History:

Dream Comes True

William Blakely sees dream for Loch Alpine fulfilled

Written by Norma McCallister

William Warden Blakely had great dreams of developing land he had purchased after arriving in Dexter in 1924.

After purchasing several hundred acres between Huron River Drive and Joy Road, he organized the Loch Alpine Development Company. By 1926, Arthur Hill was employed as the general contractor for the development of Loch Alpine.

Blakely spent much of his time on this project until the Great Depression years, following the market crash of 1929 halted all activities.

Blakely died in 1934 and this land was left to his wife and oldest son, Malcolm Blakely. In the early fall of 1935, Malcolm built a club house at Loch Alpine with an 18 hole golf course, an office, a lounge, dining room, men’s lockers and shower rooms and women’s rooms.

The Club House, after being boarded up for several months, was destroyed by fire in 1945.

William W Blakely and his wife, Cora Reeves Blakely, arrived in Dexter from Detroit, where William had organized the Detroit Reamer Salvage Company in 1914. Three years later, he organized the Blakely Manufacturing Company and, seven years later, in 1924, retired.

Cora Blakely, born in Webster Township, was the daughter of Alice and Russell Sill Reeves. The Reeves sold their farm in Webster in 1904 and moved to Dexter, where they purchased the two-story brick home on Huron Street built by John Raywalt in 1869.

Here the Reeves lived until their deaths, both occurring in 1918. Cora, who became a teacher, then inherited the property on Huron Street. When William returned they came to Dexter and completely remodeled the 55-year-old brick house where they lived.

The Blakelys had three children, Malcolm, a graduate of the Detroit Business School and the University of Michigan; Brian, who lived in Detroit, and a daughter, Constance, who went to California to live.

Malcolm remained in Dexter and spent the last 12 years of his life as office manager for the Washtenaw County Road Commission. He was married to Nina Droyer, whose father was superintendent of the Dexter Union School 1922-23.

After a number of bad years financially during the Depression and after World War II, Loch Alpine once again sprang into life when plans were developed for the building of homes in this picturesque setting.

In June 1956, grand opening ceremonies were held in Loch Alpine subdivision. On display were “new model homes nestled in 600 acres of wooded rolling hills, northeast of Dexter” as advertised in The Dexter Leader.

Opening of this site with its two lakes, an 18-hole golf course and 500 platted building lots, was hailed as a “triumph over more than three decades of planning and a major depression and a war” as cited by the developer, Calvin Shuban.

Scheduled to be built in 1964 were 270 new homes in the country club area of Loch Alpine to be known as Country Club Hills, part of the sites in Scio Township and part in Webster Township.

Josephine Crocker, originally from Dexter, recently recalled going with friends swimming in one of the lakes at Loch Alpine before it was developed. She remembers the father of one of her friends, Gertrude Kearney, was involved somehow when Blakely began the development and then again in later years in selling some of the houses erected there.

William Blakely, no doubt, would be very proud if he could see Loch Alpine today as a fulfillment of his dreams back in the early 1920s.

• Source: The Chelsea Standard/The Dexter Leader, May 25, 2000

Copyright © [2008] [Loch Alpine Improvement Association]