Rosedale Gardens
Platted in the 1920s, a generation before Livonia was a city — and the part of Livonia that looks nothing like the rest of it
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About Rosedale Gardens
Rosedale Gardens was laid out by the Shelden Land Company in the 1920s at Plymouth and Merriman roads, twenty-odd years before Livonia incorporated as a city in 1950. That timing is the whole story of the place. While the rest of Livonia was built out after the war on a mile grid of section roads, Rosedale Gardens already existed, and it was built to a different pattern.
The historic district covers eight streets, from Arden to Hubbard, between Plymouth Road and West Chicago Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. The subdivision holds roughly 579 houses, of which about 428 went up before the Second World War — colonials, English cottages and ranches, many with brick and wood exteriors.
- —Platted by the Shelden Land Company in the 1920s, before Livonia was a city
- —On the National Register since 2010
- —About 579 houses, roughly 428 of them built before the war
- —Its own grocery from 1926, school from 1927 and church from 1928
- —Pre-war construction in a city that is overwhelmingly postwar
How it was built
Shelden Land Company platted it in the 1920s as a residential development, and the amenities arrived with the houses rather than after them: a small grocery with a gas pump in 1926, a school in 1927, and Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church in 1928. That is a neighborhood built as a neighborhood, which is not how the subdivisions north and west of it were made.
The pre-war share matters when you are looking at a house here. Roughly three quarters of the subdivision predates the war, so the construction, the lot pattern and the street trees are of a different generation from most of Livonia's stock, and so are the questions worth asking on an inspection.
Where it sits
The district runs between Plymouth Road and West Chicago Street, near Merriman — the southeastern side of Livonia, closer to Detroit than to the city's western edge. Livonia sits inside the I-96, I-275 and M-14 triangle, which is why it suits people commuting in more than one direction.
School district is the first thing to settle on any Livonia address: Livonia Public Schools serves most of the city from twenty-six buildings, but Clarenceville has its own district on the northeast side and the lines cross the city rather than following it. Confirm the district for the specific parcel rather than the city.
Community details reflect public records and local knowledge and can change — always verify what matters to your purchase. Explore more of Livonia's neighborhoods, or browse active listings.