NORTHVILLIANS,
Over the past weeks, I’ve written about our Victorian Heritage Festival Days, our Old Timers organization and the Mill Race Historical Village. Continuing our FALL SERIES, we will look at local cider mills through time and why Northville was the epicenter for apples and cider.
As ever, there are a great deal of activities going on in ‘The Ville’ this October…so get out and enjoy fall in the community.
CIDER MILLS IN NORTHVILLE
We will continue our “Fall Series” after we pause next week to recognize the Northville Athletic Hall of Fame recipients for 2022. After that we will feature Autumn Colors and where to find them, and then we move on to HALLOWEEN IN THE VILLE. Today we will take a look at the local historic cider mills…
1873 – Northville’s Parmenter’s Cider Mill (Baseline Road) was established by two Civil War vets and has been going strong ever since. It’s the oldest cider mill in the area and its cider press was originally powered by a team of horses walking in circles.
1898 – The Northville area was, by this time, noted for its apples, and this week in 1898 The Record noted that at the Northville train station, barrels of local apples were being shipped ALL OVER the country.
1909 – The apple crop in & around Northville proved to be one of the best in history. Thousands of barrels of apples were shipped out this year.
1918 – The 2nd annual Wayne County Fair (largest Fair in the State) at Northville Downs hosted citizens from southeastern Michigan who sampled local apples & cider.
1919 – Northville’s newly established Orchard Heights housing development was publicized in The Record. Geographically, it was the old Eaton Family Orchard that covered Rogers to Clement, and 7 Mile to Main.
1998 – Foreman’s Orchards (7 Mile & Ridge Area) transitioned from being an orchard to the subdivision known as Maybury Crossing (similar to Orchard Heights).
We’ve had MANY orchards in the area, including Parmenter’s, Eaton’s, Foreman’s, Obstbaum, Three Cedars Farm and Apple Crest Orchard located at Haggerty/8 Mile, close to Meijer. Apple Crest had an old estate home on the grounds that burned in 1979 before the new shopping area was developed there.
I grew up in Orchard Heights and continue to live there today. I can attest there are still some of the original trees from the orchard days in the vicinity (apple, cherry, pear, and peach trees).
You can see that Northville and surrounding areas (including Novi and South Lyon) was quite a hot spot for apples and cider in years past. Take a trip down to Parmenter’s Cider Mill and think of the apple press being turned by a team of horses and farmers from the area bringing in their apples to sell. And then refresh with some local cider & doughnuts. Enjoy Fall to its fullest!
Keep that Northville Fall Faith!
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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