Grosse Pointe
From Free net encyclopedia
Grosse Pointe is an suburban area bordering the east side of the city of Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan, and situated along the western shores of Lake St. Clair. The twelve square mile area consists of four cities and one village, all included within the Metro Detroit area:
- Grosse Pointe, city
- Grosse Pointe Farms, city
- Grosse Pointe Park, city
- Grosse Pointe Shores, village
- Grosse Pointe Woods, city
Grosse Pointe Shores is comprised of two townships—Grosse Pointe Township in Wayne County and the smaller Lake Township in Macomb County—but both are rarely referred to.
Typically when natives of the region say "Grosse Pointe" they are referring collectively to these five Grosse Pointes. A Grosse Pointer refers to them individually as "the Shores," "the Farms," "the Park," "the Woods," and "the City" (that is, the City of Grosse Pointe). Newspapers and community organizations generally serve all five, as does the public library and school system, but municipal services are separate. Each has at least one municipal park along the lake; the landlocked Grosse Pointe Woods has its park at the southern tip of St. Clair Shores, adjacent to Grosse Pointe Shores. Each park is restricted to residents of its municipality. Jefferson Avenue is the scenic carriageway of these cities skirting the eastern border of Detroit, although the segment that runs through Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Shores is called Lakeshore Road. The eleven elementary schools in Grosse Pointe are Barnard Center, Barnes, Defer, Ferry, Kerby, Maire, Mason, Monteith, Poupard, Richard, and Trombly. The three middle schools are Brownell, Parcells, and Pierce. The two high schools are Grosse Pointe North High School and Grosse Pointe South High School.
Grosse Pointe in literature and film
Grosse Pointe was mentioned in Lisa Birnbach's 1980 Official Preppy Handbook for its preppy qualities. Included were references to a stereotypical way of speech, the "Grosse Pointe Monotone," and a guide to the preppy hotspots (private clubs, restaurants, etc.) in the area.
The Grosse Pointe area is the setting of two novels by Grosse Pointe-raised writer Jeffrey Eugenides: The Virgin Suicides, which is partially a parody of his real-life high school University Liggett School (ULS), and Middlesex. The film version of The Virgin Suicides takes place in Grosse Pointe but was not filmed there.
There is also a film named Grosse Pointe Blank starring Minnie Driver, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, and Dan Aykroyd which takes place almost entirely in Grosse Pointe but was largely filmed in California. Finally, a television program named Grosse Pointe starring Lindsay Sloane, Bonnie Somerville, and Nat Faxon aired on The WB Television Network for a short time.
In the television series Northern Exposure, pilot Maggie McConnell was a native Grosse Pointer who had moved to Alaska.