Wayne

Formed August 15, 1796 (1^st county)

Wayne County (1,793,549), Detroit (639,115)                

The 1955 Modern skyscraper courthouse sits in downtown Detroit.  It is situated on Coleman A. Young Street at Fort Street.  United States Highway 12 is one block north of the site.  Harley, Ellington & Day are the architects.  The Hall of Justice was built in 1970 to augment the other courthouse.  There were an undated facility and an outstanding 1897 courthouse earlier.  Wayne County was formed on August 15, 1796 as an original county with Detroit as the only county seat.  The county is named for Revolutionary War hero General Anthony Wayne.  The county seat’s name comes from the French word for “strait.”  Wayne County was the birthplace of 3 Michigan Governors, David H. Jerome, G. Mennen Williams, and James J. Blanchard. 

Wayne County government consists of an executive, a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a treasurer and a clerk (executive).  It has 15 Commissioners (legislative.)  Sixty-one Circuit Court Judges, Eighty-six District Court Judges, Eight Probate Court Judges and court clerk serve Wayne County (judicial.) Wayne County is in the southeast corner of the southern peninsula.  Canada borders it to the east.  The county center is 16.1 miles West-Southwest of Detroit in Inkster.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Macomb County and Canada and Monroe, Washtenaw, and Oakland counties. 

The area of the county is 672 square miles.  It is 48 out of 83 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 83 in population in the state.  It has a density of 2669.0 persons per square mile making it 1 out of 83 in the state.  Wayne County has 82.8% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 75 goes north to south in the county from Oakland County to Monroe County.  Interstate Highway 94 travels east to west from Macomb County to Washtenaw County.  Interstate Highway 96 originates and exits northwest into Oakland County.  United States Highway 12 originates and goes west into Washtenaw County.  United States Highway 24 passes north to south from Oakland County to Monroe County.  The county looks like a plow blade standing on its head.  Detroit is on the northern border of the county.  Detroit is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 35.6% of the county population.  This county is in the Detroit-Warren-Livonia Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Northville