Livonia Michigan History & Facts

Livonia is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 95,535 at the 2020 census, which ranked it as Michigan's ninth most-populated municipality.

Livonia is a part of Metro Detroit and is located about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the city limits of Detroit, separated only by Redford Township. Originally organized as Livonia Township in 1835, it incorporated as a city in 1950.

After most members of the indigenous tribes were pushed out of the area, ethnic European-American pioneers from New England and New York settled here. The borders of Livonia Township were defined by the Legislature of the Territory of Michigan on March 17, 1835.

The settlers named the community "Livonia", after Livonia, New York, a town in the western part of the state from where many had migrated.

Livonia Township was split off from Nankin Township, in which a Livonia post office had been established in June 1834. During the days of the township, a number of small communities developed. One of these was Elmwood, initially known as McKinley's Station. It was a stop on the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad. It had a separate post office from 1858 until 1906. Another post office in the township was Giltedge, which operated from 1899 until 1902.

Livonia was incorporated as a city on May 23, 1950, by vote of the citizens of the township. An incentive was that this status would allow the residents to gain tax revenues from the Detroit Race Course (DRC). From 1985 it ran only harness racing for Standardbred, and the track closed in 1998, when the large property was sold for redevelopment. The last race tracks operating in the state were Hazel Park Raceway, which closed in 2018, and Northville Downs, which closed in 2019.

Among the immigrants attracted to Detroit for its industrial jobs in the 20th century have been Palestinian and Lebanese Christians, as well as Muslims. By 1985, Palestinian Christians had settled in Livonia, as well as the western suburbs of Farmington and Westland. As of 2005, there were a number of Christian Palestinian Americans who had immigrated from Ramallah. They have developed and operated several small and medium-sized businesses.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.86 square miles (92.88 km2), of which 35.70 square miles (92.46 km2) is land and 0.16 square miles (0.41 km2) is water.

Famous Peoples From Livonia Michigan

Sean Baligian

is a sports radio broadcaster who has been on the Detroit sports airwaves, for WDFN and WJR. He is a native of Livonia, Michigan and graduated from Livonia Stevenson High School.

He began his radio career as a producer/reporter at WSPD in Toledo, Ohio in 1995. In 1997, he was named sports director and host of The Evening Sports Show. Baligian broadcast several sports for the station including OHL hockey, CCHA hockey, and was the analyst for both University of Toledo football and basketball.

In 1998 he began working part-time for WJR in Detroit, doing a Sunday call-in show. He worked on the Detroit Lions post-game show with former Lion Greg Landry.

He began working for WDFN in May 1999 and left WSPD in August 1999 to work for WDFN full-time. He hosted the 9:00 am–12:00 pm show It is What It Is (a reference to a quote given to reporters by former Detroit Lions running back James Stewart) as well as a weekly fantasy football show Fantasy Sports Geekly which ran from August through December. Baligian co-hosted Ice Time, a WDFN seasonal weekly hockey program, with fellow WDFN personality Greg Brady. Baligian would briefly work for both WDFN and WSPD again in 2004, and in May of that year he moved his Toledo afternoon sports talk show to WCWA when the station went all-sports. All three stations are owned by Clear Channel.

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