Sterling Heights Michigan History & Facts

Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan, and one of Detroit's core suburbs. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a total population of 134,346. It is the second largest suburb in Metro Detroit, and the fourth largest city in Michigan.

As a result of the War of 1812 and the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs, the area of Michigan Territory which now makes up Sterling Heights was first surveyed by Deputy Surveyor Joseph Wampler; his survey was approved on February 20, 1818. Wampler had been one of two deputy surveyors of Perrysburg, Ohio, in 1816.

Acts which created & modified Sterling Township
Originally created as part of Shelby Township in April 1827, it was broken off as Jefferson Township in March 1835. In March 1838, it was renamed Sterling Township.

Until the 1950s, Sterling Township was an agricultural area, largely devoted to growing rhubarb and other crops sold in Detroit. Road improvements led to decreased commute times and lower costs for the delivery of goods and services to and from businesses. The population increased when suburban homes were built for the workers in metropolitan Detroit's booming automobile industry. There was already a small village named Sterling in Arenac County. So when Sterling Heights was incorporated as a city in 1968, the word "Heights" was added to the township name to satisfy a state law that prevents incorporated municipalities from having the same name.

Gerald Donovan became the first mayor of the city and F. James Dunlop became the first mayor pro-tem. In the 1960s and 1970s, many residents came to live in Sterling Heights to work in automobile plants operated by Chrysler and Ford. Lakeside Mall opened in Sterling Heights in 1976.

The city is home to many groups of immigrants. It has received many people of eastern European origins, including ethnic Albanians, Bosnians, Croatians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Poles, Serbians and Slovenians. After the 2003 U.S.-Iraqi War, millions of Iraqi citizens were displaced, particularly Iraqi Christians (Chaldean and Assyrian). Of these, 30,000-50,000 resettled in Sterling Heights, giving parts of the city the nickname "Little Baghdad", especially around 15 Mile Road and Ryan.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 36.80 square miles (95.31 km2), of which 36.51 square miles (94.56 km2) is land and 0.29 square miles (0.75 km2) is water.

Sterling Heights is part of the Clinton River watershed, and branches of the river flow through the city.

Sterling Heights is a second-ring suburb, 16 miles (26 km) from Downtown Detroit. The city's southern border is 6 miles (9.7 km) from Detroit's northern border. The shape of the city is 6 miles (9.7 km) long and 6 miles wide

Famous Peoples From Sterling Heights Michigan

Thomas Anthony Jankiewicz

(September 8, 1963 – January 23, 2013) was an American screenwriter. Jankiewicz was best known for penning the 1997 film Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, and Dan Aykroyd. Grosse Pointe Blank tells the story of an assassin, played by John Cusack, who returns to his hometown for his 10-year high school reunion.

Jankiewicz's mother, Marilyn, was a nurse, while his father, Anthony, was an engineer with Chrysler. He was born in Detroit, Michigan and lived in Sterling Heights, Michigan, with his parents and four siblings. Jankiewicz graduated from Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, Michigan, in 1981. He then moved to Southern California after high school when his father took a new job with General Dynamics in Pomona, California. Tom Jankiewicz also worked as an advertising copywriter.

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