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
Customer Service Center

Ann Arbor
in 1839 with the arrival of the Michigan Central (Located diagonally across the street from
Railroad, and was chartered as a city in 1851. City Hall)
During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a City Center Building, 1st Floor
reputation as a center for liberal politics. During the 220 East Huron

Michigan
20th century, the economy of Ann Arbor underwent Ann Arbor, MI 48104
a gradual shift from a manufacturing base to a (734) 994-2700
service and technology base, which accelerated in Fax: (734) 994-1765
the 1970s and 1980s. E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
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
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. Recently, 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 description 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.
Attractions
Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and events are
sponsored by the University 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 sciences
(see Museums at the University of Michigan).
Regional and local performing arts groups not
associated with the university 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
(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 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 booksellers
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 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.
Sunday Morning by Carl Milles in
Ann Arbor
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.
Scheduled on Wednesday through Saturday in
the third week of July, the fairs draw upward of
half a million 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.