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The City of Auburn Hills, Michigan is east of central Oakland County, below the Thumb in the eastern Lower Peninsula.

The chief routes serving the city are I-75 and M-59, which intersect in the southern part of the city. Auburn Hills is bordered by the cities of Lake Angelus, Pontiac, and Rochester Hills, as well as Waterford Township and Orion Township.

The city is home to a robust retail, entertainment, and manufacturing economy, and is the North American headquarters of several international companies. In cooperation with Oakland University, the city created a technology and research park in the early 1980s that now houses campuses for Chrysler, Comerica, EDS, and other corporations, and the city's tech and office buildings employ thousands of people on weekdays.

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, an enclosed regional outlet mall, opened in 1998, and the city revitalized its Auburn and Squirrel neighborhoods as the Village Center in the early 2000s. Several large projects were undertaken in the 2010s in this district, now known as Downtown Auburn Hills.

The main campus of Oakland University is in Auburn Hills, which is also home to campuses of Baker College, Oakland Community College, and Western Michigan University's Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Auburn Hills is home to several local parks, many of which are open throughout the year, while others are seasonal.

A Canadian by the name of Elijah Thornton came to the area in 1821, but Aaron Webster became the first permanent settler later that same year. He established a sawmill and gristmill, which attracted additional settlers to the area. The new settlement was in Pontiac Township, which included the village of Auburn, at what is now the corner of Auburn and Squirrel Roads. Aaron Webster named the growing community Auburn for his hometown in New York.

A post office was established on July 15, 1825, under the name of Auburn, with Johnson Green as the first postmaster. Its streets were laid out by Captain Thatcher in 1826, and the growing village rivaled nearby Pontiac until the 1850s when it began losing population and businesses. The post office was closed on May 10, 1856.

By 1880, the community was prospering again but, by the time that its post office was going to be re-established, there was another Michigan post office by the name of Auburn, so the post office was reopened as Amy on September 21, 1880, with John Morris as the postmaster. The following year, the Grand Trunk Railroad established a station at Amy.

In 1919, the Michigan Legislature changed the name of the village to Auburn Heights, and its post office took that name.

Pontiac Township was bordered by the City of Pontiac on two sides. In 1917, the township tried to incorporate as Pontiac Heights but its incorporation was denied by the state. In 1978, Pontiac Township became a charter township in order to avoid being annexed by the City of Pontiac. Then in 1983, Pontiac Township merged with the village of Auburn Heights to become the City of Auburn Hills. Oakland Community College had been referring to its local campus as the Auburn Hills Campus since 1964.

As the focus of this guide is on the City of Auburn Hills, Michigan, websites that address the municipal government is appropriate here, as are local businesses, industries, schools, places of worship, organizations, and individuals.

 

 

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