Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state ofMichigan and the county seat of Washt-enaw County. It is the state’s seventhlargest city with a population of 114,024as of the 2000 Census, of which 36,892(32%) are university or college students.The city, which is part of the Detroit-AnnArbor-Flint, MI CSA, is named after thespouses of the city’s founders and forthe stands of trees in the area.Ann Arbor was founded in January 1824by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, bothof whom were land speculators. On May25, 1824, the town plot was registeredwith Wayne County as “Annarbour”. Thecity became the seat of WashtenawCounty in 1827, and was incorporatedas a village in 1833. The town becamea regional transportation hub in 1839with the arrival of the Michigan CentralRailroad, and was chartered as a city in1851. During the 1960s and 1970s, thecity gained a reputation as a center forliberal politics. During the 20th century,the economy of Ann Arbor underwent agradual shift from a manufacturing baseto a service and technology base, whichaccelerated in the 1970s and 1980s. Ann Arbor is home to the University ofMichigan, established in 1837. As thedominant institution of higher learning inthe city and one of the top public uni-versities in the world, the university pro-vides Ann Arbor with a distinct college-town atmosphere. The university shapesAnn Arbor’s economy significantly as itemploys about 30,000 workers, includingabout 7,500 in the medical center. Thecity’s economy is also centered on high-technology, with several companiesdrawn to the area by the university’s re-search and development money, and byits graduates. On the other hand, AnnArbor has increasingly found itself grap-pling with the effects of sharply risingland values and gentrification, as well asurban sprawl stretching far into the outly-ing countryside.Many Ann Arbor cultural attractions andevents are sponsored by the University ofMichigan. Several performing arts groupsand facilities are on the university’s cam-pus, as are museums dedicated to art,archaeology, and natural history and sci-ences (see Museums at the University ofMichigan). Regional and local performingarts groups not associated with the univer-sity include the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre; theArbor Opera Theater; the Ann Arbor Sym-phony Orchestra; the Ann Arbor Ballet The-ater; the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet (establishedin 1954 as Michigan’s first chartered bal-let company); and Performance Network,which operates a downtown theater fre-quently offering new or nontraditional plays.The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, locat-ed in a renovated and expanded historicdowntown fire station, contains more than250 interactive exhibits featuring scienceand technology.Multiple art galleries exist in the city, nota-bly in the downtown area and around the
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