Ann Arbor, Michigan 1851.
1851. During the 1960s and 1970s, the city
A nn Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of
Michigan and the county seat of Washt-
enaw County. It is the state’s seventh largest
city with a population of 114,024 as of the
2000 Census, of which 36,892 (32%) are uni-
versity or college students. The city, which is
part of the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI CSA, is
named after the spouses of the city’s found-
ers and for the stands of trees in the area.
History
A nn Arbor was founded in January 1824
by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, both
of whom were land speculators. On May
25, 1824, the town plot was registered with
Wayne County as “Annarbour”. The city be-
came the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827,
and was incorporated as a village in 1833. The
town became a regional transportation hub
in 1839 with the arrival of the Michigan Cen-
tral Railroad, and was chartered as a city in
found itself grappling with the effects of
gained a reputation as a center for liberal
politics. During the 20th century, the econ-
omy of Ann Arbor underwent a gradual shift
from a manufacturing base to a service and
technology base, which accelerated in the
1970s and 1980s.
University of Michigan
A
nn Arbor is home to the University of
Michigan, established in 1837. As the
dominant institution of higher learning in the
city and one of the top public universities in
the world, the university provides Ann Arbor
with a distinct college-town atmosphere. The
university shapes Ann Arbor’s economy sig-
nificantly as it employs about 30,000 workers,
including about 7,500 in the medical center.
The city’s economy is also centered on high-
technology, with several companies drawn to
the area by the university’s research and de-
velopment money, and by its graduates. On
the other hand, Ann Arbor has increasingly
sharply rising land values and gentrification,
as well as urban sprawl stretching far into the
outlying countryside.
Local Attraction
M
any Ann Arbor cultural attractions and
events are sponsored by the Univer-
sity of Michigan. Several performing arts
groups and facilities are on the university’s
campus, as are museums dedicated to art,
archaeology, and natural history and sci-
ences (see Museums at the University of
Michigan). Regional and local performing
arts groups not associated with the univer-
sity include the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre;
the Arbor Opera Theater; the Ann Arbor
Symphony Orchestra; the Ann Arbor Ballet
Theater; the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet (estab-
lished in 1954 as Michigan’s first chartered
ballet company); and Performance Network,
which operates a downtown theater fre-
quently offering new or nontraditional plays.
T he Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, locat-
ed in a renovated and expanded historic
downtown fire station, contains more than
250 interactive exhibits featuring science
and technology. Multiple art galleries exist in
the city, notably in the downtown area and
around the University of Michigan campus.
Aside from a large restaurant scene in the
Main Street, South State Street, and South
University Avenue areas, Ann Arbor ranks
first among U.S. cities in the number of book-
sellers and books sold per capita. The Ann
Arbor District Library maintains four branch
outlets in addition to its main downtown
building; in 2008 a new branch building re-
placed the branch located in Plymouth Mall.
This new branch is called the Traverwood
Branch, and opened on June 30, 2008. The
city is also home to the Gerald R. Ford Presi-
dential Library.
Events
S everal annual events – many of them
centered on performing and visual arts –
draw visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event is
the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, a set of four concur-
rent juried fairs held on downtown streets,
which began in 1960. Scheduled on Wednes-
day through Saturday in the third week of
July, the fairs draw upward of half a million
visitors. One event that is not related to visu-
al and performing arts is Hash Bash, held on
the first Saturday of April, ostensibly in sup-
port of the reform of marijuana laws. It has
been celebrated since 1971.
Fun Facts
A
person from Ann Arbor is called an “Ann
Arborite”, and many long-time residents
call themselves “townies”. The city itself
is often called A² (“A-squared”) or A2 (“A
two”), and, less commonly, Tree Town. Re-
cently, some youths have taken to calling
Ann Arbor Ace Deuce or simply The Deuce.
With tongue-in-cheek reference to the city’s
liberal political leanings, some occasionally
refer to Ann Arbor as The People’s Republic
of Ann Arbor or 25 square miles surrounded
by reality, the latter phrase being adapted
from Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus’s de-
scription of Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Arbor
sometimes appears on citation indexes as an
author, instead of a location, often with the
academic degree MI, a misunderstanding of
the abbreviation for Michigan.
Customer Service Center
(Located diagonally across the street from
City Hall)
City Center Building, 1st Floor
220 East Huron
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 994-2700
Fax: (734) 994-1765
E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
M
ichigan
Ann Arbor