Livonia

Images of America: Michigan

by David MacGregor

At the turn of the 20th century, the township of Livonia was largely a rural community populated with farms, dirt roads, and a number of cheese factories. A few decades later, as the auto industry boomed in Detroit, white-collar workers sought places to raise their families outside of the city, and neighborhoods in Livonia went up seemingly overnight. The result was the creation of a quintessential American suburban city, one in which urban and rural lifestyles converged and formed a new kind of community. This book celebrates Livonia's development from the 19th to the 21st century, as it evolved from wilderness into a city that is routinely rated as one of the best places to raise a family in the United States.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

130 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2005

Reviews

[Readitnweep]

Pictorial book on the history of the city of Livonia and the land it was built upon. Plenty of good info in the beginning, though a bit thin in later chapters. It would have been more interesting had he included more on whether certain buildings survived or more on how the area changed more recently. Yes, there was some of this, but not consistently.

As a Livonia native myself, I would appreciated a bit more detail on the huge boom in the 1950s. Recently, more photos have appeared on Facebook showing local farms and the area of Livonia Center with detailed information about the businesses that were there for many decades.

I very much enjoyed reading Mr. MacGregor's history of Livonia's origins and recommend this for anyone familiar with or interested in the area. I moved away in 1980, but Livonia remains my hometown.