Highland Park Police Station

The Highland Park Police Headquarters was built in 1917 following the dramatic
increase in Highland Park’s population after Henry Ford opened an automobile
assembly plant there – the first to have a moving assembly line. Highland Park
was incorporated as a city in 1918.
For over 80 years, the police headquarters building served the once wealthy enclave
of Highland Park. In the later decades of the 20th century, the city experienced
many of the same problems as surrounding Detroit – fewer people and more crime.
It was known as the City of Trees until the 1970s when Dutch elm disease killed
many old trees. After mounting financial crises, the city was taken over by the State
in 2001. The Highland Park police department was dissolved, policing duties taken
over by the Wayne County Sheriff’s department. In 2007, the former Highland Park
Police Headquarters was closed when the re-formed police department moved to
a new location.
Looters ransacked the closed police headquarters until the ruin that was the
Highland Park Police Headquarters was demolished in 2012. A new fire station
has been built in its place.