About Ann Arbor in the city and one of the top public uni- archaeology, and natural history
rchaeology, and natural history and
• Ann Arbor was founded in Janu-
ary 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rum-
sey, both of whom were land specula-
tors. 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 in-
corporated 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 manu-
facturing base to a service and technol-
ogy 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
versities in the world, the university pro-
vides Ann Arbor with a distinct college-
town atmosphere. The university shapes
Ann Arbor's economy significantly as it
employs about 30,000 workers, includ-
ing 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 grap-
pling with the effects of sharply rising
land values and gentrification, as well as
urban sprawl stretching far into the out-
lying countryside.
Visit Us
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,
sciences (see Museums at the University
of Michigan). Regional and local per-
forming 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 fre-
quently offering new or nontraditional
plays.
Museums
The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum,
located in a renovated and expanded
historic downtown fire station, contains
more than 250 interactive exhibits fea-
turing 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 Uni-
versity 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.
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, the fairs
draw upward of half a million visitors. One
event that is not related to visual and per-
forming 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.
Customer Service Center
(Located diagonally across the street
from City Hall)
City Center Building, 1st Floor
220 East Huron
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 994-2700
Fax: (734) 994-1765
A person from Ann Arbor is called an
E-mail: customerservice@a2gov.org
"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 loca-
tion, often with the academic degree MI, a
misunderstanding of the abbreviation for
Michigan.