BARTON HILLS (AP) — There’s no sign that says, “Welcome to Barton Hills Village,” and that’s how residents like it.

The only straight road is Barton Shore Drive, a shared driveway running under a tunnel of trees that is used to enter the community.

Little would anyone know that at the end of the mile-long road lies Michigan’s wealthiest community, one many have never heard of, tucked away just five miles north of downtown Ann Arbor.

There are 140 homes on less than two-square-miles of rolling hills overlooking the Huron River’s Barton Pond. No two homes are alike, said Martin Bouma, an area real estate agent for the past 34 years.

“There’s sort of an ‘old-money’ environment,” he told The Detroit News. “It doesn’t look or feel like any typical neighborhood.”

The 100-year-old community has two priorities: its privacy and the trees, said Jan Esch, the village clerk.

The trees play an important role. Not only does the village have some of the nation’s oldest and largest oak and yellowwood trees, but the trees also hide the large homes that would be difficult to see outside the winter months. Yet what attracts residents is being near the city.

“We don’t have anything. We have residential, open natural space, and the Country Club, which has been there since 1922 as well,” said Esch, who has lived in the village for 40 years. “When we developed our master plan, 10 years ago now, a lot of that points toward we’re not anticipating building schools or libraries because we’re so close to the city and yet, when you drive in you feel like you’ve left the city behind.”

The community in Ann Arbor Charter Township had 287 residents in 2018, according to census data, with a median household income of $222,917 — the highest in Michigan.

Lots vary in size from a half an acre on the south drive to huge homes sitting on eight acres on the upper north drive. The average lot is two to three acres, said Bouma.

“It’s a culmination of old little ranches and amazing mansions surrounded around a golf course and it’s the land that really makes a difference,” said Bouma. “It’s got those beautiful winding roads and all the lots were laid out with purpose and really good privacy. Most houses you can’t even see from the road.”

The majority of homes are valued upwards of $1 million. Of the 26 sales in Barton Hills the past five years, 10 homes went for more than $1 million.

“That’s more than a third. You won’t see that in any other neighborhood besides Geddes on the east side, but it’s not at the same level of privacy,” Bouma said. “It’s definitely exclusive. Saying you’re from Barton Hills really meant something, especially a few decades ago.”

Dave Brandon, former CEO of Toys ‘R’ Us and Domino’s and onetime athletic director at the University of Michigan, sold his Barton Hills Village home a couple of years ago for $3.75 million.