Pioneer Information
Born in Gordon, Alabama, Mickels attended Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College in Huntsville, graduating with a B.S. in 1952 with a major in ornamental horticulture. He worked as a site planner and superintendent of grounds at the Alabama State Teachers College in Montgomery for seven months in 1952, before serving as an intelligence specialist in the U.S. Army for two years. Soon after, Mickels enrolled in Michigan State University, where he earned a second B.S. in landscape architecture and urban planning in 1957. He was appointed director of planning and urban renewal in the same year for the Village of Inkster, a suburb of Detroit with a large African American population; concurrently, he started his own firm, Inkster Landscape Architects and Site Planners.
From 1959 to 1960 Mickels studied urban planning at Wayne State University in Detroit, becoming the first African American registered landscape architect in the state in 1964. He afterwards gained registration in the states of Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida. In 1966 Mickels left his position with the Village of Inkster to focus on his firm, then renamed Elon Mickels and Associates, headquartered in Detroit. The firm offered professional services in landscape architecture, site planning, housing, urban redevelopment, zoning, and community planning. Notable projects include Forest Park and Playground and St. Martins-Griggs Park, both located in Detroit. He died at the age of 59.
