- Country: United States
- State: Michigan
- County: Oakland
- Settled: 1895
- Incorporated: 1921
- Government
- Mayor Jim Ellison
- City Manager Tom Hoover
- Area
- City 11.8 sq. mi.
- Land 11.8 sq. mi.
- Water 0.0 sq. mi.
- Population
- City 60,062
- Density 5,083.0/sq. mi.
- Time Zone EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
- Area Code 248
History
Royal Oak was incorporated as a village in 1891, and as a city in 1921. The city's name originates in 1819, from one of Territorial Governor Lewis Cass' expeditions surveying land. A tree located near the present day intersection of Crooks, Rochester, and Main reminded Cass of the Royal Oak tree within which King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester.
In the 1920s, Charles Coughlin became Father of Shrine of the Little Flower in the city. The Ku Klux Klan destroyed the original, wooden building in a fire, but Coughlin raised enough money from his nationally broadcast WJR radio sermon to build the current limestone complex and tower from which he aired his radio show thereafter. He built a large following; however, in the late 30s Coughlin began to rally against international bankers whom he blamed for the Great Depression. He was taken off the air in 1939.
On November 14, 1991, Thomas McIlvane killed five people, including himself, with a Ruger .22 caliber rifle in Royal Oak's post office, which was one of a string of incidents across the United States in which current or recently fired postal workers attacked and killed co-workers en masse, leading to the phrase "going postal."
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