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 in
1839 with the arrival of the Michigan Central Rail-
road, 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.
Ann Arbor is home to the University of
Michigan, established in 1837. As the dominant
institution of higher learning in the city and one
Network, which operates a downtown theater
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 in-
creasingly 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 his-
tory 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
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 interac-
tive 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 book-
sellers 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. Sched-
uled on Wednesday through Saturday in the third
week of July, the fairs draw upward of half a mil-
lion 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 Ar-

borite”, and many long-time residents call them-
selves “townies”. The city itself is often called A²
(“A-squared”) or A2 (“A two”), and, less common-
ly, Tree Town. Recently, some youths have taken to Customer Service Center
calling Ann Arbor Ace Deuce or simply The Deuce. (Located diagonally across the street
With tongue-in-cheek reference to the city’s lib- from City Hall)
eral political leanings, some occasionally refer to City Center Building, 1st Floor
Ann Arbor as The People’s Republic of Ann Arbor or 220 East Huron
25 square miles surrounded by reality, the latter Ann Arbor, MI 48104
phrase being adapted from Wisconsin Governor (734) 994-2700
Lee Dreyfus’s description of Madison, Wisconsin. Fax: (734) 994-1765
Ann Arbor sometimes appears on citation indexes E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
as an author, instead of a location, often with the
academic degree MI, a misunderstanding of the
abbreviation for Michigan.

Welcome to
ANN ARBO City