History

The Palmer Park area of Detroit is a unique combination of history, beauty and community.  The park itself is comprised of 296 acres of lawns, historic woodlands, tennis courts, a splash park, hiking and biking trails, Lake Francis, an historic log cabin, the Detroit Mounted Police facility, and more.  The park is located between McNichols and Seven Mile Road and on the east side by Woodward Avenue in Detroit.  It has been a treasured nature park and recreational site of the Detroit Community for more than 100 years.

Designed in the late 1800’s in part by Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot, and donated by Thomas W. Palmer to the City of Detroit, Palmer Park links Detroit’s splendorous and philanthropic past to today’s need for public forests and green spaces in the city.  This park is bordered by impressive historic neighborhoods, the private Detroit Golf Club, and the Art Deco Palmer Park historic apartment district, which showcases some of the more ornate and varied examples of apartment building and design in Michigan and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, beginning in 1983.