Where to Stay in Novi, Michigan

What is Novi known for?

Coin-operated machines put Novi on more itineraries than anything else. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum trades on machines rather than paintings, and the crowd it pulls has little to do with the rest of a suburb in Oakland County. The rest is quieter.

The Jacob and Rebecca Fuerst Farmstead and the Orson Everitt House carry the farming names that the street plan grew over, and Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church draws its own congregation.

What are the main landmarks in Novi?

Novi's list is mostly houses with family names on them. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is the exception, and it takes the attention that the Royal Aldrich House, the Botsford-Graser House and the Orson Everitt House never ask for. The Jacob and Rebecca Fuerst Farmstead keeps a working name from before the suburb.

Two churches round it out. Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church and First United Methodist Church stand among the newer streets, and The Hawk Community Center takes the ordinary weeknight traffic.

What is the history of Novi?

The date on Novi is 1832. Families gave the ground its names: the Robert Yerkes House, the Orson Everitt House, the Royal Aldrich House and the Jacob and Rebecca Fuerst Farmstead all carry them still. The farmstead says what the work was.

Oakland County stayed rural around Novi well past its founding, and the buildings from the period are houses and a church rather than anything civic or industrial. The Botsford-Graser House belongs to that group. Then came Detroit.

The outward growth of Detroit reached about 25 miles from its downtown and turned the ground around Novi into another suburb of Oakland County. Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church and First United Methodist Church came with the new streets, and The Hawk Community Center followed the same demand for somewhere to gather. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum arrived later still, and it gave a city otherwise known for its roads a reason to appear on a visitor's list.

The old names stayed on the map. USA Hockey Arena and the Holocaust Memorial Center stand on the same run of roads, which is how a small suburb ended up with large institutions inside easy reach.

Where is Novi?

Novi covers about 81 square kilometres of Oakland County. The city occupies the outer band of the built ground around Detroit, and the farmstead names on its edges mark how new that band is. Downtown Detroit is about 25 miles off.

Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Jacob and Rebecca Fuerst Farmstead sit spread across the city, with USA Hockey Arena and the Holocaust Memorial Center on the roads beyond it.

What is the climate of Novi?

The seasons here arrive in full. Novi sits in the temperate band, so winter brings cold and snow to Oakland County while summer runs warm, and the two halves of the year ask for different plans. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum works in any weather.

The streets out by the Jacob and Rebecca Fuerst Farmstead are worth the walk only in the warmer half of the year.

How do you get to Novi?

The car does the work. Novi lies about 25 miles from downtown Detroit, and the roads that run out through Oakland County pass close enough that most arrivals never see the older parts of the city at all. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum is the usual first stop, and the drive on to USA Hockey Arena or the Holocaust Memorial Center adds little to a day already spent behind the wheel.