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Waterford, Michigan is a charter township in the northwest Metro Detroit Region, and not a village or a city.

We are including it here as it is heavily developed, and each of the five unincorporated communities within the township (Clintonville, Drayton Plains, Elizabeth Lake, Four Towns, and Waterford Village) have a Waterford postal address.

The township is bounded by Independence Township to the north, West Bloomfield Township to the south, Keego Harbor and Sylvan Lake to the southeast, and Pontiac, Lake Angelus, and Auburn Hills to the east.

Major routes through the township are US-24 (Dixie Highway) and M59 (Highland Road, while I-75 runs north and east of the township, nearly touching its northeast boundary.

Cities and villages within twenty miles of Waterford include Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, Pontiac, Lake Angelus, Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills, Auburn Hills, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake, Birmingham, Bingham Farms, Franklin, Beverly Hills, Rochester Hills, Farmington Hills, Milford, Wixom, Ortonville, Berkley, Rochester, Troy, Clawson, Lathrup Village, Lake Orion, Southfield, Novi, Oxford, Royal Oak, Farmington, Huntington Woods, Oak Park, Utica, Holly, and Pleasant Ridge.

Organized in 1834, Waterford Township includes thirty-four named lakes.

There are no incorporated municipalities within the township, although portions of the traditional township were annexed by Sylvan Lake, Pontiac, and Lake Angelus. There are, however, five unincorporated communities in Waterford Township: Clintonville, Drayton Plains, Elizabeth Lake, Four Towns, and Waterford Village.

The first recorded settler in Clintonville was Samuel C. Munson, who came in 1830, building a grist mill and a sawmill. Israel Osmun came in 1835, and his brother, John, came the following year. Together, they arranged to have the village site platted in 1847. A post office was established on September 26, 1898, with John R. Webb, the owner of a flour mill in the community, as the first postmaster. Named for its location on the Clinton River, the post office operated until January 15, 1902. The community includes an area on the shores of Wormer Lake and Schoolhouse Lake.

Located along Dixie Highway, near the western end of Loon Lake, the first recorded settler in Drayton Plains was Daniel Windiate, who came from England in 1835. The following year, he and his son-in-law, Thomas Whitfield, built a grist mill. In 1838, they opened the Drayton Plains Hotel. A post office was established on August 24, 1858, and a village site was platted by Lewis L. Dunlap in 1860, although it was never incorporated. The Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway came through the community in 1850, building a depot in Drayton Plains in 1908.

Also unincorporated, Elizabeth Lake was founded as a resort community on the northern shores of the body of water with that name. Reportedly the lake and community were named for the wife of Governor Lewis Cass after he toured the area in 1818. On May 2, 1835, a post office was established in Elizabeth Lake, with William Terry, a Revolutionary War veteran, appointed as postmaster. The post office was transferred to Waterford Centre on July 13, 1841.

Named for its position at the corner of four townships (White Lake, Waterford, Commerce, and West Bloomfield), Harley Olmstead is credited as being the first settler after coming to the area from New York in 1830. The first frame home was built for John K. Dewey in 1832. Nathan R. Colvin came to Four Towns that same year. A post office was established in Four Towns on May 14, 1856, but it closed on December 31, 1902.

Located along Dixie Highway, in the northernmost part of the township, Waterford Village is a historic community settled in 1818 by Alpheus Williams and his brother-in-law, Captain Archibald Phillips. Later that year, the Oliver Williams family established the first farm settlement in the county along the banks of Silver Lake, while Alpheus Williams and Archibald Phillips continued north about nine miles to the point where the Clinton River crossed the old Saginaw Trail, the area that became Waterford Village. Williams and Phillips built a dam on the Clinton River to power a sawmill. In 1825, Shubael Atherton proposed a village, although it was never incorporated. On February 4, 1835, a post office was established, with Thomas J. Drake as postmaster. That office was transferred to Drayton Plains on August 24, 1858, but the Waterford post office was reopened on November 13, 1858, and continues in operation.

No longer recognized as a distinct community, Waterford Centre had a station on the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway. On July 13, 1841, the Elizabeth Lake post office was transferred to Waterford Centre, with William Terry as postmaster, but the office was closed on July 13, 1841.

Online resources with a Waterford postal address are appropriate for this portion of our guide.

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