Featuring more than 90 homes on two streets (Arden Park and East Boston Boulevard), the Arden Park East Boston Historic District is located between Woodward and Oakland avenues east of Boston-Edison. Originally called the McLaughlin and Owen's Subdivision, the development was platted on June 1, 1892 by Joseph R. McLaughlin and Edmund J. Owen. During the subsequent 18 years, the subdivision changed hands twice before being purchased by prominent Detroit real estate developer Max Broock in 1910. The subdivision quickly became an exclusive residential area for many of Detroit's newest entrepreneurs, including Frederic Fisher, John Dodge, Clayton and Albert Grinnell, Willard Pardridge, J.L. Hudson and Stanley Kresge Jr. Beginning in 1940, the area attracted several prominent black professionals including Dr. Haley Bell, John R. Williams, Charles Diggs Sr., Dr. Dewitt Burton and Eugene Collins, a Ford Motor Co. engineer. The district received historic designation in May 1981. Today, the district is a diverse and racially mixed group of homeowners who are actively engaged in maintaining and restoring the neighborhood's vintage homes.
