Life in Ferndale is always interesting. Below we offer historical resources showing life in Ferndale during the mid 1960s.

To start, the Police Department published a brochure in 1964 promoting safety in Ferndale with a cover theme from Life magazine. It offers a snapshot of Ferndale life at the time.....

YEARBOOKS - To learn more about the museum's 100 year collection of yearbooks visit HERE. Stop by the museum to browse these memory books. We offer a few online resources as shown below. The first link provides the 'new' high school introduction brochure from 1960. The next links show the general pages (advertising, events, & highlights) of several yearbooks to get you started.....

NEWSPAPERS - The museum has nearly all copies of the Ferndale Gazette (1927-1979) in our archives. Unfortunately they are not online yet due to the costs required to do so. However, the Royal Oak Tribune (which extensively covers Ferndale topics well before and after the Ferndale Gazette) is online for free! The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are also online for free to Michigan residents. Click HERE to learn how to access these valuable resources.

Meanwhile, below are links to some 'year-end editions' of mid 1960s Ferndale Gazettes to peruse.

LOCAL RADIO - One of the most popular music stations of the day was the all new WKNR "Keener 13" that started broadcasting on Halloween 1963. A wonderful history page is HERE. Below are a few "hit Lists" sourced from that page.

The Billboard Top 100 singles for each year is another memory trip worth taking - the 1963 list is HERE (with links to music and more years).

MOVIETIME - We have a great history of the Ferndale Theatre HERE. To see the top national movies for each year we turn to Wikipedia. Their source page for 1963 is well worth a visit HERE with links to other years.

CAR & TRUCKS - Vehicle history is an endless topic! Wiki offers an interesting look at the subject by organizing cars by the year they were introduced. You can see what metal memories were launched by year. Click HERE. to start your journey in 1963. Endless history for each vehicle are within a few clicks. Ferndale had a fascinating collection of Auto Dealers known as "The Ferndale Motor Mile" and we are working on gathering that history. For now we offer a collection of mid 1960s advertising from area dealers at the link below:

HANGOUTS - Once you have friends, music, and a car you have to find hangouts. The museum is always gathering histories of local joints and shows some on our website. Below we offer a map, primarily of 1950s hangouts, but many of which were still rockin' in the 1960s!

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FASHION - Starting in 1963 awards were given out for "Dress of the Year". A fun fashion flashback is HERE. Once again Wiki offers fun coverage with their Fashion of the 1960s page HERE. The Museum has a few patterns and fashion items, along with some school band outfits to explore! We also offer a "Avenue of Fashion" slide show along Livernois near 7 Mile Road circa 1966 HERE.

PRODUCTS & BRANDS - The museum has a collection of products and brands used in Ferndale over the years. Wiki has organized product launches by year in a simple manner that is a fun way to travel through time HERE! Below is a small collection of mid 1960s Ferndale store ads showing products from our past....

SCHOOL MUSICALS - The museum is working to gather & organize programs from school musicals. You can see what is available HERE Access to files is limited, please contact the museum for access information.

YOUR FERNDALE HOME - The museum offers resources to research the history of your Ferndale home HERE. If you want to take a quick peek at who owns it today, its value, utility/tax costs, and other data be sure to visit the city's public website and enter an address HERE.

The museum's website contains many detailed histories of area people, events, businesses, and buildings. A good list of topics is HERE.

The museum has a wealth of local artifacts, images, and histories. We are always interested in adding to the collections so stop by to learn more! Our map is HERE

info@ferndalehistoricalsociety.org