Welcome
The university shapes
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.
History
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. During
the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained a
reputation 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.
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.
Local 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.
Events Customer Service Center
Several annual events – many of them (Located diagonally across the street from
centered on performing and visual arts City Hall)
draw visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event City Center Building, 1st Floor
is the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, a set of four 220 East Huron
concurrent juried fairs held on downtown Ann Arbor, MI 48104
streets, which began in 1960. Scheduled (734) 994-2700
on Wednesday through Saturday in the Fax: (734) 994-1765
third week of July, the fairs draw upward E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
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
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. 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.