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Harper Woods, Michigan is an inner suburb in the Detroit Metro Region. It is bordered by Detroit to the west and south, by Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores to the north, and by Grosse Pointe Woods to the east.

The primary routes through the city are I-94 (Edsel Ford Freeway) and M-102 (Vernier Road), which intersect in the northeastern portion of the city. East 8 Mile Road forms its northern boundary, and Kelly Road forms the western boundary of Harper Woods. Harper Avenue, for which the city was named, runs parallel to the interstate on its west side.

Besides those that are abutting Harper Woods, cities and villages within twenty miles include Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Park, Roseville, Hamtramck, Center Line, Fraser, Highland Park, Warren, Mt. Clemens, Sterling Heights, Dearborn, Hazel Park, Ferndale, Utica, Pleasant Ridge, Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Melvindale, River Rouge, Huntington Woods, and Oak Park.

The K-12 population of the city is served by two public school districts: Harper Woods School District and Grosse Pointe School District. The former operates Beacon Elementary School, Tyrone Elementary School, Harper Woods Middle School, and Harper Woods High School, while the latter does not currently operate any schools in Harper Woods. Harper Woods is also home to Chandler Park Academy, which operates an elementary, middle school, and high school, as well as Starr Detroit Academy, offering a K-8th-grade curriculum. Chandler Park Academy and Starr Detroit Academy are both charter schools. The University Square campus of Wayne County Community College is in Harper Woods, and Wayne State University uses Harper Woods High School as a satellite campus in the evening hours.

Harper Woods is one of the newer Detroit suburbs, being incorporated as a city in 1951, and was inhabited long before it established its own identity.

Although there were likely people in the area prior to that time, the first recorded settlement of the area was by Caspar Salter in 1850. A townsite was not platted until 1920 and, at that time, it was called Manchester Park. A few other subdivisions were added shortly afterward, but the 1929 Depression brought the area back nearly to wilderness status. In 1934, subdivisions began again, and these settlements proved to be permanent. In 1949, it was renamed for its wooded terrain and Harper Avenue, which was then the main thoroughfare from Detroit. The city was incorporated on October 29, 1951.

Now known as Eastland Center, the Eastland Shopping Center was one of the first outdoor malls in the Midwest when it opened in 1957.

From 1940, when Harper Woods first appeared on a census report, to 1950, the city grew by 966.2%, and by another 118.6% in the following decade. After a modest increase of one percent on the 1970 census, it has decreased slightly each decade since.

The focal point of this category is on the city of Harper Woods, Michigan. Websites representing the city itself, as well as any schools, places of worship, organizations, businesses, industries, attractions, and events within the city are appropriate resources for this category.

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