The 1963 City Hall, designed by architect Alden Dow, became an instant magnet for demonstrations. Even before landscaping was completed, picketers began protesting to end discrimination in rental housing based on race, creed, color, or national origin. Passage that year of the first fair-housing ordinance in the state reflected Ann Arbor’s concern for civil rights and social issues. In 1956 a new charter had replaced a government run primarily by citizen committees with a professional staff led by a city administrator.

A variety of municipal services — public housing, historic preservation, recycling, golf courses, and swimming pools — responded not only to population expansion, but also to new ideas of the role of local government. The new building gathered city departments, including police and the district court, at one location, but within two decades discussions began about additions or replacement.

Fred Sipley (circled) was the police marshal before he became the first full-time fire chief in 1889. His successor as chief, Charles Edwards, stands left of the horses in this 1906 photograph. Fires from oil lamps and wood-burning stoves were a constant worry in early Ann Arbor. At the cry of “Fire!” everyone came running with family water pails.

By 1838 the village had two volunteer fire companies, two small engine houses, and a hand-operated fire pump. More companies formed, with names like Eagle, Defiance, Mayflower, and Relief. Volunteers trained, cleaned equipment, and organized social activities at their engine houses. Fiercely proud of their uniforms and equipment, they delighted in parading through town. When Firemen’s Hall was built in 1882, it had a large meeting room upstairs. With the gradual change to a full-time paid department, the room was converted to a dormitory.

As Ann Arbor grew, stores that once offered a variety of general merchandise began to specialize in groceries, dry goods, or hardware. In 1878 Christian Eberbach took over Widenmann and Schuh’s store and turned it into the largest of downtown’s many hardware businesses. He sold supplies to carpenters, painters, plasterers, and plumbers. On Saturdays farmers loaded their wagons with cowbells, pitchforks, axes, and machinery parts. Hardware stores also installed and repaired furnaces, roofs, gutters, and even locks.

Eberbach’s clerk, John Fischer, took over the business in 1892. As Fischer Hardware, the store moved to Washington Street and Fifth Avenue in 1937 where it lasted into the 1970s. Downtown’s last hardware store was Schlenker’s on West Liberty. It specialized in tinware and provided contractors and loyal customers with hard-to-find items. After more than a century in business, it closed in 1999.

Dry goods were sold on this corner for over 120 years. In 1867 Philip Bach moved his store to this new business block selling fabric, cloaks, blankets, linens, and notions. Ann Arbor once supported as many as fifteen stores selling dry goods. Before these shops began to carry ready-made items, most clothing, bed sheets, and household linens were made at home. Dressmakers, milliners, and tailors provided custom clothing.

When Bruno St. James purchased the store in 1895, he employed Bach’s young bookkeeper, Bertha Muehlig. Loved by her customers and employees, she owned and ran the business from 1911 until her death in 1955. Muehlig’s specialized in old-fashioned, hard-to-find items like “Tillie Open Bottoms” (women’s long underwear). William Goodyear, St. James’s former partner, ran another dry goods business nearby. By the 1950s, Goodyear’s had expanded next to Muehlig’s to become downtown’s largest department store.

When the Sugar Bowl opened in 1911, it featured homemade ice cream and handdipped chocolates made in the Preketes family apartment upstairs. After Michigan went "dry" in 1918, lunch counters and small restaurants like this, many owned by Greek immigrants, became a major feature downtown. In early Ann Arbor, you could have dined out at one of Ann Arbor’s hotels. By 1860 catered banquets and special celebrations were held at halls such as Hangsterfer's, which stood on the corner behind you.

In 1868 you might choose among twenty-eight saloons for a quick meal. Grocery stores often had a small saloon to accommodate thirsty customers. Five locally owned German breweries supplied beer. Boarding houses near campus served students and single diners. In 1967 the Sugar Bowl closed, replaced by the upscale La Seine restaurant. Although shortlived, it was the first of many restaurants that transformed Ann Arbor into a regional dining center.

Fred Wagner's blacksmith shop was one of many German-owned west-side businesses providing services for horse-drawn vehicles. Wagner repaired carriages and wagons and shoed horses. Nearby livery stables rented out horses and carriages. Around the corner on Liberty, at Christian Walker's Ann Arbor Carriage Works, skilled carpenters, blacksmiths, upholsterers, and painters took pride in producing custom carriages.

At lunchtime, workmen bought beer by the bucket from nearby saloons. In 1914 the Wagner blacksmith shop was replaced by the new meeting "halle" of the Schwaben Verein, Ann Arbor’s longest-lasting German organization. The Schwaben name is still on the sidewalk and windows. By the 1920s most neighborhood businesses were serving cars and trucks instead of horses and carriages.

In 1885 Michael Staebler, a successful farmer from a pioneer German family west of town, constructed this building as the Germania Hotel. Balls, lectures, musical programs, and meetings of the Germania Society were held on the third floor. Staebler later added a fourth story and renamed the building the American Hotel.

He set his sons up in business. Albert managed the hotel and Edward ran a bicycle shop and coal business. The large box shown above in front of the store displayed different grades of coal. A third son, Fred, ran a grocery store across the street. Next door to the hotel, Heinzman and Son offered cash to local farmers for hides and furs.

Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Railroad

Photos Courtesy of H. Mark Hildebrandt, Wystan A. Stevens, and the Bentley Historical Library

Sponsored by Morningside Group

Photos courtesy of Mrs. Nate Weinberg and the Bentley Historical Library

Sponsored by MAVDevelopment Company

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library