A Brief History of Warren Twp. & Center Line, Macomb Co., MI
The township that was to become Warren Twp. was legally organized on 11 MAR 1837 as Hickory Twp. Its name was changed to Aba Twp. on 2 APR 1838, and finally to Warren Twp. on 25 MAR 1839.
Growth finally came to this area in the 1830's because the readily accessible land along the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and the Clinton River had pretty much all been cleared and settled. The early pioneers were mostly farmers from New England, along with French, German, Belgian and Irish emigrants. The first of them began arriving in the township in 1832, and they set to work felling trees and draining the swampy land. Prior to then, the only travelers through these parts had been the Indians, who had beaten a primitive trail along the higher ridges through the marshy lowlands. Eventually, this trail became the main road used by the early settlers on their way between Detroit and the settlement of Utica.
Today, the southerly portion of this trail is known as Sherwood Avenue. Previously, it was called Center Line Road, because it was the center of three Indian trails that went from the Fort at Detroit towards other trading posts to the north. One trail followed the rivers northeast to Port Huron. Another was the Saginaw trail, which headed northwest and ended at the Straits of Mackinac. The third trail was called the "center line" by the French since it headed to the north and was centered between the other two.
Farms lined the roads and eventually a store and a saloon made their appearance at the corner of Center Line (Sherwood) Road and Ten Mile Road. This crossroads came to be known as Kunrod's Corner, in honor of the proprietor of the saloon. By 1853, the local Catholic families were tiring of the weekly trek to downtown Detroit for Sunday Mass and a missionary church was established near the Corner. Several years later, when a six acre parcel on Van Dyke Road, a half-mile to the east, was donated for a new church building, it not only drew more farmers to the area, it transformed a crossroads into a community called Center Line that continued to develop around the new St. Clement's Church.
In the early 1920's, Center Line was a rather isolated community of less than 2,000 people whose homes and business places were built around St. Clement Church. This began to change with the construction of street car tracks alongside Van Dyke, that began in Detroit and turned around one block north of Ten Mile Road. Walking north one block from the new street car turnaround, the first building you would encounter was Gus Miller's Tavern. Next came Buechel's General Store and a little further on was the Church. Across Church Street (Engleman St.) was an old frame store that was Rinke' Hardware, and then you would come to Wilke's Butcher Shop and Drug Store. With improved transportation, and the convenience of church and stores, Center Line attracted people from the city as well as retiring farmers, eventually incorporated as a village in 1925, and as a city in 1936.
A few miles to the northwest, near the intersection of present-day Mound and Chicago Roads, a similar community also developed. As the first settlers cleared their land of trees, they provided steady work for the nearby sawmills that were located on 12 and 14 Mile roads. By 1859, the crossroads had a Post Office and was indentified on maps as "Warren P.O.", and later as "Beebe's Corner", after John L. Beebe, who operated the plank road that led to Detroit. A strap railroad, one of the first of its kind in Michigan, was built from Detroit to Utica just to the west of the old "center line". Beebe's Corner was serviced by a railway depot named "Oakwood Station", which was located about one-half mile to the southeast on Davy Ave. (Chicago Rd.). Other depots included "Spinnings Station", three-quarters of a mile to the north at 14 Mile Road, and "Warren Station", three and one-quarter miles to the south at Kunrod's Corner. In 1893, the community voted to incorporate as the Village of Warren. In 1957, all of Warren Township, except for the one and one-quarter square miles of Center Line in its midst, became the City of Warren.
