New Signs Celebrate Woodward Avenue's Historic Importance

Birmingham's busiest thoroughfare now has four signs showing drivers they're on pavement with a prestigious pedigree — specifically, An American Road officially designated by the federal government.

Curbside markers went up today as part of a national designation that puts Woodward alongside other historic byways, including Route 66, Highway A1A along Florida's Atlantic shore and the Santa Fe Trail in New Mexico. A nonprofit group in Royal Oak, the Woodward Avenue Action Association, coordinated placement of 50 signs along 27 miles between Detroit and Pontiac with a $45,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration.

The local designations are:

• Alongside the northbound lanes near Madison Street opposite
• In the median at Hazel Street just before northbound drivers pass the gas station.
• North of 14 Mile, also facing northbound.
• On the southbound side near Redding, about a quarter-mile south of Big Beaver.

"The new signs show how connected each community is through their rich history and shared story," says Heather Carmona, executive director of the Woodward association. Its new displays are part of "branding" Woodward as an attraction visitors should see and residents should appreciate, she said.

History as cherished as scenery

That effort got a boost when the U.S. Department of Transportation approved Woodward in 2009 as an All-American Road. The Lower Peninsula's only other All-American Road runs through a national forest along the Au Sable River in northeast Michigan.

Woodward's status comes from history rather than scenery. "The signs confirm and underscore the importance of Woodward Avenue," says Leslie Pielack, director of the . "They make it official."

Pielack, whose career has been immersed in Oakland County history and preservation, says the north-south road's significance actually predates paving, territorial settlement and frontier fur-trading. "People and culture have been moving on that path for millennia, before recorded history," she said, noting that the Rouge River through Birmingham is too shallow and narrow to have been a major trade corridor. "The main route in and out of this area would have been a path we now call Woodward. Before settlement, it was a major Indian trail."

Horse power, literally

After Europeans arrived, horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches used the established trail to and from Detroit River wharves. It was widened in Detroit after an 1805 fire, a reconstruction effort overseen by Judge Augustus Woodward. In 1824, Territorial Gov. Lewis Cass extended Woodward Avenue — as it was called by then — up to Pontiac. Pavement began replacing gravel, wood blocks and planks in 1908, an improvement that was finished in 1916.

Electric streetcars from the Oakland Railway (later Detroit United Railways) served the city from 1896-1931, using tracks and overhead wires on Woodward. The Pontiac & Detroit Railroad reached Birmingham in 1939, running in the middle of — where else — Woodward. Grand Trunk, which operated in the line by the 1920s, agreed to relocate tracks a mile east at state expense so Woodward could be widened again and restricted to vehicles.    

Now, in the 21st century, Woodward Avenue has a Wikipedia page and 50 roadside markers commemorating a corridor that carries Southeast Michigan history into the present.