Ann Arbor, Michigan During the 20th century, the economy of Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions and

Ann Arbor underwent a gradual shift from a events are sponsored by the University of
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of
manufacturing base to a service and technol- Michigan. Several performing arts groups
Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw
ogy base, which accelerated in the 1970s and and facilities are on the university’s campus,
County. It is the state’s seventh largest city
1980s. Ann Arbor is home to the University as are museums dedicated to art, archaeol-
with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000
of Michigan, established in 1837. As the ogy, and natural history and sciences (see
Census, of which 36,892 (32%) are univer-
dominant institution of higher learning in Museums at the University of Michigan).
sity or college students. The city, which is
the city and one of the top public universi- Regional and local performing arts groups
part of the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint, MI
ties in the world, the university provides Ann not associated with the university include the
CSA, is named after the spouses of the city’s
Arbor with a distinct college-town atmo- Ann Arbor Civic Theatre; the Arbor Opera
founders and for the stands of trees in the
sphere. The university shapes Ann Arbor’s Theater; the Ann Arbor Symphony Orches-
area. Ann Arbor was founded in January
economy significantly as it employs about tra; the Ann Arbor Ballet Theater; the Ann
1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, both
30,000 workers, including about 7,500 in the Arbor Civic Ballet (established in 1954 as
of whom were land speculators. On May
medical center. Michigan’s first chartered ballet company);
25, 1824, the town plot was registered with
The city’s economy is also centered on high- and Performance Network, which oper-
Wayne County as “Annarbour”. The city be-
technology, with several companies drawn to ates a downtown theater frequently offering
came the seat of Washtenaw County in 1827,
the area by the university’s research and de- new or nontraditional plays. The Ann Arbor
and was incorporated as a village in 1833.
velopment money, and by its graduates. On Hands-On Museum, located in a renovated
The town became a regional transportation
the other hand, Ann Arbor has increasingly and expanded historic downtown fire sta-
hub in 1839 with the arrival of the Michigan
found itself grappling with the effects of tion, contains more than 250 interactive
Central Railroad, and was chartered as a city
sharply rising land values and gentrification, exhibits featuring science and technology.
in 1851.
as well as urban sprawl stretching far into the Multiple art galleries exist in the city, nota-
During the 1960s and 1970s, the city gained
outlying countryside. bly in the downtown area and around the
a reputation as a center for liberal politics.
University of Michigan campus. Aside from
a large restaurant scene in the Main Street, tion of Madison, Wisconsin. Ann Arbor
South State Street, and South University sometimes appears on citation indexes as an
Avenue areas, Ann Arbor ranks first among author, instead of a location, often with the
U.S. cities in the number of booksellers and academic degree MI, a misunderstanding of
books sold per capita. The Ann Arbor Dis- the abbreviation for Michigan.
trict Library maintains four branch outlets Customer Service Center
in addition to its main downtown building;
in 2008 a new branch building replaced the (Located diagonally across the street from
branch located in Plymouth Mall. This new City Hall)
branch is called the Traverwood Branch, and City Center Building, 1st Floor
opened on June 30, 2008. The city is also
220 East Huron
home to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential
Library. Sunday Morning by Carl Milles in Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Ann Arbor (734) 994-2700
Several annual events – many of them cen- Fax: (734) 994-1765
tered on performing and visual arts – draw
visitors to Ann Arbor. One such event is the E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
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 vi-
sual 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.
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 Ar-
bor 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 descrip-