In 1923 she purchased a tract of 1,000 acres (4 km2) in Southfield Township, in southern Oakland County, and proceeded to plant a residential neighborhood that encompasses the city of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km2).

Lathrup Townsite was conceived as a controlled community with rigorous standards, including houses built only of masonry construction; early integration of attached garages; as well as established minimums for construction cost to ensure quality.

The community also had housing covenants to prevent the sale of homes to African American families, part of a larger trend in the mid-20th century of racist white Detroiters fleeing to the suburbs to avoid living near black residents (see white flight).

As the community developed, Mrs. Kelley implemented numerous innovative directives, including operating a shuttle service to local shopping areas, and allowing the financing of automobiles as part of the financing of houses, which created a stronger connection between the relatively isolated townsite and more established suburbs, as well as the city of Detroit.

[8] The district includes approximately 1,200 properties, primarily residential, that reflect characteristic housing styles from the first half of the 20th century.

This layering of patterns produces octagonal, circular and semi-circular focal points and a series of small triangular parks scattered throughout the district.

It also creates unique and changing perspectives, as views of significant buildings suddenly appear at surprising moments.

According to the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office “As a woman acting as developer starting in the 1920s, she was essentially alone, however her dogged persistence and insistence on quality resulted in a unique community that was the summation of her career.”[9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.50 square miles (3.88 km2), all land.

[19] The school was built in 1926 and opened in 1927, opposite the Town Hall Sales Office, in an effort to give Lathrup Village a focal point.

[22] It was incorporated into the Southfield Public School system, and eventually closed in the late 1970s.

[24] According to the city's Economic Development Strategy, "With the demolition of the town hall in the 1990s, the school remains the only historic structure on Southfield Road."

In the late 1990s the building was sold to a real estate developer, who hoped to use the land for a shopping center.

The residents of Lathrup Village protested against this plan and instead another academic organization, the Academy of America, rented the building and opened a branch called The Academy of Lathrup Village.