Welcome to the first issue of our refreshed Sherwood Forest newsletter, the Tattler! The Tattler has a long history in the neighborhood, with our first issue published in the 1940s. Over the years, it’s not only served as a platform to share news and events in our area, but a tool to create connections among neighbors.
Our board has committed to increased communication efforts in 2024, so reviving the Tattler was a natural first step. You can look forward to receiving this newsletter in your inboxes each quarter along with email updates as needed with details about our annual spring meeting in May and annual fall meeting in November, the summer block party, and more. As we refocus on our communication, we look forward to your ideas and feedback along the way. As a start, we created this form where you can share your ideas, provide feedback, and ask questions. Please also feel free to reach out to me directly at my email listed below.
With 470 homes in the neighborhood and about 30 of those having sold in the last few years, I want to extend a warm welcome to our new neighbors who have chosen to make Sherwood Forest home. My family and I have lived here since 2014 and love our friends and neighbors – Mike and Jonelle Tolhurst, Carl and Michelle Bolofer, Andrew Stein and Beth Pacifico, and Angela and Mike Jackson – with whom our kids have grown up playing together and attending the same elementary school for several years. I personally have gained great advice and insight from several neighbors and friends about our community and history while visiting Gary and Sherry Brown during the spring standing in the driveway, having coffee with Gail and Gordon Rodwan in their living room, and stopping to chat with Shirley Jackson for two hours (impromptu) just because.
As we welcome new neighbors, I want to routinely share different ways people can get involved with our community. We currently have several open seats on our board with voting occurring in August, and several block captain opportunities. Each board member serves a three-year term. There are plenty of other ways to get involved: we have several subcommittees dedicated to the initiatives of communication, events, traffic calming, garden club and historic preservation. If you’re interested in any of the involvements listed above, please email info@sherwoodforestdetroit.org.
To provide transparency on a few high-level issues that are top of mind for the board, we are currently researching the cost to replace the signage at all neighborhood entrances that are in disrepair, as well as working to make it easier to pay neighborhood dues – $100 annually per household to cover events, park maintenance, and more. In addition, we are working with the newly-formed Detroit Historic Districts Alliance dedicated to preserving and promoting historic neighborhoods within the City of Detroit by protecting historical designations, architectural, and cultural heritage.
We will keep everyone updated as these progress, and I’m always here if you’d like to connect. Thank you for being part of this incredible community – I’m grateful to be your neighbor and friend.
Shirley Jackson moved to the neighborhood in 1976 and described Sherwood Forest as a place “where neighborliness is taken seriously.” She and her husband, James Jackson, married in 1969 and after welcoming their son, Scott, realized they needed more space than their home in Bagley offered. They began their hunt and before long, found their house on Canterbury.
It needed work. The garage doors were battered, the carpet needed to be replaced, among many other projects that would require their attention over time, including a house fire that damaged their kitchen. But it was the home’s spacious floor plan, generous storage, its architectural features and yard filled with incredible trees that made her feel at home and see the potential.
Over the years, the Jacksons chipped away at work the home needed while raising their sons – Randall was born after the move – and building their careers; Shirley in education and James in law enforcement while teaching criminal justice part time. Now, as a full-time professor at Wayne County Community College District, he chairs the program.
Shirley started her career as an elementary and middle school math teacher before becoming a school administrator, and eventually principal of schools in Detroit and Southfield. Her move into administration was recommended by others who noticed her talent and ability to connect with students, but it was exhaustion that ultimately tipped the scales. Like many in the field of education, Jackson gave it every bit of energy she had.
“I kind of throw myself into things fully when I’m doing it. Maybe I just like to work,” she joked. “But I was worn out.”
During her eight years of teaching mathematics at the middle school level, her team of enthusiastic students competed locally, statewide and nationally in academic games. In her final year of math instruction, before moving into administration, she focused on helping them get to a competition in Florida. Round by round, they kept winning, eventually being awarded first place in two of three games. Her dedication as an academic games coach for eight years and her overall commitment to her students earned her the Detroit Teacher of the Year award. Before becoming an administrator, Shirley said she never saw herself as a school leader, but it was a path she ended up loving. She retired from leadership and active instructional practice in 2004 and for the past 18 years has worked at Michigan State University as an outreach specialist in the college of education.
It wasn’t just her career in education that Shirley showed passion for. She became even more closely connected to the Sherwood Forest community, both through the personal relationships she formed with neighbors, as well as her involvement as an association board member for 10 years, and as editor of the Tattler during her time on the board. She’s still part of a dinner club created 40 years ago and made up of women who live on her block.
Shirley saw Sherwood Forest as
an oasis in a fairly chaotic city.
“It was almost as if you drove into the neighborhood and all of the other concerns that you felt were happening or not happening in the city – so much disinvestment – you kind of left it out there,” she said. “You came to this wonderful place that was walkable, where people cared about you and got to know you, where your children played.”
When asked to comment on critical investments in the community, Shirley mentioned Marcia and Marty Baum who spearheaded and raised funding for the co-op that helped open Farmer Jack’s in the 1980s, a project she considers to be the start of the revitalization of Livernois.
“While Farmer Jack’s wasn’t perfect, it was somewhere you could walk to and get things,” she said. “A national chain that was reliable and provided fresh produce was not readily available in the area. The co-op also included First Independence Bank, still operating, and a much needed hardware store that has since closed. The co-op was kind of a symbol of how much people cared for the neighborhood.”
Shirley said lately, she’s noticed how many young families have moved into Sherwood – there are more little kids here than there ever have been, she said. She noted neighborhood friends Gail and Gordon Rodwan, dedicated community leaders whose daughter, Laura, bought a house in Sherwood and is now raising her son a block over from her parents.
It’s a place people stay.
“It’s been wonderful living here, raising our children here,” Shirley said. “When our kids were young, there wasn’t a person on my block who didn’t know them or wouldn’t have assisted them if help was needed. I still see Sherwood Forest that way – everyone who has moved here seems that way.”
LOCAL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Introducing B. Siegel Detroit
Nestled at the corner of 7 Mile and Livernois, B. Siegel Detroit is turning a piece of local history into a vibrant community hub.
The mixed-use development, owned by Sherwood Forest resident Matt Hessler, is revitalizing what used to be a B. Siegel department store branch which opened in 1949 and anchored Livernois as the “Avenue of Fashion” ever since.
The historic building’s second floor has been transformed into ten stylish apartments. Street level retail includes women- and locally-owned businesses Welcome Home Yoga & Wellness which offers rejuvenating yoga classes and wellness treatments, and Natural-ish Salon & Beauty Supply which caters to natural hair care needs. Human-i-t, a national non-profit, brings both commerce and charity by selling and servicing electronics.
Coming soon are the much-anticipated Lily's & Elise, which will enchant with tea, coffee, pastries, and event hosting, as well as Livernois Reaux, a three-floor dining, cigar bar, and speakeasy experience aimed at elevating the local culinary scene. Both are anticipated to open their doors in the first half of 2024.
Three commercial spaces are still available for future businesses to serve our community and bring people together. Stay tuned for more on local businesses old and new, as well as discounts for Sherwood residents!
For reporting running water, potholes, damaged street signs, and other issues, the Improve Detroit mobile app makes reporting a neighborhood problem to City Hall easier than ever.
If you know a neighbor who does not have an email address and would appreciate a printed copy of the Tattler, we kindly ask that you share it with them. Thank you!
