Clawson
One of the smallest cities in Oakland County — 2.2 square miles of walkable downtown, big personality, and a Fourth of July that punches way above its weight.
The story
Clawson calls itself “the Little City with a Big Heart,” and after about five minutes downtown, you’ll get it. At just 2.2 square miles, it’s one of the smallest cities in Oakland County — the kind of place where the whole thing is genuinely walkable and everybody seems to know the corner coffee shop by name.
The land was Potawatomi long before it was anything else, and settlers trickled in through the early 1800s. Clawson officially became a city in 1920, growing up quietly while its flashier neighbors — Royal Oak, Birmingham, Troy — got the attention. That turned out to be a feature, not a bug.
Tucked right in the middle of all of them, three miles from just about everywhere, Clawson kept its small-town bones: tidy side streets, century-old catalog homes (yes, the kind people once ordered out of a Sears book), and a Main Street running along 14 Mile that’s all independent shops and restaurants, no chains in sight. It’s the suburb that feels like a small town that happens to sit inside a big metro — and that’s exactly the charm.
Did you know?
- Clawson is a “Tree City USA” — the tree-lined residential blocks are part of the whole vibe.
- The city’s Fourth of July celebration is legitimately one of the best in Michigan — it runs for the better part of a week and pulls people in from all over the region for the parade and fireworks.
- You can still spot kit houses around town — early-1900s homes literally ordered from catalogs and assembled on-site. A little piece of mail-order history hiding in plain sight.
- The Clawson Farmers Market runs Saturdays downtown in summer (and moves indoors in winter), part of a downtown so active it won the 2026 Oakland County “Spirit of Main Street” Award.
- At roughly 2.2 square miles, the whole city is walkable or bikeable end to end — most homes are within a mile of everything that matters.
Notable locals
Clawson’s a small town, so the famous-faces list is short and sweet — but it counts: Mark Campbell, the NFL tight end who spent time with the New Orleans Saints (among others), is a Clawson product. Honestly, in a city this size, the real notable locals are the shop owners and market regulars who make downtown what it is — but we’ll take an NFL tight end too.
Where to go in Clawson
Clawson Farmers Market
Clawson
Whiskey Taco Foxtrot
Clawson
Mojave Cantina Clawson
Clawson