What is now Lincoln Park was once the Potawatomi Nation, blessed with streams and rivers, lakes of crystal pure water, virgin forests and abundant wildlife.

1669 probably saw the first white man in this area, Adrien Joliett, arriving by canoe from Quebec.

In 1701, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, accompanied by 50 soldiers, 50 woodsmen and 100 Native Americans, traveled from the East across Canada in canoes to Lake St. Clair, then South to Detroit, where they established Fort Ponchartrain.

Seven Years later, Cadillac made land grants called 'ribbon farms'
to French settlers.

In 1776 the Potawatomis deeded 4000 acres of land, which included parts of Wyandote and Ecorse and all of Allen Park and Lincoln Park to one man, Pierre St. Cosme 'for love and affection'.

After Pierre died, his family sold parcels of the land to French farmers living in Detroit and Windsor, still long narrow farms that fronted on the Detroit and Rouge Rivers and ran several miles back into the forrest. Those families are familiar today: LeBlanc, Campeau, Bondie, Salliotte, Beaubien, Cicotte, Drouillard and others.

Prior to the Civil War, German immigrants came. From these people have survived names such as Keppen, Quandt, Dasher, Gerisch and Goodell.

Early in 1900's a business district developed at the corner of Fort St. and St. Cosme Line, later State Street, now Southfield Road, where Herman Quandt and Noah LeBlanc operated general stores.

In 1921 Lincoln Park became a village; in 1925 it became a city.

Thanks to Henry Ford's "$5.00-a-day" wage, many workers bought property in Lincoln Park, and a second expansion came after World War Two.

Lincoln Park has become a mature, stable community where citizens enjoy a moderate tax base, excellent school systems, nice parks and recreational facilities, a community renewal program, a well-regulated city government, and its own outstanding museum of local history.