It is the goal of these few pages to provide you with a glimpse of Royal Oak, Michigan's past - its history and heritage - in pictures and words. For viewers who have access to historic images of Royal Oak not shown here, I invite you make them available to the webmaster (see E-mail address below). My vision is an internet repository of all the historic images of Royal Oak so everyone can see and enjoy them.
Royal Oak, Michigan, United States of America, is one of the oldest centers in southeastern Oakland County. It was a hamlet - village - then city where people living well outside the borders of present-day Royal Oak have come for more than a century and a half to shop, play, worship, and bury their dead. In all respects, it has long been a viable, working community, not simply a suburb of convenience to Detroit.
Now please take a leisurely stroll through our past -
Major Sub-sections:
Newspaper Articles:
Other:
For more detailed, paper-based information on the subject, you may consult other sources such as these:
Durant, Samuel (1877) History of Oakland County, MI..... L.H. Everts & Co. Polk (----) City Directories, Royal Oak, etc. R.L. Polk & Co. Perkins, O.A. (1971) Royal Oak, Michigan: The Early Years. A Royal Oak Golden Jubilee Publ. Crossman, C.K. (1973) Royal Oak, Our Living Legend. School Distr. of City of Royal Oak. Penney, D.G. & Lance, L.A. (1996) Royal Oak Twigs and Acorns: A Book of History. Little Acorn Press. Penney, D.G. (2000) Reflections of Royal Oak History: An Historical Vision. Little Acorn Press (being prepared).Thanks to Scott Dedenbach for his fine renderings of many historic structures.
Other Links:
City of Royal Oak .... Ezra Parker Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution .... Oakland County's History & Heritage
Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society .... Royal Oak Woman's Club .... Oakland County Genealogical Society