Ann Arbor, Michigan
Theatre; the Arbor Opera Theater; the Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan
and the county seat of Washtenaw 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 university 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
founders and for the stands of trees in the area.
Ann 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 became 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 Central
Railroad, and was chartered as a city in 1851. Dur-
ing the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a reputa-
tion as a center for liberal politics. During the 20th
century, the economy 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
Ann 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
significantly 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 development money, and
by its graduates. On the other hand, Ann Arbor has
increasingly found itself grappling with the effects
of sharply rising land values and gentrification, as
well as urban sprawl stretching far into the outlying
countryside.
Attractions
Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and events are
sponsored by the University of Michigan. Several
performing arts groups and facilities are on the uni-
versity’s campus, as are museums dedicated to art,
archaeology, and natural history and sciences (see
Museums at the University of Michigan). Regional
and local performing arts groups not associated
with the university include the Ann Arbor Civic
Symphony Orchestra; the Ann Arbor Ballet Theater;
the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet (established in 1954 as
Michigan’s first chartered ballet company); and
Performance Network, which operates a downtown
theater frequently offering new or nontraditional
plays.
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, located in a
renovated and expanded historic downtown fire
station, contains more than 250 interactive exhib-
its featuring science and technology. Multiple art
galleries exist in the city, notably in the down-
town area and around the University of Michigan
campus. Aside from a large restaurant scene in the
Main Street, South State Street, and South Universi-
ty Avenue areas, Ann Arbor ranks first among U.S.
cities in the number of booksellers and books sold
per capita. The Ann Arbor District Library main-
tains four branch outlets in addition to its main
downtown building; in 2008 a new branch building
replaced 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 Presidential Library.
 Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Arbor sometimes appears
on citation indexes as an author, instead of a location,
often with the academic degree MI, a misunderstand-
ing of the abbreviation for Michigan.

Events
Several 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 concurrent juried fairs held on
downtown streets, which began in 1960. Sched-
uled on Wednesday through Saturday in the third
week of July, the fairs draw upward of half a mil-
lion visitors. One event that is not related to visual
and performing arts is Hash Bash, held on the first
Saturday of April, ostensibly in support of the
reform of marijuana laws. It has been celebrated
since 1971.

Fun Facts
A person from Ann Arbor is called an “Ann Ar-
borite”, and many long-time residents call them-
selves “townies”. The city itself is often called A²
Customer Service Center
(“A-squared”) or A2 (“A two”), and, less com- (Located diagonally across the street from City Hall)
monly, Tree Town. Recently, some youths have
taken to calling Ann Arbor Ace Deuce or simply City Center Building, 1st Floor
The Deuce. With tongue-in-cheek reference to the 220 East Huron
city’s liberal political leanings, some occasion- Ann Arbor, MI 48104
ally refer to Ann Arbor as The People’s Republic (734) 994-2700
of Ann Arbor or 25 square miles surrounded Fax: (734) 994-1765
by reality, the latter phrase being adapted from
Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus’s description of E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org Ann Arbor, MI