Palmer Park - Detroit, MI - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

93. PALMER PARK, Woodward Ave., between Merrill Plaisance and Seven Mile Road, is the third largest park in Detroit, exceeded only by Rouge Park and Belle Isle. The original 140-acre tract was donated to Detroit in 1893 by Senator Thomas W. Palmer; in 1920, the city purchased an additional 147 acres at a cost of $2,367,751. Once part of the donor's farm, the park contains more than 75 varieties of trees and shrubs.

Scattered through the tract are 900 picnic tables and benches and 23 concrete stoves. Other recreational facilities include 2 nine-hole golf courses (25¢ for 9 holes), 15 tennis courts, 10 shuffle-board courts, and a concrete wading pool. Two small lakes, Lake Francis, in the southern part and Lake Higino in the west-central section, are used for skating in winter. Near the center of the park is a pool equipped with a platform for bait and fly-casting practice, used by the Detroit Bait and Fly-Casting Club. At the head of Third Avenue near Merrill Plaisance is a riding academy (open 7-7 daily; $1.25 an hour weekdays, $1.50 Sundays and holidays), where horses can be rented for riding on the 12 miles of bridle paths in the park.

Near Lake Francis is the PALMER LOG CABIN (open 7-7 June 1-Sept 1; by permission at park pavilion Sept. 1-June 1), built by Mrs. Palmer as a summer home and guest house. The house originally had four rooms, two upstairs and two down; the planked addition in the rear is of a later date. Built with the key wedge type of corner joints, the cabin contains heirlooms, cooking utensils, furniture, and weapons of the Witherell, Merrill, and Palmer families. Included in the collection is a grandfather clock left by James Witherell in Vermont in 1787, which Senator Palmer, his grandson, brought to Detroit a century later.

In the southern section of the park is the Merrill Fountain, a marble memorial to the Palmer family, erected in Campus Martius and later moved to Palmer Park.-Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State 1941

Palmer Park is still in existence but is much changed since 1941. The horse riding academy is no longer there, the golf courses have been converted to disc golf, some of the tennis courts are now pickle ball courts, Lake Frances is currently drained for maintenance, and Palmer Park Cabin, which had been neglected for 30 years, is undergoing a restoration.

Book: Michigan Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 280 Year Originally Published: 1941

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