Palmer Woods Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

From the record

“The Palmer Woods Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan, bounded by Seven Mile Road, Woodward Avenue, and Strathcona Drive. There are approximately 295 homes in the 188-acre (0.76 km2) district, which is between the City of Highland Park in Wayne County and the City of Ferndale in Oakland County.”
Wikipedia article Palmer Woods, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 396 National Register listings published here for Wayne County · listed in 1983 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by Seven Mile Rd., Woodward Ave., and Strathcona Dr., Detroit, 48203
When was it listed? August 1983
Category. district
City. Detroit city
National Register reference number. 83000896 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

124 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 124 fires within 5 miles of Palmer Woods Historic District between 2018 and 2020, burning about 122 acres in total. 17 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	47
Equipment and vehicle use	36
Natural	17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	17
Recreation and ceremony	5
Smoking	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2019	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0032226 - 2019
8 September 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0032107 - 2019
7 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0033020 - 2018
6 September 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0032843 - 2018
5 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MADISON HEIGHTS FD 3248 - 2018
3 September 2019	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0031469 - 2019
3 September 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0031480 - 2019
27 September 2019	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DETROIT FD 0034689 - 2019

Every fire recorded in Wayne County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Palmer Woods Historic District: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Tungsten. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Carmet Co--Madison Hgts, Mich.	Tungsten	Producer

Every working recorded in Wayne County

Storms near this property

54 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Detroit, the town this property stands in, in 54 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 27 thunderstorm wind, 20 hail, 4 flash flood, 2 lightning. The reports record 2 deaths. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 2007	Lightning	Detroit	1 killed	A golfer was struck and killed by lightning after seeking refuge under a tree at the Rogell Golf Course near 7 Mile and Lahser Roads.
June 1998	Lightning	Detroit	1 killed	no account filed
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$200,000	no account filed
July 2000	Flash Flood	Detroit	$150,000	no account filed
March 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$50,000	no account filed
July 2000	Flash Flood	Detroit	$15,000	no account filed
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$10,000	Broadcast media reported some trees blown down and a roof partially blown off due to thunderstorm winds.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$10,000	Strong thunderstorm winds uprooted several trees on the east side of the city. Damage occurred when three of the trees fell onto some parked cars.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$5,000	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$2,500	Trained spotter reported several trees and large limbs were blown down in the southwest side of Detroit.
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$2,000	no account filed
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	$500	A large tree was reported blown down.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Trained spotter reported wind gust.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	A section of metal roofing on the 150 West Jefferson Building in downtown Detroit was blown off.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	A tree was reported blown down on the road.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	A trained spotter estimated a 65 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Local television stations reported large trees down on the northwest side of Detroit.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	The local television stations reported trees and power lines down in northwest Detroit.
September 2006	Flash Flood	Detroit	-	Thunderstorms produced heavy rains with rates approaching 2 inches per hour over the downtown area. Broadcast Media reported on flooding along I-75 from 5 Mile to 7 Mile Rd. Trained spotters also reported street flooding in Westland and in Canton Township.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Local media reported trees down on the north side of Detroit.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Broadcast media reported trees down along 7 mile and Wyoming Roads.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Trees were reported down on the northwest side of Detroit.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	One large tree and numerous tree limbs were blown down.
April 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Detroit Edison reported numerous tree branches blown down onto wires on the Detroit/Redford border.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	A trained spotter reported large tree limbs down.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	A local television meteorologist reported a large tree blown down.
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Local media reported trees blown down.
May 2001	Hail	Detroit	-	Dime sized hail interrupted the next-to-last set of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, cancelling the rest of the performances.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Large tree limbs blown down.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	Power lines blown down.
July 1995	Hail	Detroit	-	A ham radio operater reported golf ball-size hail.
September 1993	Tornado (F0)	Detroit	-	A cold air funnel was reported by a number of citizens as well as a retired police officer. This cold air funnel briefly touched down as a weak tornado as reported by an on-duty state trooper at the scene. Fortunately, there was no damage from this tornado.
August 2015	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
September 2006	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
September 2006	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
September 2006	Flash Flood	Detroit	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
October 1999	Hail	Detroit	-	no account filed
September 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Detroit	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wayne County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Michigan State Fair Riding Coliseum, Dairy Cattle Building, and Agricultural Building	0.7 miles	1980
Greenfield Union School	0.9 miles	2011
Palmer Park Apartment Buildings Historic District (Boundary Increase)	1.2 miles	2005
Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District	1.2 miles	1983
Palmer Park Boulevard Apartments District	1.2 miles	1992
First United Methodist Church	1.7 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83000896 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Wayne County	All 396 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.