Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S.
state Ann Arbor is home to the University
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. 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.
and sciences (see Museums at the
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.
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
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.
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.

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,
ann arbor
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,
Customer Service Center
(Located diagonally across the
street from City Hall)
michigan
ostensibly in support of the reform of
marijuana laws. It has been celebrated City Center Building, 1st Floor
since 1971. 220 East Huron
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
A person from Ann Arbor is called an
“Ann Arborite”, and many long-time (734) 994-2700
residents call themselves “townies”. The Fax: (734) 994-1765
city itself is often called A² (“A-squared”)
or A2 (“A two”), and, less commonly, E-mail:
Tree Town. Recently, some youths customerservice@a2gov.org