Site 8. FIFTH AVENUE and HURON

The old firehouse and more modern City Hall are located here and provide the focus for an exhibit about the development of city services over time.

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library and Wystan Stevens

WALL DISPLAY 1: Essential City Services
WALL DISPLAY 2: New City Government, New Issues, and a New City Hall

Panel Information: Business and Banking

Four years after Ann Arbor's First National Bank was established in 1863 under strong new federal banking laws, dry goods merchant Philip Bach and foundry owner Volney Chapin joined other local investors to build a brick business block to house their bank. Next door was the Phoenix Insurance Company, one of nineteen local companies thriving on business stimulated by the constant threat of fire. Demonstrating the new strength of the local business climate, fueled by the economic boom of the Civil War, the Ann Arbor Business College and Telegraph Institute opened above Bach's dry goods shop on the corner.

The college advertised courses in "Bookkeeping, Railroading, Steamboating, Banking, Jobbing and Importing, Commercial Law, Business Penmanship, and Telegraphing." Fees for "ladies" were $5 less than those for "young men." Judge Thomas Cooley, professor of law at the University, conducted the law department and brought to his lectures "the fresh and forcible illustration of actual experience." Other banks soon followed First National on Main Street: Ann Arbor Savings in 1869, Farmers and Mechanics in 1883, State Savings in 1892, and German-American Savings in 1906.

Site 6. MAIN and WASHINGTON

Main Street has always been a bustling commercial and banking center. In both architecture and function, the buildings that occupy the four corners witness the stages of Main Street's development. Photos document the evolution of this important junction.

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library and the Ann Arbor News

WALL DISPLAY 1: Eating and Drinking in Ann Arbor
WALL DISPLAY 2: Dry Goods
WALL DISPLAY 3: Hardware

Panel Information: Germans in Ann Arbor

David Allmendinger founded the Ann Arbor Organ Works in 1872 in his home (building on right) on the northwest corner of Washington and First Streets. Allmendinger's reed organs and pianos were sold all over the country until displaced by phonographs for home entertainment.

Germans, mainly from Schwabia in southwest Germany, had been settling in Ann Arbor since 1829 when the first Allmendinger arrived. German immigration to the area continued into the twentieth century. Settling on farms or in town, mainly on the west side, many practiced trades learned in the old country such as brewing, tanning, blacksmithing, carpentry, and masonry.

German-owned businesses in the nineteenth century included the Germania Hotel, the Western Brewery, Keck Furniture Factory, Krause Tannery, Walker Carriage Factory, and Central Mills. By 1880 one Ann Arborite in nine was German-born; many more were of German descent. German was commonly spoken on the street. People heard preaching in German, read local German newspapers, and sent their children to German schools.

Site 5. WASHINGTON and ASHLEY

This exhibit shows the German influence on the city's growth and identity, an influence second only to that of the University in the last half of the nineteenth century. From this vantage point there are still signs of the German presence, like Schwaben Hall and the Old West Side.

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

WALL DISPLAY 1: The Staeblers and the Germania/American
WALL DISPLAY 2: Germans on Ashley Street
WALL DISPLAY 3: From Horses to Cars: Early Autos, Service, and Parts
WALL DISPLAY 4: Three Generations of Metzgers on Washington Street

Panel Information: Allen Creek Valley Shapes the Town

Residents living on the west side in the 1870s drove their buggies or walked across the bridge over Allen Creek, climbing the Liberty Street hill to join the celebration of German American Day. In the distance you can see the rooftops of their homes built after 1845 in what is now the Old West Side. Close by, saw mills, grist mills, tanneries, foundries, and breweries, mainly German-owned, took advantage of the creek as a source of power and water.

From Ann Arbor's founding in 1824 until today, the presence of the waterway has defined the shape of the center of town. The creek provided the site for the city's earliest known bathhouse, an octagonal Victorian structure built over the creek at Liberty and First streets. Early skating parks and swimming areas also were located along the creek. In 1878 the first passengers on James Ashley's new Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad arrived in town. The railroad followed the valley and spurred increased industrial development along the creek.

Panel Information: Power and Transportation

Detroit Edison sold electric home appliances from 1915 to 1983 in its showroom across the street. The earliest Ann Arbor homes were lit by fireplace flames and lard lamps. Oil, along with gas manufactured after 1858 from the burning of coal, lit most homes and streets until the arrival of electricity. Electric power came to Ann Arbor in 1884 when the Ann Arbor Van Depoele Light and Power Co. built a generating plant powered by coal-fired steam on Washington Street just west of the Ann Arbor Railroad. It provided safer, cleaner, and brighter power for 36 stores and residences and added 33 electric streetlights to the town's array of gas lampposts. For the next two decades, some areas continued to be lit by gas and many homes were equipped with both electric and gas lights in a combination fixture.

Site 4. LIBERTY and ASHLEY

This exhibit shows how topography shapes the pattern of urban growth. Allen Creek was a major feature of the town until it was buried in pipe beneath the ground. The Ann Arbor Railroad follows the creek valley.

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

WALL DISPLAY 1: Industry and Recreation on Allen Creek
WALL DISPLAY 2: The Ann Arbor Railroad

Panel Information: Residential life in mid-19th-century Ann Arbor

In 1858 Main Street jeweler Joseph C. Watts built his large brick home on the northeast corner of Liberty and Division within easy walking distance of his Main Street shop. Multiple fireplaces, a roof-top widow's walk, and ornate trim in the fashionable Italianate style proclaimed his success. The earliest settlers and most prominent citizens built their houses near the center of town. At first, crude, dirt floored log cabins were clustered near Huron and Main. Single family frame, brick, and stucco dwellings rapidly spread east to what after 1837 became the University of Michigan campus.

On the opposite corner to your right stands druggist Emanuel Mann’s 1850 house of brick covered with stucco scored to resemble stone.This style was so popular that Ann Arbor was referred to as “the little stucco village.” In 1829 Mann’s parents had been the first German family to settle in Ann Arbor.

Panel Information: The Main Street Shopping Experience

Founded in 1860, Mack & Company grew to be Ann Arbor’s largest department store. In 1870 it advertised dress goods, household goods, flannels, shawls and cloakings, “selling everything cheap.” By 1900 it had become Main Street’s premier shopping destination, wooing customers with promises of first class service. In the 1920s shoppers could visit Mack’s post office, bank, beauty shop, and pharmacy, enjoy an occasional fashion show or sing along while a pianist played sheet music for sale.Christmas at Mack’s meant elaborate store window displays, a huge decorated tree on a revolving musical stand and the largest toy selection in town. Overwhelmed by the 1930s Depression, Mack closed with its final sale in 1939.