READYING FOR 100
City prepares centennial celebration
Two days of activities are planned in Royal Oak’s new civic center area, which will soon be the center of a celebration of the community’s centennial mark.
The birth of Royal Oak happened on Nov. 8, 1921, when residents voted 922 to 133 to make the village an incorporated city.
“We’re really going to focus on what the city was like in 1921 and what it is like now,” said Judy Davids, Royal Oak’s community engagement specialist, of the upcoming events.
The backdrop for the activities on Thursday, Dec. 2, and Friday, Dec. 3, will include the library, the new City Hall and police station, Farmers Market and the new Centennial Commons downtown park, and the new Henry Ford Health Systems building.
A list of events for the two days is on the city website at romi.gov/100.
The park will open Dec. 2 and be dedicated in a ceremony the next day. All the civic center buildings will be open for the two-day commemoration, as well as the recently renovated Royal Oak Public Library.
“The History Room at the library will have (historical) photos, year books, directories and (digitized) Royal Oak Tribune newspapers from the era,” Davids said.
Farmers Market, started in 1926, is extending its annual holiday market activities from one to two days during the event.
A highlight of the first day of the memorial event’s first day will be the annual tree-lighting ceremony in front of the Royal Oak 44th District Court building.
“There will be doughnuts, s’mores and food trucks at the Farmers Market,” Davids said. “And there will be kids’ activities and trolley rides to take people through the downtown.”
On Dec. 3, actors from the Shakespeare in the Park troupe will be in period costume as leading figures from the city’s history, such as Lewis Cass and George Dondero, at the Centennial Commons.
Royal Oak was named in 1819 while Cass, territorial governor, was leading a surveying expedition. He went on to become the state’s governor, a U.S. senator, and a U.S secretary of state.
Dondero, a lawyer, was elected Royal Oak’s first mayor in the same election that made the village a city. Later, he served as a U.S. congressman for more than 22 years.
Mabel Baldwin was the first woman elected to the City Commission in 1923. An active business woman, she owned a building in the 300 block of South Main that became the former Royal Theater, the only movie theater in the city.
Her father, John Baldwin, was a bank president in town who built the Baldwin Theatre, which is still active today.
“Royal Oak was known for entertainment then and now,” Davids said. “When Mabel Baldwin was elected, women had only recently gotten the right to vote. The city was really progressive.”