to
Update
is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit and is part of the Metro Detroit area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 78,296. Southfield Township is adjacent to the city on the north side. A part of Metro Detroit's upscale office market, the city's marque is a cluster of five golden skyscrapers that form the contemporary Southfield Town Center office complex with a Westin Hotel and a conference center. In addition, a 33-story luxury residential high-rise is separate from the complex. Southfield has other skyscrapers. To the west, near the confluence of I-696/Reuther Freeway and M-10/Lodge Freeway, is the American Center.
Southfield was surveyed in 1817 according to the plan by Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass. The first settlers came from Birmingham and Royal Oak, Michigan, as well as the states of New York and Vermont. The city was founded by John Daniels in 1823. Among the founders where the Heth's, Stephens, Harmon, McClelland and Thompson families. It was first organized as a township on July 12, 1830. Southfield took its name from its location in the "south fields" of Bloomfield Township. A post office was established in 1833 and the first town hall built in 1873. The Southfield Fire Department was formed on April 6, 1942 and the Southfield Police Department in 1953.
A portion of the township incorporated as a city on April 28, 1958. The current city hall was built in 1964 as part of the new Civic Center complex, which also became home to Southfield's police headquarters. The Civic Center was expanded in 1971 to include a sports arena with swimming pool. Evergreen Hills Golf Course was added in 1972, and in 1978, a new public safety building, the Southfield Pavilion and a new court building was added. In 2003, an expanded and redesigned Southfield Public Library opened to the public on the Civic Center grounds, featuring state-of-the-art facilities. Outside the Civic Center complex, Southfield also has municipal parks and recreation facilities, which were largely developed in the 1970s, including Beech Woods Recreation Center and John Grace Community Center.
The city's population growth occurred primarily between 1950 and 1990 as residents fleeing Detroit's inner city moved out to the suburbs. By the 1970s, Southfield became home to a sizeable Jewish population which built synagogues and schools. In 1964,Smith and Joyce Carson and their four children were the first African-American family to integrate the city's population. By the early 1990s, many middle-class African Americans had moved into the city.