The Patton Recreation Center once had a basement-level (step-down stairway) entrance to locker rooms to accommodate park-goers who utilized the pond area.

Up until the early 1960s, the water flowed unabated as Baby (or Baubee) Creek through Patton Park, beneath Vernor, and along Woodmere Cemetery (Riverside Drive) in Dearborn.

The grand opening of the Patton Park Recreation Center was a spectacular affair, eight years after America’s victory in World War II.

Patton Park gained attention during the 1967 race riots, when a landing strip was hastily constructed to bring in National Guard supplies.

The greatest of such was the post-festivities from the annual Southwest Detroit Fourth of July Parade, from Beard St. to Woodmere Ave., along a one-mile stretch of Vernor Hwy.

The recreation center, built and dedicated at the same time the park was inaugurated, once boasted an indoor stage-theater, located at the back of the gymnasium.

for the construction of a combined sewer overflow retention facility, attached directly to the D.W.S.D.’s existing Woodmere Pumping Station, also located within Patton Park.

The surrounding Patton Park neighborhood has changed and adjusted to the economic climate that has roiled the city of Detroit over the past five decades.

Particularly hard hit with the closure of General Motors' Cadillac Headquarters and Fleetwood and Fisher Guide assembly plants, the Patton Park neighborhood area experienced hardships from the early 1980s.

Businesses such as Neisners, Jupiters, Paradise Candies, Rebert’s Bakery, Chimes Restaurant, Sheridan’s Sports, Vanity Fair, and Todt’s Pharmacy all folded due to the demise of General Motors’ local assembly plants.

The ensuing exodus of long-time homeowners who had worked at the auto plants, along with a particularly hard-hitting recession in 1980–82 and the opening of nearby Fairlane Mall, all made shopping in the Vernor-Springwells area unnecessary.