Palmer Park
When Palmer Park became a city park in the late 1800s, it was a remote swath of land 6 miles outside of the heart of Detroit. Thomas Witherell Palmer, a United States Senator, donated 140 acres of land to the city under the condition that it not be logged, developed, or sold. He and his wife, Elizabeth Merrill Palmer, the daughter of a wealthy lumberman, built a log cabin in the park to be used as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. The cabin still stands today, and the park itself has changed quite a bit, although many parts have not. The park offers play equipment, a butterfly garden, walking and biking paths, tennis, basketball, and handball courts, a splash water park, a historic non-functioning fountain called the Merrill Fountain, and I’m sure loads more that I am forgetting. To the south of Palmer Park is a historic district called the Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District, which features every kind of architecture you can imagine and is one of the most unique neighborhoods in Detroit, in my opinion. Palmer Park is a great place to go for a walk, enjoy a meal outside, or shoot the shit with Detroiters.
