Roads fascinate me - their names, their histories, their stories - to the point that I'll drop everything to read a tasty tidbit.
Imagine my joy when I read How Livonia Roads Got Their Names from the Detroit Free Press.
To quote from the article:
… the first mile of concrete road in the nation was laid in October 1909 on Woodward Avenue between 6 and 7 Mile roads in what was then Greenfield Township, just outside Detroit.
I did not know that area was Greenfield Township.
Middle Belt Road:
… officially became a road after 1910, when the County Road Commission began assigning names to major roads that went through the county … Intermittently, Middle Belt has been mistakenly signed as a one-word road, "Middlebelt."
Henceforth I will always refer to Middle Belt, not Middlebelt.
Merriman Road:
… was given that name by the Romulus neighbors of Charles Merriman in 1858 … He died two years later, but his farm, which extended south from Michigan Avenue, remained in the family into the 1920s.
That part of Merriman Road and surrounding farms were acquired for what since has become [DTW] … Merriman continues south from there.
The article contains many tidbits about the major and minor thoroughfares. I provide just a taste. Read the whole article for all the details.