Christian Hills

About Christian Hills

Christian Hills occupies the rolling terrain on the north half of former Avon Township’s Section 20, anchored between Walton Boulevard and Livernois Road in the heart of Rochester Hills. The neighborhood takes its name from Reverend Smith Weeks, a circuit-riding Methodist preacher whose early-1800s ministry gave the hills their colloquial name long before any plat existed. Weeks served as pathmaster of Avon Township, probate judge of Oakland County, and first chaplain of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Michigan — and when developers brought the land to market more than a century later, the historical name stuck.

Christian Hills No. 1 was platted in the spring of 1955 and advertised in the Rochester Clarion that same season, placing the subdivision squarely in the post-war suburban boom that transformed Avon Township from farmland into one of Metro Detroit’s premier residential communities. Successive sections followed through the late 1950s and 1960s, producing a deliberate mix of cape cods, traditional colonials, ranches, and split-levels — the full vocabulary of mid-century American suburban architecture, nestled on private, treed, and unusually spacious lots that still feel rural in places.

The subdivision is governed by recorded deed restrictions that run with the land — most notably the prohibition on fences and detached outbuildings (with a narrow exception for swimming-pool fencing required by local ordinance). The result is an open, parklike streetscape where rear yards flow into one another and mature canopy dominates the view in every direction. The Christian Hills Subdivision Association maintains the entrances, common signage, and the neighborhood’s long-running social calendar, and the community Facebook group remains one of the most active in the city.

Children attend Rochester Community Schools, with Hugger Elementary, Hart Middle School, and Stoney Creek High School the typical assignments depending on street. Day-to-day errands sit minutes away at the Village of Rochester Hills lifestyle center on Adams Road, while downtown Rochester’s restaurants and the Yates Cider Mill on the Clinton River are an easy drive northeast. Bloomer Park, the Clinton River Trail, and Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Hall are all within the same five-mile radius.