Editing Ferndale, Michigan (section)

== History ==
[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] were original inhabitants of the area now known as the City of Ferndale. In the 1800s farmers began cultivating the land. After the invention of the automobile and the development of the automotive [[assembly line]], the population of Ferndale increased rapidly.<ref name="ferndale-mi1">{{cite web|url=http://www.ferndale-mi.com/Community/History.htm |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060418153632/http://www.ferndale-mi.com/Community/History.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 18, 2006 |title=History, Community, City of Ferndale, Michigan |access-date=April 18, 2010 }}</ref>

Ferndale was incorporated into a village in 1918.<ref name="ferndale-mi1"/> It was then incorporated into a city on March 7, 1927, by vote of the citizens of the village.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.ferndalehistoricalsociety.org/history_chronology.html | title = Ferndale Historical Society - History: Chronology of Ferndale | access-date = April 18, 2010 }}</ref> It became a [[bedroom community]] for [[Detroit]] workers, with most of its growth in housing from 1920 to 1951. Through the early 1950s there were [[tram|trolley]] (interurban railroad) lines in the median strip of Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to [[Pontiac, Michigan|Pontiac]]. These helped the northern suburbs of Detroit grow as bedroom communities as people could take the trolley to shop or work in Detroit.

In the 1970s, the Ferndale suburban community emerged as a place for families to raise children during the "[[Baby Boom]]" era, with its elementary schools, a downtown, city parks, active churches and civic groups.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.st-james.org/?page_id=25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090821024951/http://www.st-james.org/?page_id=25 | url-status = dead | archive-date = August 21, 2009 | title = History of St. James Church | access-date = February 20, 2011 }}</ref> [[Ferndale High School (Michigan)|Ferndale High]] was completed in 1958.

Ferndale's downtown shopping area, 9&nbsp;Mile Road, featured many busy, popular stores in the 1940s to 1960s, but later went into decline, and many businesses closed. In recent decades, the downtown area has revitalized. Ferndale's downtown is formed by two major thoroughfares, Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. Circa 1997 the city made the downtown more pedestrian-friendly by narrowing West Nine Mile Road, the heart of the downtown, to one lane in each direction and adding on-street parking.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://detnews.com/article/20070515/metro/108010011/Funky-Ferndale |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707203715/http://detnews.com/article/20070515/metro/108010011/Funky-Ferndale |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-07 |title=Funky Ferndale &#124; The Detroit News &#124; detroitnews.com |newspaper=The Detroit News |date=2007-05-15 |access-date=2013-12-04 }}</ref> The result has been a return of pedestrian traffic and an influx of new stores and restaurants. The city has continued to make itself more accessible to people by reducing traffic lanes on Hilton Road and Pinecrest Road, two major local north/south streets, and adding bicycle lanes.