In 1818, prominent Detroit judge Augustus B. Woodward bought the ridge, and platted the village of Woodwardville in 1825.

The village of Highland Park was incorporated as a city in 1918[8] to protect its tax base, including its successful Ford plant, from Detroit's expanding boundaries.

Between 1910 and 1920 during the boom associated with the automobile industry, Highland Park's population grew to about 46,500, an increase of 1,081 percent, reaching its peak around 1927.

The growth of Highland Park and neighboring Hamtramck broke records for increases of population; both municipalities withstood annexation efforts from Detroit.

It purchased the city's Brush-Maxwell plant, which would eventually expand to 150 acres and serve as the site of the company's headquarters for the next 70 years.

[6] Arthur Lupp of Highland Park founded the Michigan branch of the Black Legion in 1931; it was a secret vigilante group related to the Ku Klux Klan, which had been prominent in Detroit in the 1920s.

The Legion had a similar nativist bent and its members were opposed to immigrants, Catholics, Jews, blacks, labor organizers, etc.

Many public and business officials of Highland Park, including the chief of police, a mayor, and a city councilman, joined this group.

[13] Ford Motor Company demolished large sections of its Highland Park plant in the late 1950s.

With the loss of industrial jobs, the city suffered many of the same difficulties as Detroit: declines in population and tax base accompanied by an increase in street crime.

Ford's last operation at the factory, the production of tractors at its Model T plant, was discontinued in 1973, and in 1981 the entire property was sold to a private developer for general industrial usage.

[17][18] In August 2011, more than two-thirds of the street lights in Highland Park's residential neighborhoods and alleys were removed by the city, due to an inability to pay a $60,000 per month electric bill.

[23] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 2.971 square miles (7.69 km2), all land.

It is bounded by McNichols Road (6 Mile Road) to the north, Grand Trunk Western Railroad Holly Subdivision tracks to the east, the alleys of Tuxedo and Tennyson streets to the south, and the Lodge Freeway and Thompson Street to the west.

[35] However, using the Public Act 72 of 1990, Governor John Engler appointed an emergency financial manager to take over the city's financial operations in December 2000, effectively relegating the mayor, city council, and other elected public officers to advisory roles.

The third and final emergency financial manager, Robert Mason, returned the city to local control in July 2009.

[36][37] The city administration works out of the Robert B. Blackwell Municipal Building at 12050 Woodward Avenue.

Designed by Marcus Burrowes and Frank Eurich, Jr. in the Classical Revival style, it was the final element of the Highland Park Civic Center ensemble located on both sides of Gerald Street near Woodward Avenue.

As of 2020, it continues to await redevelopment as part of a wider regeneration of downtown Highland Park by means of a Tax increment financing district,[38] or potential listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Highland Park Police Department was headquartered in a building opened at 25 Gerald Street in 1917.

[40][41] The police administrative offices are located in the Robert Blackwell Municipal Building,[41] and the patrol station is in a mini-station in the Model-T Plaza strip mall.

It was housed in the first municipal building at 20 Gerald Street, designed by Albert E. Williams and opened in 1911.

Given Highland Park's rapid growth and industrialization in the 1910s and 1920s, the police and the municipal government moved to purpose-built buildings in 1917 and 1927, respectively.

The first municipal building was expanded and altered several times until it became the headquarters of the Highland Park Fire Department (HPFD), established in 1917.

A $2.7 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enabled construction of a new, purpose-built station.

In 1992 Chrysler had 25% of Highland Park's tax base and contributed 50% of the city's budget.

[16] In 2009 Magna International announced plans to start an automotive seat production operation in the former Chrysler headquarters.

The school's 2008 mathematics and English standardized test scores for 4th grade students were invalidated after cheating had been discovered.

That year it changed its authorizer to Bay Mills Community College out of concern that the Highland Park school district may collapse.

[58] In 1918 Katherine and Tracy McGregor, wealthy individuals, deeded the property of a facility for "homeless, crippled, and backward children.