October 8, 2026
The building at 4480 Orion Road has had a café downstairs since February. Upstairs, the people who plan Oakland Township's parks calendar have been putting more of that calendar under the same roof. Put a French bakery and a heavy October program schedule into one historic building and you get something Goodison hasn't had in a while. The cider mill is once again where people show up.
That is a change. In March 2024 the Paint Creek Trailways Commission recorded the mill's restaurant space as unoccupied. Thirty months later, the township's October schedule lists programs at the mill nearly every weekday. A pastry case downstairs opens at 6:30 a.m.
The mill has rarely been just one thing. Needham Hemingway dammed Paint Creek in 1835 and built a gristmill here. William Goodison bought it in 1866, and the railroad stop that grew up beside it, Goodison's Station, gave the hamlet its name. Grain grinding stopped after owner Maurice Collins died in 1941. During World War II the building stored apple and potato crates under Dale O. Miller, Sr., whose plan was to turn it into a cider mill. The original 1835 structure had deteriorated too far to save, so its hand-hewn timbers were salvaged and built into the new building.
The owners who followed kept adding uses:
Through all of it, the building has worked best with a public use and a commercial use sharing the floor plan. That is the arrangement it has right now.
The current tenant took a while to arrive. In January 2025, a competing proposal from Silver Shamrock was withdrawn, leaving Cannelle as the only candidate. The township board named a three-person subcommittee to work with Manager Joe Merucci on the contract: Supervisor Robin Buxar, Treasurer John Giannangeli and Trustee Jack Elder. In October 2025, a board agenda listed a Cannelle request to lease additional space in the building.
WDIV reported that MK Cannelle would open on Feb. 20, 2026. The report described it as the seventh retail location for French-trained pastry chef Matt Knio. SEEN Magazine wrote that Cannelle Patisserie needs little introduction for anyone who has spent time in downtown Detroit. The magazine also covered opening day. The exterior was now painted pistachio green, French music played on the patio, and the room was already busy at 8 a.m. A stone fireplace anchors a seating nook behind the counter. Knio greeted guests himself. WDIV listed almond and pistachio croissants and cinnamon rope among the popular items, along with coffee, sandwiches and rotating soups.
The hours matter for this story. MK Cannelle's Rochester page lists:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday–Thursday | 6:30 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Friday | 6:30 a.m.–10 p.m. |
| Saturday | 7:30 a.m.–10 p.m. |
| Sunday | 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m. |
Those evening hours overlap with most of the township programs in the building, which tend to start between 4:45 and 7 p.m. One caution: the township's own page for the mill still describes the ground-floor retail space as "currently vacant." The bakery's listing and the opening coverage show otherwise, so check the bakery's site for current hours before you go.
The second floor holds the offices of Oakland Township Parks & Recreation, the Historic District Commission, the Paint Creek Trailways Commission and Six Rivers Land Conservancy. The parks office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Its phone number is 248-651-7810. Free printed copies of the township's 2026 Trail Guide, which maps more than 20 miles of trails, are available there and at Township Hall.
The October calendar shows these offices pulling programs into the building. Two yoga series move indoors mid-month. All Levels Yoga ran at Cranberry Lake Farm through Oct. 4, and the new session starting Oct. 11 is at the mill. Mommy and Me Yoga ran at Bear Creek Nature Park through Oct. 6 and moves to the mill for its Oct. 13 to Nov. 17 session. Several other series meet at the mill on a regular schedule:
Seasonal events fill in the rest. Candy Corn Slime runs Oct. 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Spooky Science follows on Oct. 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. On Oct. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m., Six Rivers Land Conservancy's stewardship director presents Creatures of the Night, a talk on nocturnal ecology. The conservancy's office is upstairs from the room where the talk takes place. On Oct. 30, from 7 to 8 p.m., the Halloween Zen Beatz Glow Party meets in the mill's parking lot for a headphone-led walk on the Paint Creek Trail.
Some of the season's best-known programs take place at other parks. They are planned from the same second-floor offices:
The Wednesday bird walks start at 8 a.m. and run through Nov. 18. They rotate among Bear Creek Nature Park, Watershed Ridge Park, Fox Nature Preserve and Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park.
Paint Creek Trail bridge work. The Paint Creek Trailways Commission owns the trail, which opened in 1983 as Michigan's first rail-to-trail conversion. It runs 8.9 miles and draws more than 100,000 visitors a year. Rochester Hills has posted a projected closure beginning Oct. 6 for about three weeks so that bridges P10, P11 and P12, between Dutton and Tienken roads, can be repaired. Commission minutes describe the work as deck replacement, structural repairs and vegetation clearing. The estimated cost is $500,000, paid by Rochester Hills. The notice gives a projected start and duration but no reopening date or detour. If your usual route crosses that stretch, check before heading out.
Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park. The 268-acre park is getting a new Snell Road parking lot and trailhead, a universally accessible crushed-limestone trail to an overlook above the West Branch of Stony Creek, and a trail connection south into Stony Creek Metropark. The work is funded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Parks Director Ben McLoskey's letter in the Fall 2026 newsletter says The Alan Group has been on site since early summer, working around mature trees, and that the work will be completed this fall.
"I encourage everyone to visit Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park once it re-opens this fall."
The township's park page still lists those features as planned and access as pedestrian-only. It also notes that the park closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from Oct. 1 through Jan. 31 for controlled hunts. The bird-walk schedule includes a stop at Stony Creek Ravine on Wednesday, Oct. 28, so call the parks office at the mill to confirm access before that walk.
The township's mill page still calls the main floor a space for "meetings, events and programming, public restrooms, water fountain." This October, the same floor also serves pistachio croissants until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
The cider mill's story is one I've followed over more than 30 years in the Rochester area. Seeing the building busy again is a pleasure. If you're getting to know Goodison, or thinking about how the trail, the parks and the mill fit into everyday life around Orion Road, I'm happy to talk it through over coffee downstairs. Let's connect. Trisha Mell
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