The City of Lincoln Park Michigan 48146
'FIRST & ONLY' Official Community Created & Managed Web site
Everything you want to know about Your City of Lincoln Park, Michigan

The Historical Society of Lincoln Park and its supporters collect and preserve artifacts, printed and photographic materials pertaining to the history of Lincoln Park.

What is now Lincoln Park was once the Potawatomi Nation, blessed with streams and rivers, lakes of crystal pure water, virgin forests, abundant wildlife.

1669 probably saw the first white man in this area, Adrien Joliett, arriving by canoe from Quebec.

In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, accompanied by 50 soldiers, 50 woodsmen and 100 Native Americans, traveled from the East across Canada in canoes to Lake St. Clair, then South to Detroit, where they established Fort Ponchartrain

Seven Years later, Cadillac made land grants called 'ribbon farms' to French settlers.

In 1776 the Potawatomis deeded 4000 acres of land, which included parts of Wyandotte and Ecorse and all of Allen Park and Lincoln Park to one man, Pierre St. Cosme 'for love and affection.'

After Pierre died, his family sold parcels of the land to French farmers living in Detroit and Windsor, still long narrow farms that fronted on the Detroit and Rouge Rivers and ran several miles back into the forrest. Those families are familiar today: LeBlanc, Campeau, Bondie, Salliotte, Beaubien, Cicotte, Douillard and others.

Prior to the Civil War, German immigrants came.  From these people have survived names such as Keppen, Quandt, Dasher, Gerisch and Goodell.

Early in 1900's a business district developed at the corner of Fort St. and St. Cosme Line, later State Street, now Southfield Road, where Herman Quandt and Noah LeBlanc operated general stores.

In 1921 Lincoln Park became a village; in 1925 it became a city.

Thanks to Henry Ford's "$5.00-a-day" wage, many workers bought property in Lincoln Park, and a second expansion came after World War Two.

Lincoln Park has become a mature, stable community where citizens enjoy a moderate tax base,  excellent school systems, nice parks and recreational facilities, a community renewal program, a well-regulated city government, and its own outstanding museum of local history.

It houses interesting materials about the early French and German settlers and much about early Ecorse Township.

For many years, a professor from Ypsilanti brought his class in Michigan History twice a year to the Lincoln Park Museum, saying, "This is a perfect 'gem of a Museum', what every local community should strive for."

Lincoln Park strives to make it what Professor Tom Jones so generously called it, a perfect 'gem of a Museum.'

Tour groups and classes from the schools of Lincoln Park, Senior Class Reunions, other visitors, drop-ins are welcomed. If needed, special arrangements can be requested.

The Historical Society of Lincoln Park supports the Lincoln Park Historical Museum in its renovation from a former WPA Post Office building to its present form. 50,000 feet of wire were used in rewiring the edifice, ceilings were lowered and plastered, windows were replaced, new doors were installed, plaster and paint are still being used.

The Goodell Bell Tower was erected in 1999, and in 2002 the Memorial Clock brought added interest.

The Historical Society of Lincoln Park has meetings at 7:30 PM the first Wednesday of October, November, December (Open House), February, March and April. In May, the Annual Dinner. Everyone is welcome -  new members, too!