watch the TEDx Talk for Northville High School on Community, where the Riverwalk, Ford Field, Farmers’ Market, Sustainability activities and the “Northville Way Forward” are explored.

As you can see, there is always something new to experience in the Ville. Enjoy that Northville Faith during these long summer nights in the Town we love!

Brian Turnbull
Mayor – Northville
BTurnbull@ci.northville.mi.us / 248.505.6849

(Reach out to me anytime or forward this communication to others interested.)

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