Shorpy Saturday – Ferndale, Michigan 1928

Today’s photograph takes us just west of the highly visited intersection of Woodward and Nine Mile Road in the heart of downtown Ferndale. Times have definitely changed since 1928, but after going through a rough patch Ferndale has reinvented itself with new businesses along the two major roads.

Take a look at the photographed entitled “Ferndale, Michigan 1928.”

Nine Mile Road just west of Detroit’s main thoroughfare, Woodward Avenue. Ferndale became a boomtown in the 1920s when Henry Ford created the $5 workday wage. His factory was located a few miles south on Woodward in Highland Park.

Ferndale was listed in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” twice in the Roaring 20s. It had more children per capita than any other town of the same size; and it was the only place in the US that had a drugstore on all four corners at a main intersection. In the early 1930s, Ferndale went on to become the second largest growing city in the nation.

The Woolworth sign in the window says, “50th Anniversary Sale Saturday.”

Source: http://www.shorpy.com/node/8140

For your viewing pleasure see below what the building looks like today:

About Jeffrey S. Buck

I'm currently a Project Manager at Cypress Partners, LLC in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. I graduated from Wayne State University in 2008 with a B.A. in Journalism. Looking to broaden my view of the world, I spent a semester abroad studying at the University of Salford, a Greater Manchester University in England. I enjoy doing an array of activities, including following Detroit sports teams, SCUBA diving, traveling, reading, playing tennis, hand-written letters and going to the movies. I am the co-founder of the Woodward Spine, a blog about Detroit and its surrounding communities. The Woodward Spine aims to inform its readers about relevant news and events through creative and informative posts in these core areas: news, opinion, entertainment, history, sports and development. The Woodward Spine serves the tri-county metro Detroit area, concentrating mainly on the communities that lie along the Woodward corridor.

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