Founding and Settlement

By the 1820 census, the territory had a population of 8,896, an increase of 4,134 over the previous decade. Though this growth could hardly be characterized as of major significance, it indicated that the long-expected tide of settlers was beginning and would make Michigan in the next three decades one of the fastest growing areas in the country.

Who were these first settlers and why did they come? Many were born in America; others, immigrants who had lived some time in the United States. They came mostly from New England and particularly upstate New York, though there was a scattering of settlers from the South and nearby Ohio. Most of them came to better themselves economically, to find good farm land and business opportunities. Some aggressive entrepreneurs saw the frontier as an area in which to make a large amount of money quickly in land speculation.

One of these entrepreneurs was John Allen, a young man of twenty-eight who stood over six feet tall, was "well-proportioned" and  "physically a very grand specimen of a man." He and Elisha Walker Rumsey were to be Ann Arbor's founders. Allen was from an old, well-established, though not aristrocratic, Virginia family. He married well at age nineteen, but less than four years later found himself a widower with two children. Two years later he married a young widow, Ann Isabella McCue. John was cheerful, carefree, and adventuresome; Ann was religious, somewhat melancholy, and interested in security and the amenities of gracious living. John was ideally suited to be a pioneer; Ann was not. One other difference marked the couple: though both were native Virginians, Ann had great affection for the South and its values. John was not so inclined to cherish Virginia. Though a slave owner, he ultimately came to disapprove vigorously of this oppressive feature of southern society.

As was the case with so many pioneers, what persuaded Allen to seek a new future on the American frontier was largely economic necessity. Through faulty investment, his once prosperous father fell deeply into debt. John assumed much of the indebtedness but was unable to solve all the financial problems. In the fall of 1823, he left his home with a herd of cattle to sell in Baltimore. He never returned, and there is reason to believe he left unpaid debts. To recoup his losses, he hit upon the hardly novel scheme of using the cash he had on hand to found a town in the West and sell off lots for quick return. Success of such a scheme depended on the attractiveness of the site selected, its potential for future growth, and luck.

From Baltimore, John went to Buffalo, New York, a gateway town to the West. He stayed for two months looking for an associate before he moved on to Detroit in January 1824. Here he met Elisha Rumsey from Genesee County, New York. Though ten years older than Allen, he apparently was not the moving force behind the venture. Rumsey, from an old New England family, was on his second visit to Michigan when he met Allen. He, too, was escaping financial difficulties as well as gossip about his second wife, Mary Ann, with whom he lived before marriage.

After discussing prospects with Detroit leaders, Allen and Rumsey decided on the area west of Detroit. They took a one-horse sleigh and headed through February snow into the newly created county of Washtenaw. By the twelfth they had returned to Detroit to register their claims at the U. S. Land Office. Allen bought 480 acres for $600, Rumsey 160 acres for $200.

These speculators chose their site well, but what virtually assured the permanency of the town was a fortuitous political decision. The commissioners, appointed by Governor Cass to select a site for the county seat, chose Allen and Rumsey's tract, and Cass supported their decision.

By March the first structure had been erected in the new town--"a good framed house" at the present-day   site of Huron and First streets. The Rumseys lived there and entertained prospective land purchasers. The town plot was registered in Wayne County on May 25, 1824. The registration contains the earliest known use of the town's unique name--Annarbour." Much folklore has grown up about the name of the new town, but Russell Bidlack's account in Ann Arbor's First Lady (1999) makes clear that the "Ann" honors the wife of John Allen and "Arbor" refers to a grove of scattered oaks in an opening amid the heavily forestered woods along the Huron River.

Allen and Rumsey began to advertise their new town in the Detroit newspaper A contemporary account noted that about 100 lots had been sold, several houses were under construction, two saw mills were operating, and a grist mill was soon to be built. By fall "a number of new frame buildings" had been constructed. After a two-month journey, Ann Allen joined her husband on October 24, 1824, and occupied a small, two-room block house containing a fireplace and cooking stove.

As the town became known, and as transportation improved, Ann Arbor grew faster. A year after the founding Allen himself could report the settlement had between thirty and forty families; mills were started and farming was under way. A diarist passing through in the summer of 1827 noted that there were "three inns such as they are, four stores, two tanneries, two blacksmith shops, and about twenty dwelling houses." But there were losses too. Elisha Rumsey died in 1827. His widow later remarried and moved to Indiana.

Education

Besides buildings, John Allen and the pioneer settlers of the village were constructing much more important things--the social, educational, religious, political, and economic foundations for the settlement. It is remarkable how soon the cultural institutions were established and how vigorous they proved to be.

Ann Arbor was scarcely a year old in September 1825 when a Miss Monroe opened a primary school in a log school house. Allen had erected the building on his property at the northwest corner of Main and Ann streets. It was just across from what would be court-house square, then serving as Allen's vegetable patch. It was a crude building with small glass windows and split log benches.

We know of little more than the existence of this first school. Miss Monroe, the first teacher, died in 1829. Her successor, Harriet G. Parsons, moved the school into a frame house on the corner of Washington Street and Fifth Avenue in 1829. Miss Parsons later married Lorrin Mills, a tailor who built the first brick house in town.

These pioneer schools were not supported by public funds but by rate bills and other assessments levied on the parents of the children. Public schools were not even authorized until 1830, and it was some years before tax money began to support education. Consequently, many of Ann Arbor's boys and girls did not attend school. In 1832, the average attendance was only 35 out of a possible 161 children five to fifteen years old.

For secondary education a whole variety of private schools were established beginning with the Merrill Brothers' school in 1829--"a select school...for teaching higher English and Latin and Greek." Some were more prosperous than others. One of the most successful, and the private school with the longest history, was the Misses Clark School for young ladies. It was established in 1839 by three well-educated sisters from New York. They operated the school until the death of Mary, the senior partner, in 1875.

A unified public school system emerged slowly. Those citizens who lived across the Huron River in "Lower Town," which existed until 1861 as a separate village, maintained their own school system up to that time. In Ann Arbor teachers in the "aristocratic" north district were paid $224 per year, those in the south $90 until the two districts agreed to build a union school. When the Union School opened in 1856, it was the finest building in the city with an assembly room which could hold 700. Moreover, it was the most expensive school in Michigan on one of the largest sites.

The Union School far outshone in grandeur and landscaping the campus of The University of Michigan, which by action of the legislature was permanently located in Ann Arbor in 1837. The coming of the University undoubtedly was the single most important event in Ann Arbor's development. Its founding determined much of the subsequent history of the community.

A land company of five leading citizens purchased 200 acres of farm land east of State Street and gave 40 acres of it as an inducement for the fledgling school to locate here. Its first buildings, imposing by frontier standards, were four professors' houses and University Building (later called Mason Hall), which opened in 1841. Its first class graduated in 1845. A medical department was added to the literary department in 1850; law followed in 1859. From 1837 onward, the history of the University and that of Ann Arbor have been inseparable and interdependent. There emerged a feeling of creative tension that usually was congenial, or at least tolerant, only occasionally slipping into hostility.

Ann Arbor's first residents were actively establishing other social foundations besides schools. A group of villagers began a library in 1827, which by 1830 had 100 volumes. In 1831, twenty-eight Ann Arborites joined the Lyceum, the purpose of which was "the cultivation of science and knowledge by members on subjects chosen by themselves, the collection of books and apparatus, and specimens of Natural History."

Churches, Theater and Newspapers

Drama was introduced in 1837 when the Ann Arbor Thespian Society presented "Pizarro or the Death of Rollo," a tragedy plus "a comic song" and a "laughable pantomime of the Sportsman." The first professional theatrical group came in January 1849 when the National Theatre of Detroit performed the "Lady of Lyons" and the musical farce, "A Loan of a Lover." Though many of these early cultural efforts survived for only a short period, they laid the foundations for later permanent institutions.

One of the first was the church. The initial clergymen were itinerants, like Methodist John H. Boughman to whom John Allen opened his home for services in the fall of 1825. In 1826 the Presbyterians met to form a congregation in the log school house Allen had built. The Episcopal congregation was organized in 1827. By 1831 Lucy Morgan could report in her letter home that the Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Baptists all held regular meetings "upon the Sabbath" and all had "very good preachers." She admitted, however, that frontier Ann Arbor was "like almost all places that grow up suddenly--not distinguished for morality."

Other Protestant denominations came into the village reflecting new doctrinal contributions or new ethnic settlements. The first Catholics settled in Northfield Township, Washtenaw County, in 1831. Not until 1835 did they hold regular services in Ann Arbor and it was another decade before a church building, a brick structure and the largest in town, was erected. Though a few Jews appeared in the 1840's, they were too few in number to form a congregation until the twentieth century.

The churches, too, served the purpose of providing places for public events. The Presbyterian Church, for example, was the site on November 10-11, 1836, of the founding meeting of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society. Seventy-five delegates representing Oakland, Wayne, Washtenaw, Lenawee, Livingston, Kalamazoo, and St. Joseph counties plus four visiting delegates from Ohio met, elected officers, adopted a constitution, and passed resolutions espousing the cause of abolition and supporting the free African-Americans in their drive to win the ballot in Michigan and to gain improved educational opportunities. The meeting also called forthe creation of an abolitionist press in Michigan. This sentiment led directly to the establishment of the Michigan Freeman in Jackson, which in 1841 moved to Ann Arbor and became the famous Signal of Liberty, edited by Guy Beckley and Theodore Foster.

The Signal was not the first newspaper in Ann Arbor. The village was scarcely five years old when theWestern Emigrant began publishing under the editorship of Thomas Simpson. After only five issues, he was bought out by Samuel W. Dexter and John Allen, who made the paper a strong opponent of Masonry, a controversial issue of the time. The paper had no competition until the Michigan Argus was established in February 1835. Other papers followed, often printed to reflect the feelings of various political parties. But there were also attempts to publish humor and satire, such as B'hoy's Eagle published in 1849.

The newspapers were a major factor in all phases of the community, but especially in the business and professional life of Ann Arbor. From the first issue, physicians and lawyers placed their notices in the paper. As the town grew, they were joined by other professionals. In 1836, an itinerant named G. W. Smith, probably the town's first dentist, told all citizens that he would "remove diseased teeth and fangs with the greatest possible ease, and insert Silicious, Metalic [sic] and other artificial teeth in the most durable manner."

Business and Commerce

The first businesses naturally were those that met the immediate needs of a frontier settlement. In the early 1830's there was S. Cook's saddlery, which noted that hides and deerskins were as good as cash. Barter was common on the frontier where money was scarce. Brown and Co. Flour Mill operated on the Huron. George Prussia advertised his tannery and his availability as a shoe and boot maker. Three general stores offered groceries, hardware, crockery, medicines, and "buffalo robes." Detroit and Ypsilanti firms also advertised in Ann Arbor papers.

By the middle '30's business was expanding, the economic outlook was bright, and citizens were talking of bringing the railroad into town. Also, the business community became more diverse and the available goods more sophisticated. To be sure, firms like Dennis and Goodspeed still sold nails, scythes, spades, shovels, saws, gates, and general hardware; and there was John White's rifle shop. But, now there was also Mills and Irish clothing store offering "ready made clothes." McKinney and Davidson had opened a brick kiln and Reuben Moore in Lower Ann Arbor offered luxury items like "Boston style Hats." D. W. and C. Bliss opened a jewelry store in 1837 and E. P. Dwight started a book store. There was an Ann Arbor brewery operated by Bandwell and Brown. The Bank of Ann Arbor and the Bank of Washtenaw were chartered. Typical of frontier financial institutions, the Bank of Washtenaw issued its own beautifully engraved notes to reduce the currency shortage. Like most Michigan banks, it failed in the years following the Panic of 1837. Undoubtedly, the climax of business activity in the '30's came on October 17, 1839, when to the accompaniment of fanfare and speeches, the first train steamed into town and linked Ann Arbor with Ypsilanti and Detroit.

The pattern of business set in the 1830's continued in the 1840's and '50's with minor modification reflecting better transportation, more affluence and greater demand for luxury goods. Bach and Abel's offered not only school books, but "classical works" as well. H. Schlack advertised a confectionery store in 1845 and D. Tyler announced in 1845 that he had been appointed Ann Arbor agent for "Beal's Hair Restorative which will effectually restore a luxuriant growth of Hair to Bald Heads..." Music was sold by 1843, and Mrs. E. S. Rawson advertised "fancy goods" from New York and "hesitates not to say that her hats, flowers and ribbons surpass anything heretofore offered in this vicinity, both in newness of style and richness of materials."

In 1843 Christian Eberbach "thoroughly educated as a chemist and apothecary in Germany" opened his own drug business. A confidential credit rating for 1845 noted that he was "a very prudent, economical and industrious man...who lives very economically and will continue to save after the true German fashion."

The '40's saw the beginning of another traditional Ann Arbor business, the boarding house catering to students. A. Hickcox told Ann Arborites that "he has taken the house on Huron Street, recently occupied by John Allen, Esq., which he opened as a Boarding House... Students at the University will be accommodated with board at his house upon as reasonable terms as elsewhere."

Government and Growth

Besides starting businesses, building schools, and erecting churches, Ann Arborites also established the political and governmental foundation for the future. The cornerstone for the courthouse was laid June 19, 1833, and the next month the village was organized with John Allen as president. Problems of government were relatively simple. The necessary ordinances were passed opposing "games of chance" and pigs in the streets.

But there were momentous events, too. In September 1836 the little courthouse served as the site of an abortive convention which rejected the United States Congress' proposal that Michigan give up Toledo in exchange for the Upper Peninsula in order to win statehood. The same building served as the site for another group of delegates in "the Frostbitten Convention" which in December 1836 reversed the decision of the first convention and paved the way for Michigan's admission to the Union in January 1837.

In 1851 Ann Arbor was incorporated as a city with its first charter and an elected mayor. These first decades had seen both a steady growth of population and changes in its composition. The first census of 1830 showed 973 persons in the six-year-old village. Most of the settlers were of British ancestry and, like most of the newcomers flowing into the territory, came from New England and New York. Ann Arbor had a very youthful population. There were only twenty-six persons fifty years of age or older. Among these pioneer Ann Arborites was the five-member Jacob Hardy family, probably the town's first African-American family.

Settlers continued to come into Ann Arbor in the 1840's and 1850's. The population in 1845 reached 3,030. Ann Arbor was becoming more diversified. The 1845 census showed a liberal sprinkling of German names and a few Irish. And the African-American community grew, too, but slowly. By 1845 it consisted of thirty-nine persons--twenty-three males and sixteen females.

Not all Ann Arborites welcomed the newcomers. The 1840's and '50's saw a flourishing of anti-immigration and anti-Catholic sentiments in the county. Some of the town's citizens formed the "Native American Association of Ann Arbor" advocating a tax on incoming foreigners, a twenty-one-year residence requirement for naturalization, and a "certificate of good moral character" for entering aliens.

By the time of the state census of 1854, Ann Arbor could no longer be classed as a frontier settlement. It was a flourishing community of 3,339 people with a well established University that had graduated a dozen classes. The school had 244 students and a faculty of 17, led by a new and energetic president, Henry P. Tappan, who came to town in 1852 intent on transforming the provincial college into a national leader in higher education. The town still sported a youthful population. There were 1,437 males under forty-five years of age; 1,440 of the females were under forty years of age. Of these two groups, 724 were children under ten. The African-American community had decreased slightly and now numbered thirty-four. There were no blind persons, only one deaf-mute, and three insane persons in the village. The town still had a rural air about it; Ann Arbor town dwellers raised 1,805 bushels of corn, owned 198 horses, 277 cattle, 4 oxen, 371 sheep, and 62 pigs. Capital in the amount of $97,000 was invested in the city's manufacturing establishment which employed 349 workers.

Still living in the town was Lucy Morgan, now in the prime of life. Her husband had become one of the town's leading citizens. But of greater significance, Mrs. Morgan was well on her way to earning a modest personal fortune in real estate. Her success paralleled the city's in its first three decades.

Local Government and Economic Growth

Those left on the home front could do little but swallow their anxiety and force themselves back into the routine of daily life. Local government responded in great part to the needs of the moment. The charter was amended in 1861 to extend the limits of the city, and in 1867 an entirely new charter was adopted, dividing the city into six wards. The work of the council was prosaic: approving the extension of wooden plank walks into new areas of the city; authorizing the construction of wooden crosswalks to bridge the streets of Ann Arbor which in inclement weather became a "sea of mud"; or prohibiting the slaughter of animals within the city limits. Pupils and teachers of the fifth ward school house were reportedly "overpowered by the stench."

Council's actions reflected the city's concern for the moral welfare of both its own citizens and the student population of the University. In 1871, it moved to close the city's gambling halls; while in 1879, it passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale, circulation, and printing of "obscene, immoral, indecent and scandalous books, papers or prints." The same year, following a riot of 700 students outside a "house of ill fame," council received a petition from local townspeople urging the suppression of similar establishments. "Houses of prostitution," the newspaper warned, "are a great source of evil, not only to the youth of our own city but to the large number of young men who are yearly entrusted to our care."

Ann Arbor was ill-equipped in these years to handle problems of municipal law enforcement. In 1860 it had a population of 4,447 residents, or over 5,000 if University enrollment is included. The city continued to grow even during the Civil War. It reached a level of 5,731 in 1864 and advanced to a height of 7,363 in 1870. The city marshall and his deputies could handle minor disturbances and instances of inebriation, but in the later part of the 1860's the city required more. In1867 the Peninsular Courier and Family Visitant pointed out the need for an "efficient night police." After due deliberation, council in 1871 voted to establish a six-member police force. The city at long last had around-the-clock protection.

The need for a police force was tied to the city's rapid commercial growth. In 1860, Ann Arbor had five hotels, including Cook's, the American, and the Washtenaw House. By 1872 the city had a total of eight hotel establishments, including the Gregory House which had been erected in 1862 on the site of the American. In 1860 Ann Arbor had one retail druggist, C. (Christian) Eberbach & Co. Twelve years later, five additional druggists had established businesses. Five billiard halls existed in 1872, while in 1860 there had been only Daniel Perry's Billiard Saloon. And, most significant of all, Ann Arbor had forty-nine saloons in 1872, while in 1860 there were but ten.

Religion and Social Life

The city's growth was not limited to hotels or saloons. Some of Ann Arbor's proudest buildings were erected in this period. Hangsterfer's, with a ground floor confectionery shop and a dance hall and auditorium upstairs, was completed in 1860. Most of the major musical and theatrical presentations which came to Ann Arbor in the 1860's appeared here. Its reputation diminished with the opening of George D. Hill's Opera House in 1871, which thereafter became the center of the city's cultural life. And, in 1878, the construction of the new courthouse capped the municipal building program.

By 1860 the religious life of Ann Arbor was already well established. The city had ten churches: First Congregational, Episcopal, German Lutheran, Methodist, Methodist Episcopal, First and Second Presbyterian, Quaker, St. Thomas' Catholic Church, and the Universalist Church. By 1872 the Quaker and Universalist churches had disbanded. Two African-American congregations had been formed: the African Methodist Episcopal Church, located on present-day Fourth Avenue; and the African Baptist Church, situated on the south side of High Street. Throughout the '1860's several of the established churches outgrew their facilities and moved into splendid new quarters. The First Presbyterian Church was completed in 1860; the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867; and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in 1869. Construction continued into the '1870's with the erection of the First Congregational Church and the beginning of the First Baptist Church which was dedicated in 1881.

In addition to the activities of the city's churches, citizens could participate in a great variety of other cultural organizations. In 1866 some prominent women of the town organized the Ladies Library Association. Funded by a system of fees and dues, the library was open to all subscribing Ann Arbor residents. By 1881 it boasted a collection of 200 volumes. Other organizations were tailored to the city's growing numbers of German immigrants: The German Laboring Men's Society; the Turn Verein; and the Schuetzenbund. A number of reform organizations sought to curb the influence of the saloon: the Ann Arbor Temperance Society; the Father Mathew Temperance Society; the Ladies Temperance Union; St. Thomas Benevolent Temperance Society; the Ann Arbor Reform Club; and the Juvenile Temperance Union.

A few organizations defied classification. Of these, the Independent Six was the most baffling. Organized in 1875, the members of this society devoted themselves to the study of Japanese sciences. Its chain of command included, at the top, the Mikado, followed by 1st and 2nd Tycoon, the Daimio, Hattamoto, and chaplain. In 1876 the Independent Six presented its production of Hamlet at Hill's Opera House. The newspaper account failed to make clear the relevance of Hamlet to Japanese studies.

Entertainment and Recreation

The decades of the '1860's and '1870's saw the introduction and flowering of other forms of diversion. Some of these were traditional, such as the circus and the visiting lecturer, and some were new, like baseball and the beginning of what would be the bicycling craze. Nearly every year the arrival of summer marked the beginning of the circus season. Beginning in late May and continuing through the early fall, Ann Arbor played host to as many as three separate circus companies. For weeks in advance, the newspapers trumpeted the pending arrival of some of the greatest circuses in nineteenth-century America. P. T. Barnum, Adam Forepaugh's Great Eastern Menagerie, the R. Sands Grand Multiserial Combination Circus and Homohipodeal Amphitheatre, and Van Amburgh's New Great Golden Menagerie Circus & Colosseum all appeared in Ann Arbor.

On at least five separate occasions throughout the 1860's the newspapers heralded Dan Rice's Great Show and School of Educated Animals. A master clown, cocky and pugnacious, Rice enthralled Ann Arbor audiences with his coarse humor and lively songs and jigs. He and his troop, upon arrival at the Michigan Central Railroad Station, would parade in costume through town before their first big show later in the afternoon and evening. Rice's entourage offered "moral" attractions such as "Excelsior," the blind, talking horse; the comic mules, "Pete and Barney"; and the not-to-be-forgotten herd of sacred cattle. Many of the acts came right out of the barnyard, yet townspeople seemed unmindful of the failure of the performances to live up to their advance publicity. For them the circus broke the monotony of small-town life.

While the circus was a summer attraction, theatrical performances appeared year-round at Hangsterfer's Hall and Hill's Opera House. General Tom Thumb, the midget discovered and made famous by P. T. Barnum, made at least three appearances at Hangsterfer's. Humorists Josh Billings and Artemus Ward also performed. Minstrel shows were a popular form of entertainment. In addition to such touring companies as the George Christy Minstrels and Ben Cotton's California Minstrels and Brass Band, Ann Arbor had its own amateur minstrels. Dramatic presentations included Edwin Booth in his role as "Hamlet," and Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack in their production of the "Scouts of the Plains."

The University's Student Lecture Association brought many prominent lecturers and social reformers to town. Speakers included Louis Agassiz, Wendell Phillips, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lucy Stone blackwell, Henry Ward Beecher, former Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, and Robert G. Ingersoll. Their subjects ranged from evolution and reconstruction politics to women's rights and literature. P. T. Barnum, in town without his circus, lectured appropriately on "Money Getting."

The reception which Ann Arbor accorded these speakers varied considerably. In the heated period prior to the inauguration of Lincoln in 1861, the fiery abolitionist Parker Pillsbury of Boston was forced to flee the Free Church when attacked by a mob of disgruntled townspeople. At this meeting the local newspaper reported, "some bones, as well as windows, doors, seats &c., were broken." Contrasted with this was the solemn reception Emerson received in January 1863. The Michigan State News compared him to "one of the puritanic fathers of the last century..."

The Civil War was partially responsible for the introduction of new forms of entertainment into town. Baseball began as a form of recreation among soldiers in army camps. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the nation. Many towns organized clubs to compete against neighboring communities. As early as 1862, Ann Arbor organized the Monitor Baseball Club. Baseball then was not like today's defensive game. Against the team from Ypsilanti in 1867, Ann Arbor squeaked by 52 to 48. Two weeks later in the match game of a three-game series Ann Arbor again triumphed. This time the score was 66 to 27.

The coming to Ann Arbor of "velocipedes"--or bicycles--was a fad, a diversion reserved for a very few. The real flowering of bicycling did not occur until the 1880's. But for a brief moment in 1869, the velocipede captured the attention of the town. Similar to a bicycle, the machine was propelled by turning the front wheel. This wheel, though slightly larger than the back, was not as big as the high-wheeled bicycles of the 1880's and '90's. In February 1869 an out-of-town manufacturer demonstrated the use of the velocipede. "The 'animiles' are now stabled at the hall over Besimers' Saloon," the Michigan Argus reported, "where the sporting gentry can have an opportunity to try their metal and their speed...we expect to see a street race at no distant day." In April two riders made the trip to Ypsilanti in two hours, no mean feat in that day of primitive, rutted, and mud-swamped roads. After some complaints, the city passed an ordinance forbidding the riding of velocipedes on the city's sidewalks.

Medicine, Public Health, and Business

The circus, the theatre, and the excitement of baseball and cycling were for most the only respite in an otherwise harsh and tedious existence. Public health was still in its infancy. Of the fifty-one reported deaths in 1862, twelve persons were under five years of age and twenty-one were twenty years old or less. The primary causes of death were the dreaded scarlet fever, consumption, and lung congestion and inflammation. In 1878 scarlet fever and consumption accounted for nearly fifty per cent of the 123 deaths reported in the city.

Ann Arbor was famous for its medical facilities. The city's reputation derived partly from its association with the University's Department of Medicine and Surgery. But by far the greatest part of its medical acclaim rested upon the showmanship of unorthodox practitioners who expounded all-inclusive remedies for the ills of mankind, and promised their patients restoration of health with a minimum of personal discomfort.

Daniel B. Kellogg claimed the ability, during hypnotic sleep, to discern remedies for illnesses. While in this state, Kellogg wrote in his autobiography, "I seemed to be a sort of connecting link between the patient's disease and nature's remedy." Kellogg's resulting popularity was not without its drawbacks. Before becoming a professional healer, Kellogg wrote: "The sick came from all directions...My house was filled to excess; and such was the demand upon my time that I was forced to neglect my legitimate occupation; and my external life was mainly spent in unconscious slumber."

Kellogg's techniques contrasted with the methods of Ann Arbor's most famous doctor. Ambitious and self-assured, Dr. Alvin Chase parlayed an extraordinary talent as a peddler of patent medicines and groceries into an enormously successful publishing business. While working the Detroit and Toledo circuit, Chase began collecting recipes for all types of medicines, as well as instructions for the preparation of common household items like vinegar, soap, paint, and cloth coloring. Recognizing the need for a compilation of such useful information, Chase brought his recipes together in a pamphlet entitled, Information for Everybody. The eighth edition of this work, brought out in 1860, became something of a publishing phenomenon. Within its covers the housewife on the farm or the tradesman in the city had at hand over 600 recipes for such luxuries as oyster soup and tomato wine, and for herbal remedies to cure everything from "old sores" and deafness to the relief of ingrown toenails.

The grandiose practices and theories of the Drs. Kellogg and Chase were indicative of fundamental changes through which medical science was passing. In reaction to traditional methods, which included the bleeding and purging of sick people, doctors in the '1860's and '1870's began experimenting with the use of mild vegetable remedies for illness. Mineral baths, too, were in vogue during this period. In 1866, a Doctor Hale opened the "Mineral Springs House" in Ann Arbor. Located on present-day Bath Street, this building accommodated up to 80 people.

The "Mineral Springs House" was one of many business enterprises to appear after the Civil War. In this period, E. J. Knowlton began the manufacture of his Universal Bath. Supported like a hammock between two pieces of household furniture, Knowlton's Bath could then be filled with water to bathe all or only parts of the human body. The pliable sides, Knowlton's advertising read, "confirm[sic] to the irregularities of the person, and leave very little space to fill up with water..." Metal bathtubs were still a rarity. Knowlton's genius was to manufacture an inexpensive, pliable, and portable bathing apparatus.

Another of Ann Arbor's burgeoning manufacturing businesses was the Mozart Watch Company. Patented by Donald J. Mozart, the watch was touted as a mechanical marvel. With its "self-compensating level," the watch had no stopping place, thus "once wound up, it is bound to run until it runs down...Screw the same (watch) to the side of a locomotive, and it will run with the most perfect regularity." In February 1869 the company moved into the south side of Dr. Chase's block and began producing its watches.

Ann Arbor at the Crossroads: Railroads, Growth and Controversy

"The future of Ann Arbor never looked so bright as now," the Courier gloated in 1871. "From present appearances it is safe to say that the population of Ann Arbor will double in the next five years." The paper came to regret this statement. The successful Mozart Watch Company earlier in 1870 had deserted Ann Arbor for the more congenial environs of Milwaukee. The business prosperity of the post-Civil War years peaked, and in its wake came the depression of 1873. The newspapers began filling up with mortgage sales and notices of houses for sale. E. J. Johnson, hat, cap, and fur dealer, was just one of many business failures. Population figures told the story. From a peak of 7,300 people in 1870, the city dropped to 6,700 in 1874.

"Watchman, what of the hour?" the Peninsular Courier editorial asked in December 1874. Ann Arbor was at a turning point in its history. "Soon, very soon, the question is to be settled, and settled forever, whether Ann Arbor is to dwindle into a mere boardinghouse town, or whether it is to become a city of no mean proportions for an inland town, say twenty thousand inhabitants...We have allowed golden opportunities to pass. While we, Rip Van Winkle like, have slept, railroads have been built north and south of us, along the lines of which small towns are springing up, creating a market for produce which formerly came to us. This...we are willing to confess, does not tend to make the future of Ann Arbor to us a pleasing theme for contemplation...We are in a transitory state, a generation is now passing away. Shall we take the tide at its flood, or omit it?"

The greatest of these "golden opportunities" which the city had missed was the construction of a second railroad, linking Ann Arbor markets to the south. The dream of an Ann Arbor-Toledo Railroad went back to the 1840's. Interest waned during the Civil War, but beginning in 1865, local capitalists began drumming up support for the railroad. In 1866 the Toledo, Ann Arbor, and Saginaw Railroad Company was formed; and in 1870 the people of Ann Arbor voted a loan of $100,000 for the completion of the road, now christened the Toledo, Ann Arbor and Northern Railroad. This company floundered in the depression of 1873. The city waited until 1878 for the dream of a north-south railway to become a reality.

The difficulty of getting the railroad to Ann Arbor had a profound effect on the community's spirit. Without an additional railroad aspiring businessmen had only the Michigan Central to transport their goods to market. When it looked as if the railroad would never come, the Courier rationalized: "Every town cannot be a manufacturing place. Our city is a literary city, and as such we are proud of it...should we attempt to carry on all kinds of enterprises we should fail. Everything for our educational interests and nothing for outside wild speculators, is our motto."

The editorial implied that the future of Ann Arbor was forever linked to the success of the University. Ann Arbor's citizens became increasingly conscious and justifiably proud of the accomplishments of the University and its faculty. They gloated over the favorable comments of out-of-town visitors drawn to the city because of the University. Ann Arbor, one traveler wrote, "is a popular resort for the wealthy, refined and intellectual from different parts of the world"

Such compliments reflected favorably upon the leadership of the University in the 1870's. In 1871 James B. Angell commenced his thirty-eight-year tenure as president of the University. Under his direction, the University broadened the scope of its curriculum, thereby attracting a larger student enrollment. From a level of 1,100 students in 1870, the number slowly increased to 1,534 in 1880. In the first decade of his administration, Angell worked to establish a Department of Dentistry and a School of Mines; and after several years of debate, the University finally established a Homeopathic College. The University's history was not without blemish. A case of presumed misappropriation of student fees in the Chemical Laboratory in 1875 ballooned into a statewide scandal involving Angell, the Regents, Courier publisher Rice Beal, and the two central figures, Silas Douglas and Preston Rose. The matter of the responsibility for the missing funds was never really resolved and the question continued to be debated for many years to come.

The Douglas-Rose Controversy brought a bitter conclusion to the score of years which had begun with the Civil War. Although not affected as badly as some cities by the Depression of '73, Ann Arbor was slow to shake off the doldrums of economic decline. A combination of factors--depression, the snail-like development of the north-south railroad to Ann Arbor, and the bitterness engendered by the Douglas-Rose Controversy--shook Ann Arbor's faith in its future. Still a fundamentally healthy community, the city was uncertain of its direction as the 1880's dawned.

Business Growth

Inconvenience caused by living at a distance from Main Street was alleviated by changes in Post Office procedures and the dispersal of retail outlets. The first collection boxes for mail were set out in 1884. Three years later rural home delivery eliminated the necessity of going to the Main Street Post Office to post or receive mail. Students and east-end residents increasingly declined to make the trip downtown and shopped on State Street or ordered by mail from Detroit. To meet their needs, Main Street merchants established branch stores on and around State Street. Combined with newer stores, the branches created a whole new business district and contributed to a growing distinction between the University community and the original town of Ann Arbor.

In spite of the city's substantial prosperity in the late nineteenth century, local businessmen were uneasy because the stability of the town's economy was dependent on The University of Michigan. As other midwestern states established colleges and began to compete more successfully for students, the probability increased that the University's enrollment could drop and with it sales receipts. In addition, while profiting from the second business district, the Main Street merchants feared its potential as a competitor. To insure a sturdier economy, everyone agreed Ann Arbor needed a permanent industrial base.

In May 1886 local businessmen organized the Businessmen's Association of Ann Arbor to promote business interests and encourage manufacturing. The organization was an effective force for only a few years and never did achieve its goal of attracting industry. Nonetheless, it was an important precursor of the modern Chamber of Commerce and paved the way for later collective action by Ann Arbor businessmen.

In August 1887 the city called a special election on a proposal by the Association to raise $5,000 in taxes for the purpose of "booming" the city. Voters approved the tax 230 to 78, but a number of determined opponents succeeded in getting a court injunction against its collection. After this setback the Association's influence diminished. Businessmen periodically revived the organization during the next decade but it was never quite as strong as in its first two years. With monthly meetings, more than 100 members, a number of hard-working officers, and committees on such specific subjects as sewers, road improvements, and the publication of literature "booming" the town, the organization did call attention to the implications of changes that were taking place in Ann Arbor.

City Government and Public Services

In 1880 Ann Arbor was a small town with a University perched on its outskirts. There were virtually no public services available. The city council consisted of a mayor, the recorder (who was a forerunner of the modern city clerk), and twelve aldermen. Individual aldermen controlled affairs in their wards and personally extended the few existing city services to areas under their patronage.

The boom of the last two decades of the nineteenth century included not only the building of new houses, but also the construction of schools, churches, and public buildings, as well as the introduction of many modern services such as electric lights, water, sewers, paved streets, and a street car system. Ann Arbor responded to these changes first by letting private enterprise fill the needs, and when this proved unsatisfactory, by expanding the regulatory role of the city government. Trying to keep taxes as low as possible, the council granted franchises to private companies to build and operate new utilities.

In January 1881 the telephone company opened Ann Arbor's first telephone exchange and within the next few years put up lines connecting Ann Arbor with Ypsilanti, Saline, Manchester, Howell, Adrian, and Detroit. The number of telephones in town increased from 25 in 1881 to 96 in 1883 and 141 in 1892. Many subscribers used the instrument for entertainment. Some people played checkers by phone, while others sat at home and listened to a sermon delivered in the Congregational Church, or to a concert given in Adrian. As more and more businesses in town installed telephones, serious matters began to be transacted by phone.

The price for telephone service in the 1880's ($36 per year for a residence, $48 for a business) restricted use to the wealthier segment of the population. In 1897, however, a rival telephone company with considerably lower rates began operations in town. During the ensuing price war both companies added hundreds of new subscribers. But the competition also forced merchants and public offices to have two telephones--one with each company.

An electric light company was formed in 1884, and in the following year a group of outside investors started the local waterworks. In both cases there was some sentiment in favor of the city owning and operating the plants. But the council preferred to keep taxes down by contracting with private companies to provide the services. The city subsidized these enterprises by becoming their single largest customer. The first six electric street lights were installed in 1884. Within ten years, all of the gas street lamps had been replaced by electricity.

The agreement between the city and the water company stipulated that the company install 100 hydrants in the city and supply water for fire fighting at an annual fee of $40 per hydrant. Violating its trust, the company never provided satisfactory service. It allowed water pressure to drop below the level needed for fighting fires and mixed unhealthy river water with spring water. Little could be done to correct the situation because the company held a long-term franchise. It was not until 1913 that the city was able to buy it out.

Public Transportation and Changes in City Government

The electric street railway system was instituted in 1890. Capitalizing on a desire that had originated in the 1860's, the Ann Arbor Street Railway Company's first line connected the Michigan Central Railroad Depot, the downtown business district, the University campus, and the new fairgrounds at Burns Park. That same year another company built the first interurban system in the state, connecting Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. The interurban began operations in 1891 and five years later merged with the Ann Arbor Street Railway. In 1898 this system combined with the larger Detroit, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor Street Railway Company. Offering frequent trips at low prices, the interurban took much of the passenger traffic between Ann Arbor and Detroit away from the Michigan Central Railroad and allowed people in rural areas to come to Ann Arbor more frequently. Ann Arbor residents could now shop in Detroit and Ypsilanti or ride the car between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti for a warm summer evening's entertainment.

Besides negotiating and amending franchises for public service corporations, the city council worked on a sanitary sewer system (begun in 1894), a storm sewer system (begun in 1898), street paving (begun in 1896), and the repair and replacement of sidewalks. Prior to the 1890's good natural drainage kept Ann Arbor's dirt streets passable in all but the wettest weather. The installation of water pipes and sewers, however, left the roads rutted and marred by potholes. As an experiment in 1896 the city macademized a portion of Huron Street in front of Fireman's Hall, Fourth Avenue between Ann and Catherine, and Detroit Street between Catherine and the depot. In 1898 five blocks of Main Street were paved with brick and in the following year a brick surface was put on the downtown blocks of Washington Street.

Burgeoning city services called for an increasingly sophisticated city government with an independence and expertise impossible to maintain under the old paternalistic system. Led by Mayor Samuel W. Beakes, council rewrote the city charter in 1889, making the council purely a legislative body. The mayor was given strong executive powers and a veto over council legislation. In addition he obtained the right to appoint, subject to council approval, all members of city boards, and other city officials including the treasurer, the chief of police, and the city attorney. These paid officials assumed administrative chores previously performed by the city council. A new City Building was constructed in 1893 and symbolized the change to a more public government.

Two important regulatory commissions were created under the new charter. The Board of Public Works brought all work on city streets under the direction of a city engineer. Previously the council had maintained separate street funds for each ward, administered by the appropriate alderman. Central planning and control of street maintenance soon proved more efficient and less expensive.

The Board of Fire Commissioners supervised the city's first professional fire fighting force. Prior to 1889, the city's protection against fires consisted only of several volunteer fire companies. Under this system anywhere from 75 to 150 people per year received the $5 salary for firemen (increased to $10 in 1886). The Board of Fire Commissioners converted the fire department to a professional force of about 6 full-time men and 5 men on call, and was able to raise wages to $40 per month for a first-year man.

Politics, Schools and Churches

The Republicans were the majority party in the city during much of the post Civil War era, but a split in the party ranks in the early 1880's over prohibition allowed the Democrats to establish a tradition of office holding. Most Republicans advocated temperance in the use of liquor, but one faction supported outright prohibition. The prohibitionists often entered a separate slate of candidates for city offices and even won a council seat in 1884. The effective result, however, was to give control of the city to the Democrats. Although the prohibition party soon disappeared from city politics, the Democrats continued to offer strong candidates and held the mayor's office thirteen of the fourteen years from 1880 and 1893, often with council majorities. The depression of 1893 hurt the party nationally and locally and the Republicans regained their domination of city government.

Although it had little role in the formal machinery of government, prohibition was a significant force in community affairs. Given the prominence of education in Ann Arbor, the school board was an important community institution. In combination with the women's rights movement, the prohibitionists managed to elect a number of candidates to the school board. While the board continued to be controlled numerically by wealthy merchants, women became increasingly involved in school affairs. In 1881 women property owners received the right to vote in school elections. Backed by local temperance societies in 1883, Mrs. Sarah Bishop became the first woman elected to the board.

During the 1890's the interest in the women's rights movement increased in Ann Arbor. In 1894, after the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association held its annual convention in Ann Arbor, local women founded the Political Equality Club of Ann Arbor. That year club member Miss Emma E. Bower, editor of the Ann Arbor Democrat , backed by the WCTU and the suffragists, won a seat on the school board. In 1896 Mrs. Anna Bach became the first woman president of the school board. The following year Miss Bower was made board treasurer. She served a term as president in 1899.

Besides the public school system, Ann Arbor also had three parochial schools. St. Thomas Catholic School, the largest of the three, completed a new building in 1886 on its present site and soon enrolled 200 students. Bethlehem German Evangelical Church School had 60 students at that time and the school connected with Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church had 55.

A school of music had existed in Ann Arbor as early as 1879. The program was strengthened in the 1890's when the University Musical Society started the University School of Music. The school constructed its own building on Maynard Street in 1893 and had, despite its name, no formal ties with the University. It merged with the University in 1929.

Ann Arbor's churches enjoyed a prosperity of their own between 1880 and 1900. Only four new congregations formed during this period (Disciples of Christ, Grace Lutheran, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran, and Seventh Day Adventist), but a great increase in attendance was experienced at established churches. Ten new churches were built. Most of these new stone or brick structures are still standing and are among the most beautiful old buildings in Ann Arbor. Some are romanesque structures--the Unitarian Church (northeast corner of State and Huron), the Church of Christ (northwest corner of Tappan and Hill), and St. Thomas Catholic Church (northwest corner of Kingsley and State)--and are good examples of field stone architecture. The two African-American congregations of Second Baptist and Bethel A.M.E. built new brick structures in the 1890's to accommodate a stable African-American population.

Entertainment, Libraries, Ethnic Celebrations and Festivals

The last years of the nineteenth century were a busy time for the citizens of Ann Arbor, with increased opportunities in recreation, entertainment, and sports. Although the number of circuses diminished from previous years, the size and quality of those which came were more impressive. Adam Forepaugh brought his show to town about every other year in the 1880's. P. T. Barnum's troupe performed several times. In 1896 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show appeared and two years later the Ringling Brothers Circus came to town.

Because there were often several years between the appearances of circuses in Ann Arbor, many other forms of entertainment became popular. An Ann Arbor resident could hear lecturers such as Mark Twain, Robert G. Ingersoll, Julia Ward Howe, Frances Willard, Henry George, or Susan B. Anthony. Orators such as Theodore Roosevelt, James G. Blaine, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, and William McKinley spoke in town. Other possibilities for an enjoyable outing included a Shakespearean play, an opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, or a concert by John Philip Sousa and the U. S. Marine Band. The most popular entertainment was the play "Uncle Tom's Cabin," based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel.

One of the most popular events on the Ann Arbor cultural scene was the annual May Festival, begun in 1894 and sponsored by the University Musical Society. Each year during the '90's, this festival attracted visitors from all over Michigan and several neighboring states. University Hall was often filled well beyond its normal capacity for performances.

Almost every year the Washtenaw County Agricultural and Horticultural Society sponsored a county fair in Ann Arbor. The displays, races, and entertainment generated much interest, but competition with fairs elsewhere in the county made the fair less than a paying proposition. In 1890, the Society was forced to sell its grounds on the south side of Hill Street between Forest and Lincoln. Mrs. Olivia Hall agreed to give the Society an equal amount of land in what is now Burns Park plus $7,000 in exchange for the Hill Street property. This transaction erased the organization's debt and for many years the fair prospered at its new location.

In the '80's and '90's, Ann Arbor's two libraries enjoyed increasing patronage. The public library had its quarters in the high school building and was open to the public a few hours a week. In 1885, the Ladies Library Association completed a new building on Huron Street where the Ameritech building now stands. Upon payment of a membership fee of one dollar a year a patron had access to a collection of 3,500 volumes.

Two of Ann Arbor's ethnic groups held annual celebrations and a number of special festivals during these years. Every year the African-American community either staged a celebration of Emancipation Day or organized excursions to participate in celebrations in other towns. In 1883, a large number of Ann Arbor African Americans went to Lansing for the Emancipation Day celebration. The following year a special celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the freeing of the slaves in the West Indies was held.

The other ethnic group in town with regular celebrations and festivals was the large German population living largely west of Main Street and south of Huron. During the 1880's the Beethoven Gesangverein (choral society) provided regular musical entertainment for the German community, and in the 1890's the Lyra Gesangverein took its place. Beginning in 1890, an annual celebration of German-American day was held in one of the communities in the county.

The Beethoven Gesangverein served as the host for the largest singing festival ever held in Ann Arbor. The three-day Seventh Peninsular Saengerfest, held in 1887, was conducted by the Peninsular Saengerbund, an organization representing most of the German singing societies in the state. Seventeen train-car loads of visitors came from Detroit. Over 3,000 people attended the closing concert.

Popular Sports

Another form of entertainment for the people of Ann Arbor was athletics. During this period sports were not as highly organized as they later became. There were many more participants and fewer spectators. Baseball was the most important sport in the late nineteenth century, both locally and nationally. The sport became a real "craze" around the middle of the '80's. By 1884 the city council felt it necessary to ban ball playing in the streets.

In those days most baseball games were arranged on the spur of the moment. Local residents could see matches between the staffs of two local newspapers, between the Northside Club and a traveling club of professional female players, between the city officials and the county officials, or between the University faculty and a team composed of the high school faculty and the board of education. The University of Michigan played a schedule which included Ann Arbor High School and a Detroit professional team.

Football also grew in popularity in the late nineteenth century, but until the 1890's it resembled rugby more than modern football. One newspaper article claimed that "There is really very little kick in a game of collegiate football. It is principally a mass of struggling humanity, with wildly protruding eyeballs, bruised and wrenched limbs, [and] streaming apparel." In the early '90's both the University and the high school appointed boards to control professionalism in athletics and prevent the use of such tactics as slugging in football games.

During the 1880's the new high-wheeled bicycles became popular among students and some of the younger businessmen in town. Soon the sport was quite the rage and several bicycle schools opened up to teach people how to ride the "animal." The modern bicycle became available in the 1890's at a fairly low cost, and the number of cyclists in town rose steadily. By the turn of the century, there were between 2,500 and 3,000 bicycles in town. Through such organizations as the League of American Wheelmen, cyclists were the first to lobby for better roads. Junius Beal, the young editor of the Ann Arbor Courier, was the first president of the Michigan Division of the League of American Wheelmen and active in the national association.

By the turn of the century, Ann Arbor was a prospering community, supported for the most part by its educational institutions and a few small manufacturing establishments. Over a very short period of time "Ann's Arbour" had acquired most of the modern conveniences available in the larger cities and yet had retained its character as a fine residential town. While not all of the problems of earlier years had been solved, the citizens of Ann Arbor faced the new century with a sense of accomplishment.

Improving the Quality of Life

Demands for reform swept the nation in the new century as the country attempted to ameliorate social strains caused by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. Although Ann Arbor did not face the extensive problems of larger cities, it nonetheless was caught up in the ferment. As in many other places, the competition for street railway franchises in the city brought conflict. From 1900 to 1902 the Hawks-Angus and the Boland companies fought for the right-of-way through, the city. Hawks-Angus won, but not before violence between the two construction crews was narrowly averted and not before the Ann Arbor Railroad, fearing that interurban crews would tear up its tracks where they crossed Huron Street, placed its #7 engine across the street, blocking the electric tracks as well as the sidewalk. "No one can now say that West Huron Street is not one of the liveliest streets in the city," reported the Argus Democrat on September 13, 1901.

Under pressure from private citizens, the city required grade separations as a prerequisite for the granting of franchises. Ann Arborites had long demanded that the Ann Arbor Railroad elevate its tracks above west-side streets. As the interurban would have to cross the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks at some point, grade separation would be imperative. While the council declared in 1902 that the Ann Arbor Railroad was to be elevated on steel viaducts over Felch, Miller, Ann, Huron, Washington, and Liberty streets, only the Washington, Huron, and Miller separations were actually completed.

The service of the privately owned Ann Arbor Water Company continued to be a source of tension. The company offered to sell its holdings to the city for $450,000, but council and Mayor Royal S. Copeland felt the price was too high. Council then passed legislation requiring the company to lower its rates to levels comparable to those in other cities of Ann Arbor's size. Denying the city had the right to regulate rates, the franchise nonetheless "voluntarily" lowered them in 1902. The city, however, claimed to have established the principle of regulation.

In October, 1913, after another 11 years of inadequate and unsafe water, voters authorized the city to buy out the company. A new municipal Water Works Commission drew its water from the Huron River above the newly constructed Barton Dam and from artesian wells on West Washington near Eighth Street. The commission introduced water purification by chlorination. With the use of liquid chlorine in 1915, Ann Arbor was assured of a supply of pure water.

In the second decade of the century, reform movements took on a new urgency and vitality. In 1912, for example, Ann Arbor had two Socialist newspapers and the Socialist Party made a creditable showing in the municipal elections of 1913. Yet most citizens chose less radical ideology and more conventional agencies to effect change.

In 1913 the Ann Arbor Civic Association, an extension of the older Board of Commerce, incorporated most of the reform groups into one organization that pursued a conservative yet determined approach to reform. The organization was still interested in attracting industry and promoting commerce, but in recruiting new members from University professors, professional men, and women's organizations, it acquired additional goals. The group now sought to improve water, food, sanitation, housing, and labor conditions. It urged honest and efficient administration of public affairs, and attempted to promote community feeling among all the citizens of the city.

The association instituted an elaborate committee system. The City Beautiful Committee directed its efforts toward the care of trees and shrubs and the establishment of better methods of garbage and rubbish collection. The Agricultural Committee sought to improve relations between the neighboring farmers and the city. The association supported an active Good Roads Committee. Under the prodding of another association committee, a program of milk and meat inspection was begun. Lists of the dairymen and meat suppliers meeting standards of quality and safety were published.

The Sanitation Committee resolved to make Ann Arbor the first dustless, smokeless, and flyless city. In 1913 and 1914 the committee declared war on the fly. Manure bins, still common in Ann Arbor alleys, were singled out for removal, especially the bins behind the fire engine station near Tappan School on East University Avenue. The school children of Ann Arbor were enlisted in the anti-fly campaign. Each child was given a pamphlet, "Catechism on the Fly." Five thousand flyswatters were distributed and bounties paid. The committee resolved in 1914 to "be so united in our struggle for the ideal human environment that we may be a 'City with a Conscience'."

Moral Reform, Temperance and Women's Rights

This strong moral tone pervaded many of the activities of Ann Arbor's concerned citizens. In 1911 Agnes Inglis, a social worker with the YWCA, shocked the Ladies Union and the city with her report on moral conditions prevailing in the city, especially the rapid spread of "vile" diseases. In response to her indictment, twelve women's organizations, led by the YWCA, formed the Social Purity Club. The club called for suppression of "objectionable places and public characters," enforcement of laws prohibiting sale of tobacco and alcohol to minors, enforcement of curfew laws, organization of the schools as neighborhood social centers, and the introduction of sex hygiene classes in the schools.

Men were also caught up in the crusade for better social and moral conditions. The Men and Religion Forward Movement reached its peak about 1911-1912. This wholly male organization stressed "male Christianity." Twenty members headed a six-month investigation into life in Ann Arbor in 1911. They condemned the water company and its disregard for public safety, violations of antitrust codes by druggists and grocers, child labor, auto accidents, and saloons which pandered to students.

A broad spectrum of businessmen, churches, and women's groups agitated vigorously for prohibition. In 1909, Washtenaw County voted against the establishment of prohibition in the county, 6,212 to 5,328. But after an emotional campaign Ann Arbor voted solidly in November 1916 for the bone-dry, statewide amendment to prohibit "forever...the manufacture, sale, keeping for sale, giving away, catering or furnishing of any vinous, malt, brewed, fermented, spiritous or intoxicating liquors..." The state and city went dry on May 1, 1918, well before the inauguration of national prohibition. "John Barleycorn 'passed away' more easily and quietly than was generally expected," reported the Times News.

The emergence of women from the confines of the home and from the restrictions of traditional roles accelerated, culminating in the drive for suffrage. Women had been active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Ann Arbor since 1874 and organized the Ann Arbor Women's Federation Club in 1906 to educate themselves on contemporary issues. As they became involved with social issues, women insisted on their right to vote. The Ann Arbor Political Equality Club was organized in 1894 and began a long, determined battle to gain the ballot.

In November 1912 a statewide referendum on female suffrage was presented to male voters. The men of Ann Arbor narrowly approved the amendment. Statewide, men were not so inclined and the amendment was defeated. Six months later, a second attempt also failed and Ann Arbor males reversed their earlier decision and voted decisively against the amendment. One local woman spoke for most of her co-workers: "I have been working for suffrage for thirty-nine years and I shall keep on working for it just as long as I live." On November 5, 1918, voters approved a state amendment granting women the right to vote.

The Arrival of Automobiles

The first performance of the automobile in Ann Arbor was hardly indicative of its ultimate impact. Hoping to obtain a franchise, Staebler and Son, well established bicycle dealers, received a demonstrator Trimoto on October 9, 1900. It had three wheels, a gasoline engine, and weighed about 500 pounds. It carried two people and reached a top speed of twelve miles per hour. On December 20 Edward Staebler wrote despondently to the manufacturers: "I cannot use the Trimoto to go between my residence and the store for there is a hill to climb which the machine has climbed but twice out of many trials and we do not care to try any more because of the jeers from the onlookers."

In 1901 the Staeblers traded the Trimoto for a Toledo Steam Carriage. The Steamer was more successful at climbing Ann Arbor's hills but broke down nearly as often as the Trimoto. At the end of 1901, the Staeblers were still the only automobile dealers in town and had only the Toledo Steamer to demonstrate. Three other cars appeared in 1901. One, a steam car, was built by Ann Arbor resident Howard Coffin, a student in the Engineering College. Coffin's steamer, which participated in the Labor Day parade of 1901, was assembled in the Staebler bicycle shop.

Automobiles were slow to catch local fancy. Edward Staebler noted in 1906 that, "This is a peculiar town. Our population is 18,000 and we have not over a dozen machines here. Half of those are used but very little." Eventually, however, the flexibility and mobility of the automobile won converts. In 1908 there were forty cars in Ann Arbor and in 1910, Mayor William Walz issued the first rules for driving and parking. Service industries related to the automobile grew as older trades declined. In 1901 the city boasted nine blacksmiths, nine bicycle shops, and nine liveries. By 1919 there were four blacksmiths, one bicycle shop and no liveries. In 1912 Walker's Livery was the city's largest livery with more than thirty horses. The livery was famous for two teams of pure white Arabians which were rented for funeral processions. The horses and equipment were auctioned off in 1914 and the livery became the Ann Arbor Taxicab and Transfer Company. In 1919 fifteen establishments called themselves automobile garages, nine firms advertised automobile repairs, and four advertised automobiles for hire.

Sports and Recreation

Active outdoor recreation became more popular as the city became more urbanized and as more workers were found indoors in factories, shops, and offices. Improvement of scenic boulevards was coupled with the creation of the city park system. In 1900 the city held only Felch Park and Hanover Square. The City Park Commission, formed in 1905, acquired nearly 145 acres of land in the following fourteen years. The nucleus of the park and boulevard system was formed with the establishment of Riverside Park, Island Park, West Park, Burns Park, Glen Drive, Long Shore Drive, and Allmendinger Park. A notable instance of city-university cooperation was the creation of a large park on the east side of town--now called the Arboretum--through the joint development of land given to the University by Dr. and Mrs. Walter Nichols and adjoining land bought by the city.

The Huron River, the focal point of many scenic drives, also provided more active recreation. Relaxed and romantic, boating and canoeing had long been popular. But swimming was appealing, especially to the children during Ann Arbor's hot and humid summers. In 1914 the first municipal swimming beach was built by the city, and in 1917 the Huron Farm Company improved the beach and built a bath house. Golfing became the rage. In 1900, the first local golf club was organized. The Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club played on a course southeast of Ferry Field and Ann Arborites took the interurban to the Washtenaw Country Club between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

The impetus toward organized sports and athletics was hastened by the success of University teams. Fielding Yost came to Michigan in 1901 and built the nationally famous "point-a-minute" teams of 1901-1905--teams which won 55 games, lost one, and tied one. His first team at Michigan was undefeated and held the opponents scoreless. Amid national excitement, it went on to the first Rose Bowl game in January 1902 and defeated Stanford 49 to 0. Football became the fall mania for both University and city fans. Over 17,000 fans jammed into the last game held in old Regents Field in 1905. New athletic facilities on Ferry Field were necessary to accommodate the crowds which were running close to 20,000 persons by 1915.

Music, both popular and classical, was frequently heard in Ann Arbor. Townfolk hummed the song hits of the day, "Sweet Adeline," "Shine on Harvest Moon," and "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," and whistled "Alexander's Rag Time Band." The University Musical Society offered concerts which were supplemented by recitals of the St. Thomas Conservatory, the Kempf Studios, and church choirs. Hill Auditorium, replacing cramped and uncomfortable University Hall, opened in 1913, and offered comfortable listening to 4,000.

Theater, like music, had a long tradition in Ann Arbor. Audiences, accustomed to the best in professional stage entertainment, were momentarily disconcerted when the Athens Theatre closed between 1904 and 1908. In the interim, vaudeville became a staple entertainment. By 1907, the new Bijou Theatre was showing three performances a day including five vaudeville acts, two polyscope numbers, and an illustrated song. The Majestic Theatre, a converted roller skating rink, also presented vaudeville.

The vitality of vaudeville was threatened by the flickering lights of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope. Motion pictures, short and silent, were at first regarded as novelties but proved to have enormous popular appeal. "Movies" were used initially as features between vaudeville acts at the Star, Bijou, and Majestic theaters. In 1906 and 1907, promoters built the Theatorium, the Casino, and the People's Popular Family Theatre to show movies exclusively. Popular taste rapidly turned to Pearl White in "The Perils of Pauline," to slapstick comedians like the Keystone Cops, and to westerns starring Tom Mix and William S. Hart. The Orpheum, the Temple, the Arcade, the Columbia, the Rae, and the Wuerth Arcade theaters rushed into business to satisfy public demand.

The Impact of World War I

World War I created ethnic tensions that had been virtually non-existent in a community that had easily accommodated Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic traditions. Residents of Germanic descent retained strong ties with the old country. The University, modeled on the German university, admired and respected Teutonic educational and cultural traditions. Over a quarter of the students in the University were enrolled in classes in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature. Yet the ties of blood and affection with England and common traditions of law, democratic institutions, language, and literature sustained a strong feeling for England.

At first most Ann Arborites agreed with President Wilson's plea to be "impartial in thought as well as action." However, the German conquest of neutral Belgium and submarine warfare made many agree with Professor Claude Van Tyne in condemning "Prussian militarism and German arrogance." In December 1914 the National Security League was founded to support universal military training, military preparedness, patriotism, and the extermination of values which were "un-American." The Ann Arbor branch under Van Tyne and William Hobbs was energetic and vigilant.

America entered the Great War to make the world "safe for democracy" in April 1917. In the first total war in history, nations mobilized the energies of whole societies, civilians and soldiers alike. Ann Arbor's military unit, Company I of the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry, was mobilized into the Army of the United States on August 5, 1917. To the disappointment of many who cherished the independent traditions of the local company, the Army reorganized the Michigan National Guard into Company E of the 126th Infantry under the command of Captain Arthur G. Volland of Ann Arbor. They mobilized at Grayling, Michigan; trained in Waco, Texas; embarked from Hoboken, New Jersey; and arrived in France on March 4, 1918. Ann Arbor's "doughboys" tested their mettle in severe fighting in Alsace, at Château-Thierry, and in the Meuse-Argonne. Company E left Europe in April 1919 after serving in the army of occupation. Other Ann Arbor men volunteered or were drafted into regular army units.

The war also mobilized civilians, particularly women. Ann Arbor women led the work of the Red Cross and Washtenaw County Women's Committee, part of the Council of National Defense. Every woman in the city was urged to register with the committee and to volunteer time and skills to fill the places of men away at the front. Housewives observed "meatless days," "wheatless days," and "sweetless days" to conserve food. Five Liberty Loan drives were promoted by patriotic appeals. Gardening became popular as a way to aid "Uncle Sam" and as a means to beat the war-related inflation.

The war thoroughly disrupted University life. Two student naval militia units which had been organized in 1916 were quickly mobilized in 1917. Over 1,800 students joined the ROTC in the fall of 1917. Students volunteered for the armed forces as well; enrollment declined by about 1,500 from that of the previous spring and some 400 men left school during the fall term. Red Cross activities and bond drives occupied the remaining students.

In April 1918 the University acceded to a War Department request to train non-college draftees as gunsmiths, machinists, blacksmiths, carpenters, and mechanics. By November, over 2,000 men had had two months of training in Ann Arbor. Early the same year the Students Army Training Corps was initiated by the War Department. At one point that year, 3,750 men on campus were involved in military programs, placing intense strain on housing facilities. The unfinished Michigan Union was used as a barracks for 400 men and a mess hall for 4,000. A temporary mess hall for 1,900 was set up next to the Union. Waterman Gym was used as a barracks as were 35 fraternity houses.

The energy displayed by war advocates was often misdirected against anyone suspected of unpatriotic actions, words, or even thoughts. Intense anti-German feeling swept the state and nation. It became unpopular, if not unpatriotic, to play German music, to speak or read German. Enrollment in German courses in the University dropped from 1,300 to 150. In the name of the National Security League, Van Tyne attacked University employees suspected of pacifism, disloyalty, or "subversive" thought. Many citizens of German descent suffered from suspicion and anti-German propaganda. The Washtenaw Post , a local German language newspaper, was barred from the United States mail. Editor Eugene Heller advised his readers, "The day is not far distant when we loyal citizens must make ourselves ready to prove our loyalty before the court. In the meantime, endure, keep your mouth shut and hold out.

In the fall of 1918 the dread Spanish influenza pandemic struck down hundreds. The University was especially hard hit because of overcrowded, jerry-rigged housing and sanitary facilities. The first death occurred on October 6. With over 200 cases of flu in the city and many more on the campus, the city health officer, on October 16, ordered all auditoriums, churches, theatres, dance halls, and other places of public assembly closed indefinitely. Public schools were closed the next day. All members of the faculty and students were ordered to wear face masks, and local citizens were urged to do the same. The Daily Times News reported on October 18 that "The campus looks like a Turkish harem this morning with all the students and faculty members wearing their gauze masks, with President Hutchins leading the procession with a mask that looks like an Oriental rug."

The epidemic abated during November and the ban on public assembly was lifted on November 9, all theatres and movie houses having been thoroughly fumigated. The death toll was heavy; 115 persons died during October alone. About half the deaths were among local citizens, including five nurses, a prominent physician, and a hospital janitor.

Sacrifices, anxiety, and contention were forgotten on November 11, 1918, when the Armistice was announced. "Joy has been unconfined in Ann Arbor today," reported the Times News , "Practically all business in the city is suspended." Receiving the news at 3 a.m., Mayor Ernst Wurster called out the fire truck while Judge George Sample rushed to the courthouse to ring the bell. By 4 a.m. an enormous bonfire was blazing at the corner of Main and Huron. Regent Junius Beal ordered the sounding of the big whistle at the University Power Plant.

In spite of the sleepless night, the city quickly organized a gigantic parade. The city bands, student soldiers, state troops, the Colored Soldiers, the Welfare League, the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, city officials, and school children paraded through the city, ending on the steps of Hill Auditorium for a songfest.

Reform agitation and mobilization for all-out war had strained but not broken Ann Arbor's sense of community. Conversion to peacetime was to take more than a songfest, however. Postwar prosperity and inflation, the contraction of wartime industry, and the expansion of the University and resulting construction boom were to exert subtle yet powerful pressures. The hyperactive rhythms of ragtime were to be an apt symbol for Ann Arbor in the 1920's.

Building a Campus

During the 1920's the University regained its dominance of the town's economy. Enrollment reached 8,900 in 1920, almost 2,700 more than the prewar record of 1916-17, and peaked at approximately 10,200 in the fall of 1926-27. Numbers of graduate and professional students rose rapidly throughout the decade. Larger numbers of students strained available housing. Rents increased and many were forced into inadequate or far-distant quarters.

The State of Michigan, buoyed by increased income from the auto industry, dramatically raised the University's appropriation for operating expenses from $1.6 million in 1919 to $4.9 million in 1929. As a result, the University hired more employees at better wages.

The number of faculty, staff, and support personnel expanded in proportion to the growing research and maintenance responsibilities. By 1929, the University paid over $6 million in wages to some 3,000 employees, about one-half million dollars and 250 employees more than the combined total for all local manufacturing and retail trade.

In addition to more operating income, the State provided approximately $11 million over ten years for construction of new research and classroom facilities. The University supplemented these funds with an even greater amount raised from private gifts, revenue bonds, and athletic department profits. Beginning in the winter of 1921-22, the University launched a massive construction program which peaked about 1925. The central campus virtually doubled in size at the expense of the old rooming and boardinghouse district.

Around the original 40 acres, new landmarks appeared: the Clements Library in 1923; the new Literature Building (Angell Hall), the Physics Building (Randall Lab), East Engineering, and University High School (half of the present School of Education) in 1924; the new Medical Building (C. C. Little) and the first portion of the new Law School, consisting of the Lawyers' Club, dining hall, and dorm, in 1925; the Museums Building and School of Architecture in 1928; and the Michigan League in 1929. Most of the new facilities were research and classroom facilities designed to meet the increase in enrollment, the growth in graduate and professional education, and the emphasis on academic and business-oriented research. At the end of the decade, the University was finishing construction of the Law Library, John B. Cook Dorm, and Mosher-Jordan Hall, all scheduled for completion in 1930.

While the expansion of central campus continued, the University finished work on the hospital complex and built its modern athletic plant. The hospital complex increased Ann Arbor's capacity as a major medical resource center. On the athletic campus, completion of Yost Field House in 1923 increased the seating for basketball from 2,200 to 12,500. The present Michigan Stadium, opened in 1927, provided seating for 85,000 as compared to 21,000 at Ferry Field. The Intramural Building and the Women's Athletic Building opened in 1928. With the exception of the stadium, whose funds came from revenue bond sales which guaranteed seating preference, football profits financed all the athletic improvements.

Frats, Dorms and the Housing Crunch

The expansion of the University's facilities had great impact on the city's appearance, necessitating the destruction or removal of housing and the closing and opening of streets. Houses on the hospital site were moved to University and Washington Heights while those from the stadium location were transferred to new locations off Main Street. Some of the existing houses on central campus were also placed on University and Washington Heights or on vacant lots throughout the city. Many others were destroyed.

The expansion of the central campus destroyed much of the old rooming, boarding, and fraternity house district. Many houses were razed or moved so far from campus that under the zoning law, they were unable to fill their original function. The dislocation brought a proliferation of restaurants and the relocation of fraternities. The development of new alternatives in student housing followed, first in the growth of fraternities and apartments and then in the University program for dormitories.

Between 1920 and 1925 the number of restaurants nearly doubled to accommodate the larger student population. At first, many were cafeterias and tiny eating-places. Greek-Americans began to assume a greater role in the ownership and operation of the new facilities. By the end of the decade, the growth in restaurants slowed, but newer ones were larger and offered better quality food at higher prices. By 1930 Greek-Americans were solidly established as local restauranteurs, just as German-American restaurants were making their appearance.

The golden age of fraternities and sororities in Ann Arbor was the 1920's. With the scarcity of housing, they increased greatly in numbers and membership among those who could afford them. By the fall of 1922, they housed some 20 per cent of the student body, and by 1925 their membership was double the prewar total. In 1926, about 3,000 students, 32 per cent of the men and 22 per cent of the women, lived in fraternity and sorority houses.

As they lost earlier homes to University expansion and as property values rose near campus, fraternities and sororities moved farther out. At first they bought former private residences whose previous owners moved off the main thoroughfares into the interior east of Washtenaw or Barton Hills. But during the second half of the decade they built larger and more magnificent houses of their own. Left to alumni control, without University or landlady supervision and located farther from campus, fraternities became a nuisance to their residential neighbors.

To help meet the need for moderately-priced housing for non-fraternity/sorority students, a group of alumni in 1923 constructed Fletcher Hall dormitory for 325 men. New nurses' and law school dorms also helped, but the severe crush on housing continued throughout the decade. As land values rose near the University, new high-cost apartments replaced older buildings. In addition to being higher priced, apartments were also free of landlady control, which further added to the increasing problem of student rowdyism and bootlegging at the end of the decade.

Capital improvements were not limited to the University. The Ann Arbor public schools also completed major improvements. In 1920, to upgrade overcrowded and outdated facilities unable to accommodate the postwar influx of young couples with children, the electorate approved $750,000 for new grade schools, and two years later passed an equal amount for additional facilities. That fall three new grade schools opened, and by the end of 1924 another new grade school and improvements to the two remaining ones were finished. At this time the junior high school plan was initiated. The new University High School opened in 1924. By the end of the decade, St. Thomas completed a new facility and the University Elementary School was almost finished.

The Automobile is King

The automobile provided a key to Ann Arbor's growth and its relations with the outside world. In 1920 Ann Arbor, like the rest of America, was divided between the horse and the car. There were two gas stations, two feed barns, and four blacksmith shops in town. By 1925, the feed barns and blacksmith shops had disappeared. But there were fifteen gas stations, and by 1930, forty-two. In conjunction with improved roads, private cars dealt the coup de grâce to the interurban and hurt a struggling city bus system.

At the beginning of the decade, Ann Arbor's only physical contact with the outside world was by interurban, train, or a bumpy ride by horse or car over dirt roads. In 1921 the first paved road to Jackson was opened. Three years later the stretch between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti was paved, completing the through road to Detroit. By early 1927 Ann Arbor had two hard-surfaced roads all the way to Detroit and two to Chicago. At the end of the decade it had intercity buses, frequent train services, and a fledgling airport which entitled it to airmail service.

With the growing importance of the automobile, the city moved to improve its streets. In 1921 pavement covered fifteen miles, or less than a quarter of the city's total and that included only the major thoroughfares and downtown streets used by business and manufacturing. There were virtually no curbs or gutters anywhere in the city. By 1919 some thirty-four miles, nearly fifty per cent of the city's total, were hard-surfaced. Almost every street in town had been curbed, guttered, and graveled in preparation for paving.

While the city responded with improved roads, private individuals were building special houses for their automobiles. Even in 1920 and 1921, when the high cost of materials limited construction projects, local residents began a garage-building spree which lasted throughout the decade. Virtually every family residence erected in the '20's had a special house for its automobile, and many occupants of older homes replaced the high stable with a rectangular garage.

As automobiles increased in number and speed, the streets became unsafe places in which to walk or play. The city pushed a program of sidewalk construction outside main shopping areas, and by 1924 required that walkways be concrete. With vacant lots rapidly disappearing and the streets unsafe, parks ceased being merely nature preserves in the midst of the city where one could walk or picnic. They became "playgrounds" with ball diamonds, tennis courts, and "playground equipment." Schools added play yards, and in 1926 the electorate approved a special bond issue for the purchase of more park land and playground facilities. By the end of the decade the city directory stopped using the term "parks" in favor of the more accurate "parks and playgrounds."

Ann Arbor's traffic problem was compounded each fall and spring by the great numbers of non-resident students who by reason of need or social fashion also drove. President Leroy Burton's request to parents in 1923 that they keep their sons' and daughters' cars at home failed to have noticeable effect, in part because of the profitable business of selling cheap used cars to students. The editor of the Michigan Alumnus commented that there were two types of automobiles: "those which may be sold to the general public" and "those which nobody but an undergraduate will buy." Many of the vehicles, selling for as little as $18 or $25, were unroadworthy, and accidents resulted from inadequate brakes and steering. Poor driving habits also contributed to the accident rate. In the spring of 1924 council passed a law aimed particularly at University students. It forbade more than two adults in the front seat and anyone sitting on the driver's lap.

Even without student autos, Ann Arbor had a full quota of cars by the mid '20's. Restrictions on student driving seemed inevitable. In 1927 the Regents, reacting to many serious automobile accidents, passed a ban on all student driving except with special permission. A special campus policeman was appointed to insure compliance with the regulations.

The automobile altered recreational life for Ann Arborites. A drive through the countryside replaced the canoe trip down the Huron. A favorite destination was Whitmore Lake. Once a social center for special occasions, such as class, church, or fraternal picnics, only a single hotel had graced its wooded shores. Now the lake was encircled by the summer cottages of Ann Arbor residents and the shoreline featured a number of hotels and boardinghouses, two dance halls, and several large bathing beaches.

Whatever its advantages, the automobile had some undesirable side effects. According to the contemporary observers, it introduced "crime" into Ann Arbor. In February 1924 armed robbers got $100 from the Ann Arbor Fuel Company, and in March 1926, $3,000 from the Majestic Theater. The media saw these occurrences as an indication that Ann Arbor was becoming a "big city." Actual crimes were invariably attributed to outsiders who "got away by car toward Detroit"; or burglars who "came to town" for the evening.

Under the impact of the automobile, Ann Arbor expanded outward beyond the streetcar tracks, and more affluent individuals who worked elsewhere began to move into the area. While Ann Arbor always had a significant number of well-to-do residents who worked outside the city, they increased at a great rate, numerically and proportionally, during the latter half of the decade. By the early '20's they had already established a pattern of leaving Ann Arbor during the warm weather for summer homes at nearby lakes.

Development Brings Diversity

Outside the city limits, planned suburban developments attracted affluent newcomers, many of whom were associated with the prosperous Detroit automobile industry. The first major suburban development was Barton Hills, located north and west of the city in the hills around Barton Pond, which Detroit Edison created to supply its downriver power facility. Initially it became the home of higher income Ann Arbor natives who commuted into town by car. With the completion of new educational facilities and intercity roads, it attracted residents from the west side of Detroit as well. At the end of the decade, its developers, a subsidiary of the Detroit Edison Company, advertised it to a selected clientele as "Detroit's most attractive suburban community." By 1930 increasing numbers of high-income Ann Arbor residents were commuting to work outside the city while low-paid service workers were commuting into Ann Arbor from their homes in nearby communities.

All the new high-income areas featured golf courses to supply the need for exercise among their professional and managerial residents. In some cases, such as Barton Hills, the golf course preceded houses as an inducement to settlement. All the best developments platted golf courses together with housing sites in their promotional literature.

In addition to bringing enormous income and new residents, the building boom brought great numbers of construction workers to the city. By the end of the decade construction projects employed every skilled craftsman in Ann Arbor and its surrounding communities and some from as far away as southern Ontario. In the case of the Law School, workers came from the British Isles. The initial University expansion employed in semi or unskilled jobs factory workers laid off in the slump of 1922-23 and University students on summer vacation. But with the return of industrial prosperity and the spread of construction projects to the private sector, increasing numbers of unskilled and semiskilled workers were imported from elsewhere increasing the crush on available rental housing.

Many of the heavy laborers were African-American. The African-American community was one of the fastest growing elements of Ann Arbor's population, rising sixty-two per cent from 580 to 940 during the decade. Most came to work in construction and stayed to work in the new fraternity houses or as cleaning ladies for Ann Arbor's growing affluent community. By the close of the decade their confinement in Ann Arbor's remaining low-rent districts and their attempts to expand beyond them began to generate conflict in the community.

The movement of construction workers into the city, particularly from rural areas, encouraged the growth of mission and holiness churches, such as the Evangelistic Mission, Gospel Mission, Church of God in Christ, First Spiritual Church of Truth, Free Methodist, and Pilgrim Holiness.

Despite the growth in evangelical Protestant sects, few new churches were built. Many congregations remodeled their quarters, while German-American congregations were the only ones to finance major new construction. St. Paul's Evangelical Church moved from the expanding West Park to a new building at West Liberty and Third, while Calvary Evangelical rose to serve the growing German-American population on the North Side. The Jewish congregation secured its first permanent home, and the Greek Orthodox Church expanded its rented quarters.

Most of the established churches spent increasing amounts of money in serving the University community. The Roman Catholics erected a new headquarters for student work, and by 1925 they and the protestants supported more than a half dozen pastors and secretaries with aid in excess of $50,000 annually. A great interest in religion prevailed at the University. In the early '20's University officials gave serious consideration to starting a School of Religion. From 1925 on, the University opened Hill Auditorium each Sunday to well-attended non-denominational services.

The ethnic mix of the city's inhabitants changed during the '20's. The proportion of native-born Americans rose as the war and new laws ended the great waves of immigration. Affluent newcomers from old-line families, who occupied executive and managerial positions in the automobile industry or faculty and staff positions at the University, moved into Ann Arbor. While the German element remained strong, it diminished in relative importance. Except for the old-timers, the Ann Arbor German community ceased speaking its native language during World War I, but retained its cultural traditions. By the end of the 1920's, due in part to the new immigration laws, English replaced German as the leading language of Ann Arbor's foreign born. Canada supplied most of the immigration since it was exempt from the restrictions of the new laws and was close to Ann Arbor's expanding labor market.

The Jazz Age in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor's boom came in a period of rapid national change which affected traditional social mores. The '20's were known as the "jazz age" and Ann Arbor participated fully in it. Movies, dancing, and the soda fountain were popular diversions. The radio, whether a smart little box or a "console," was a must for every home.

With the adoption of prohibition, the soda fountain emerged as a recreational and social center. Many confectioners added a soda fountain as did most drugstores. By the early '20's soda fountains and ice cream parlors were well established in Ann Arbor and their popularity lasted throughout the decade.

The increasing popularity of dancing touched not only the University, local high schools, and public dance halls, but also small restaurants and confectionery shops. During the '20's there was dancing every night at the Hut and the Den, two restaurants at either end of the University diagonal, and at Drake's Sandwich Shop on North University. Granger's Academy on Maynard entertained record crowds. Also the new Union and League buildings were always open for weekend dancing. By 1925 local dance hall proprietors estimated they earned $80,000 yearly from University students alone.

Movies were another great source of popular entertainment. The town had two clusters of "picture shows," one near campus and the other on Main Street. As an indication of their attraction, student riots of the '20's focused on gaining free admission to theaters. Two of the three near campus invariably closed for the summer when the students left, but the rest were always open and busy. By 1924 lines of as many as 1,500 frequently stood outside the largest of them, the Majestic on Maynard Street. In January 1928 the largest of the movie palaces, the Michigan, opened with seating for 2,200. By the spring of 1929 sound movies appeared in Ann Arbor, first at the Wuerth Theater downtown, and a week later, at the Michigan.

Michigan went "dry" on the eve of America's entry into World War I. Ann Arbor--and the nation--went from overwhelming popular support of prohibition to open violation in a matter of months. Some saloon owners who sadly closed their doors, later reopened a new business under another name at a more secluded location. Early in 1920 city council was aroused by the sudden appearance of "Turkish coffee houses," which acquired a reputation as replacements for the saloon and particularly for gambling. Council responded with an ordinance regulating their hours and specifically forbidding any gambling or card playing on their premises.

Groups which had never tried alcohol suddenly found it socially acceptable. The more affluent element, which had traditionally been "tee-totalling," was caught by the "rage." By the end of the '20's the cocktail party was well on its way to being an accepted norm of "polite society." The youth were particularly affected, and by the mid-20's drinking at University fraternity parties aroused local residents and University authorities. As the decade closed, the consumption of alcohol was spreading throughout all elements of Ann Arbor's population.

Cigarette smoking also grew increasingly popular. By 1923 an observer noted the enormous cloud of smoke hanging over Michigan's stadium. The University and local businesses designed their new buildings to be as fireproof as possible, both because of increased electrical wiring and increased smoking. Again, the younger element was a pacesetter in adopting the new custom, and by the end of the decade even "respectable" women were smoking cigarettes.

But these were the flashy symptoms of Ann Arbor's participation in the Jazz Age. Zoning laws, residential patterns, University expansion, and the automobile had made their mark on the city and were here to stay. The impending Great Depression was not to alter the pattern of Ann Arbor's development.

The Community Pulls Together

The tradition of community self-help was strong in Ann Arbor. The Community Fund supported eleven private welfare agencies and the city's Poor and Cemetery Committee provided emergency aid to indigents and transients. But as unemployment soared, the usual means of support proved totally inadequate. With the help of the Boy Scouts, the Community Fund redoubled its annual campaign appeals. Allocating most of its resources to the Family Welfare Bureau, the Community Fund focused on immediate relief problems by sponsoring clothing drives and soup kitchens. Civic groups directed their charitable activities to the relief problem and the League of St. Andrew Thrift Shop expanded its operations. Spontaneous events like a community dance and the post-season Michigan Chicago football game in 1930, as well as regular events like the Police and Fireman's Ball, added funds to the community welfare effort.

Despite widespread cooperation, these efforts were not sufficient. The bulk of the relief burden fell to the city. The immediate tasks of a hurriedly expanded Unemployment Committee were to allocate funds for emergency relief, register job seekers, and locate work. As available jobs in business and industry disappeared, a door to door canvass sought odd jobs, and the city hired increasing numbers to cut wood and to sell sandbags and onions. By 1931 all unemployed job hunters reported directly to the Parks Department and the Board of Public Works.

From the beginning Ann Arbor advocated municipal work relief as an antidote to unemployment. According to Mayor H. Wirt Newkirk: "The men don't want charity, they want work." For thirty cents an hour, often paid in scrip, these men pulled weeds, built stone fences, and planted grass, trees, and flowers along roadways and the Huron River. New baseball diamonds, swings, slides, and picnic tables were added to city parks and playgrounds. An eighteen-hole municipal golf course was improved. Potatoes, cabbage, and onions were harvested from forty acres of city gardens. The unemployed contributed to the construction of additional sanitary and storm sewers, sidewalks, and curbs and in 1932 to the addition to the post office.

In addition to providing jobs, the city distributed relief funds for food, clothing, and rent. By 1931 a full-time volunteer was directing the welfare funds and a city store was opened to provide food and clothing at the lowest possible prices. The city also operated a dormitory and a restaurant to provide temporary help for indigents. An investigator was hired to check all claims for aid.

Despite unemployment and the relief burden, most Ann Arborites remained optimistic enough to vote for President Hoover in the 1932 election. A Daily News editorial commented that Hoover should not be blamed for the depression and that the country's economy would automatically recover regardless of the outcome of the election. When the votes were counted, Washtenaw County was one of the few areas in Michigan which maintained its traditional Republicanism. Hoover received 15,368 votes to 12,552 for Roosevelt. The city and county offices were held by Republicans. Only the second U. S. Congressional District, of which Washtenaw County was a part, elected a New Deal Democrat, John C. Lehr.

But the city could not provide relief and jobs indefinitely. The number of families on relief jumped from 162 in 1931 to 405 in 1933. Monthly welfare costs skyrocketed from $2,000 to $14,000 per month. Increased expenditures were juxtaposed against the city's rapidly shrinking revenues. Despite several municipal bond issues for the city's public works projects and continued borrowing from the annual contingency fund, the welfare fund was always low. Traditional financial revenues had decreased by almost sixty per cent, due to the rising rate of tax delinquency and declining valuations of local property. Even special emergency relief bonds amounting to $150,000 passed in November 1932 were exhausted within six months.

On May 10, 1933, the Daily News headlined "City Welfare Fund Emptied," and only cases of "dire necessity" would receive aid. Fortunately, in the following week implementation of state and federal welfare programs rescued Ann Arbor's welfare fund with Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans of over $10,000 and established the pattern of state and federal cooperation in local relief efforts. Longer than many other cities, Ann Arbor had shouldered the burden of relief and had reason to be proud of its community spirit and welfare accomplishments. The confidence of city leaders had been justified.

The New Deal in Ann Arbor

Of the many state and federal aid programs during the remainder of the decade, the Public Works Administration had the greatest impact on Ann Arbor. Continuing the pattern of municipal work relief, PWA funds allowed the city to undertake far-reaching public improvements such as the sewage treatment plant, the water softening plant, and miles of connecting sewers and drains. A brick terminal containing office space was added to the airport and Ann Arbor High School was expanded. City council proceedings were indexed and the city hall and several school buildings were decorated with murals.

The most popular contribution, however, was the improvement of parks in the city and of those along the Huron River. A resurfaced Huron River Drive led motorists to new picnic tables, swings, baseball diamonds, and grassy clearings that had been added to the parks between Dexter and Ypsilanti. When dam repairs lowered the water level, the Municipal Beach was cleared for safer swimming; a rock island, a new dock, and an expanded parking lot were also added.

In other federal programs, the National Youth Administration supported young people who worked in the University museums and libraries cataloging insect collections or describing historical manuscripts. Five nursery schools were maintained with federal assistance. Moreover, WPA artists contributed two Black pumas to the University's Museum.

Recreation was another form of relief. In Ann Arbor there were many opportunities for escaping the daily routine of working or looking for work. Athletic teams attracted loyal crowds and encouraged fierce rivalries. The University football team led by Coach Harry Kipke and Athletic Director Fielding Yost accumulated four Big Ten and two national championships between 1929 and 1933. Every football Saturday, out-of-town supporters flocked through Ann Arbor's streets, stores, and restaurants before and after the games. The three high schools also boasted of winning teams: Ann Arbor High School in track, University High School in basketball, and St. Thomas High School in football. In addition, local business and civic groups sponsored team competition in baseball, basketball, golf, bowling, and hockey. One's dinner might be meatless or the paycheck might be late, but if "the team" won, few cared.

In Ann Arbor sports careers started early. From choosing up sides in neighborhood baseball games to learning new skills in the city recreation program, youths of all ages practiced and dreamed of becoming the Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth of the next generation. For young Barney Oldfields, the annual soap box derby down Broadway Hill culminated months of exacting preparations.

Refurbished by continual work-relief projects, the parks in the city and along the Huron River became centers of recreation and leisure. Skating and tobogganing were popular in the winter; swimming at the Municipal Beach and canoeing over the Delhi rapids were favorite summer diversions. Fishermen whiled away the long depression days along the river banks and filled the evenings with fish stories. Annual picnics of business or civic groups featured three-legged races, shoe kicking competition, and "human pump" contests. Music lovers applauded the Ann Arbor Civic Orchestra and local bands during summer concerts in the Orchestra Shell, a WPA project in West Park.

During the unprecedented heat waves of the 1930's, which ruined farming throughout the midwest and resulted in mounting death tolls, Ann Arbor residents found ways to beat high temperatures. Family picnics freed mother from the stove and transformed leftovers into a celebration. Ice cream was a special treat whether eaten at the neighborhood Millers or delivered by Wursters. Adults envied the children who cooled off in wash tubs filled by using the garden hose.

The summer scorchers were equalled only by the winter blizzards. Snow drifts blocked country roads and city traffic was stilled. More mobile than cars, horsedrawn plows continued to clear the sidewalks throughout most of the decade. University students sculptured gigantic snow figures along fraternity row.

Ann Arbor's traditional cultural and entertainment activities provided relief from the depression. Movie houses showed Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Tyrone Power, and Mary Astor. The Saturday morning "Wheaties" program attracted crowds of children to watch cartoons and the latest westerns and comedies. Theater goers could choose among traditional plays at the Ann Arbor Civic Theater, the modern playwrights produced by the University's theater groups, or the revivals of eighteenth-century classics by the amateur Nell Gwyn group. Musicals were performed by the Union Opera, by neighborhood groups, and by high school students. The world's best musical artists came to Ann Arbor during the Choral Union series and the May Festival. In almost every home, radios provided up-to-date national and world news reports as well as programs from the University featuring music classes and extension courses.

The Recovery Begins

By the middle of the decade the signs of recovery were increasing in Ann Arbor; Thanksgiving turkeys returned to many dinner tables. While unemployment and the need for relief continued (and even increased during the recession in 1937-38), the amount of permanent unemployment was decreasing. In November 1937 a special federal census revealed that unemployment in Washtenaw County had declined considerably from the twenty per cent level of the worst years of the depression.

A slow but steady recovery was indicated in the expansion of existing industries and by the entrance of new companies. King-Seeley, Ann Arbor's largest industrial employer, built three additions to its factory after 1935, and quadrupled its employment from 200 in 1930 to 800 in 1936. The American Broach and Machine Company, expanding its plant in 1935 and again in 1936, employed 140 men who produced metal parts destined for Europe and Russia.

With the repeal of prohibition in 1932, the city's beer industry revived. The Ann Arbor Beer Company replaced the pre-prohibition Michigan Union Beverage Company as the German brewing art flourished once again. To bring power tools, such as saws and drills, within the reach of average householders, Double A Products Company was organized in Ann Arbor in 1934. In the following years they marketed a line of 200 products. The most significant industrial newcomer, the International Radio Corporation, came to Ann Arbor in 1931 and employed 150 men. Not only did it produce the popular and economical radio "Kadette Jewel," and the Argus camera, but also by merging its radio and photographic interests it began experimenting with a new phenomenon called television.

Prosperity slowly returned to the retail business. After 1935 dozens of new businesses appeared in the city directory and the number of retail employees increased from 1,932 in 1929 to 2,841 in 1940. According to a 1936 survey the amount of retail sales per capita in Washtenaw County was $599.00--the highest in the State of Michigan. Main Street and State Street shopping areas and the newly located Farmers' Market supplied a full range of food, clothing, and appliances. Increased farm purchasing power, augmented by government checks, and the renewed influx of University students in 1935 combined with the optimistic outlook of local industry to make Ann Arbor the retail center for a growing town and its surrounding countryside.

The construction of new buildings not only resulted from the increasing prosperity but also added to it. Between 1930 and 1936, assets of the University's physical plant increased to $7 million in valuation. Noteworthy among new buildings made possible by generous gifts were Hutchins Hall, the Rackham Building, and Burton Memorial Tower. The pre-1930's commitment to provide dormitories was fulfilled with the help of federal funds in the construction of West Quadrangle, East Quadrangle, and Stockwell Hall. Although the town was growing moderately, the population of school-age children mushroomed. Crowded classrooms prompted the construction of Stone Elementary School and Slauson Junior High School. In addition to business and industrial building the number of permits for housing steadily increased. New homes were ringing the city, which measured almost six miles square.

A final indication of increased economic prosperity was the rapid decline in delinquent taxes and the payment of back taxes. Encouraged by strict local ordinances and police cooperation as well as state deadlines for payment without added interest, Washtenaw County taxpayers paid up thousands of dollars of back taxes. In 1936, ninety-five per cent of Ann Arbor's current property taxes had been collected.

Building a Better City

With fuller coffers, the city continued its efforts to modernize every corner of Ann Arbor. In addition to the airport, sewage treatment plant, and water softening plant, the city constructed gas pipelines in preparation for conversion to natural gas in 1939. Seven hydroelectric plants provided electricity for 8,000 Ann Arbor buildings and ninety per cent of the neighboring farms. Sanitary and storm sewers, bituminous and concrete paving, and sidewalks and curbs extended into outlying residential areas. Dirt roads vulnerable to rain washouts and susceptible to deep ruts were fast disappearing. In 1939 the streetcar tracks were removed from Main Street.

In addition to having an expanding economy and progressive civic improvements, Ann Arbor remained a safe place to live. Citizens were relatively secure from fire, crime, and traffic accidents. In two squad cars equipped with two-way radios, the thirty-one-man police force protected homes and businesses and patrolled the street traffic. By 1936 traffic regulations alone filled an eighty-six page book. Ten dollar fines for 25 m.p.h. speeding on Washtenaw contributed to the unusually low level of traffic deaths--under five per year. For its size and number of automobiles, Ann Arbor was cited as one of the safest cities in the country.

The residential areas surrounding the city were tree-lined and generally quiet. Home owners of bungalows and mansions participated with equal enthusiasm in the "More Attractive Ann Arbor" campaign sponsored by the Ann Arbor Garden Club and the Ann Arbor News. The increased attention to trees and shrubbery was occasioned by the University's centennial celebrations, which in the summer of 1937 brought thousands of guests from all forty-eight states to the city.

Traditionally a source of civic pride, Ann Arbor's school system not only educated over 5,000 students in well-equipped buildings by professional teachers, but offered a broad range of educational opportunities to the public. Adult evening classes at Ann Arbor High School included typing, sewing, and cooking classes. The Public Library run by the board of education served an active clientele of over 10,000 borrowers.

Representing a broad spectrum of religious practice, twenty-five churches conducted worship services, provided fellowship, and promoted charitable causes. With the exception of the new Presbyterian Church on Washtenaw, there was little church construction during the 1930's; but church activities retained their traditionally important place in Ann Arbor. Local civic and fraternal clubs also contributed to the well being of Ann Arbor. Sponsoring lectures, study groups, and benefits, the Kiwanians, Rotarians, Masons, Elks, and others maintained active memberships. Particularly during the holidays these groups organized benefits and parties for the handicapped or needy children.

Local Politics

Local politics were spirited but rarely bitterly partisan, as Republicans continued to hold city offices. The active participation of the Ann Arbor Citizens Council in local issues furthered the city's tradition of responsible government. In general the council's deliberate actions on city ordinances and appropriations provoked little controversy. The institution of parking meters in 1937 was an exception, however.

No one denied that lack of parking forced motorists to circle the block endlessly and reduced business. But opponents argued that the meters could not create additional parking space. Despite vigorous opposition and Mayor Walter C. Sadler's veto, the city council authorized the seemingly exorbitant sum of $15,000 to purchase Ann Arbor's first parking meters. By the end of the decade, their existence was accepted, and the revenues from the meters were used to improve off-street parking for business employees.

During the last three years of the decade Ann Arbor's attention was increasingly drawn beyond local issues. In January 1937 its National Guard unit boarded the train to assist in the unprecedented Flint sit-down strike. With the peaceful settlement of that strike, new hope fueled labor union activity. Although an ensuing wave of sit-down strikes exasperated communities across the nation, labor unions, aided by the Wagner Labor Act, gained a new place in American industry.

Ann Arbor participated in this trend on August 3, 1937, when two-thirds of the 300 workers at the American Broach Company sat down inside the plant. The persuasive intervention of Mayor Sadler, together with an injunction in the hands of Sheriff Jacob B. Andre, removed the strikers to the street. There they maintained a picket until, on the third day, County Prosecutor Albert J. Rapp (wearing a white straw hat) notified the strikers that negotiations between the company and the UAW in Governor Frank Murphy's office had reached an agreement. The strikers moved to a nearby church and peacefully accepted the company's promise to initiate collective bargaining.

International crises also appeared in the headlines. Fighting in Spain and China and the growing power of Hitler and Mussolini threatened American isolation. Debates over neutrality, preparedness, and munitions makers' profits rang out from the Michigan Daily. The rest of the town, however, noted each new development and hoped that the country could avoid the horrors of war without sacrificing the ideals of democracy.

More than ever, at the end of the decade the town's future was inextricably linked to the fate of the nation. With airplanes landing near State Street, with the new streamlined Mercury train whizzing between Detroit and Chicago in four hours, and with two-lane highways penetrating the city, Ann Arbor could not escape being involved in World War II to a greater extent than it had been affected by the Great Depression.

Post-war Boom and Prosperity

The late 1940's and early 1950's brought a postwar boom and inflation to Ann Arbor. In fiscal 1949-50, the city had nearly $2 million in city improvement projects under contract, more than triple the amount of the previous year. On the University campus an eight-story dormitory--"South Quad"--was going up. It was to be the tallest "skyscraper" in the University area. In the spring of 1950 a record city budget was passed even though under its provisions all departments received less than they asked for.

Prosperity was a mixed blessing. As the city grew in size, it also grew more diverse. Diversity brought differences of opinion on the policies the city ought to adopt to insure the best possible life for its residents. Fast disappearing was the tradition of long, unbroken terms for city councilmen and members of the school board.

The most serious dispute at this time occurred between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor over the location of the proposed new courthouse. The bond issue to finance and build it in Ann Arbor was defeated through the determined efforts of an Ypsilanti group which, understandably enough, wanted the courthouse located nearer their city. As a result construction was delayed until 1954 when the building was finally placed at Huron and Main streets in Ann Arbor.

Before television began keeping people in their living rooms, a few old-fashioned pleasures flourished a bit longer. Big time "fast-pitch" softball hit town and Veterans Park often saw crowds of 5,000 for twilight and weekend games. In 1950 Ann Arbor entrant Gerald Long placed sixth nationally in the Soap Box Derby, the best ever for the city. The Farmers' Market, long since moved from its original location when the old courthouse curb could no longer contain all the farmers and their wares, flourished and reminded everyone of the city's original intimate association with the land. And circuses still came to town, and local boys still helped to set them up.

At mid-century the University, long a nationally known institution, had increased its training facilities in engineering and the hard sciences. Its personnel brought attention to bear on national issues. During the Senator Joseph McCarthy investigation, History Professor Preston Slosson confronted Herbert J. Philipps, a communist who had been dismissed from his position as professor of philosophy at the University of Washington. They debated the merits of capitalism versus communism in a South State Street cafeteria. Two thousand people showed up for the 200 available seats.

More important, for the first time in its 130-year history Ann Arbor began to acquire a significant industrial base by the late 1950's. Much of the development was related to the great expansion of engineering and technological activities of the University, begun during the war and continued in the Cold War era. Research-oriented industry began to move into the city. In 1958 Parke Davis built a huge laboratory on the north edge of town and was soon followed by the Bendix Corporation, Conductron, Federal-Mogul, and Climax Molybdenum, among others. A research park on the south side of the city was inaugurated in 1963. In a catch phrase coined by the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce, the city was well on its way to becoming the "Research Center of the Midwest."

The decade of the 1950's saw the development of a vigorous two-party political system in Ann Arbor. Since the war the electorate had usually voted in excess of sixty per cent Republican. In 1953 the Republicans took all fifteen of the city's precincts. Two years later the Democrats took five of the fifteen and captured forty-six per cent of the total vote. Then in 1957 for the first time in twenty-six years, the Democrats took the mayoralty and cut the Republican council majority from 8-3 to 6-5. The 1959 city election saw the Republican recapture the mayor's post and regain their 8-3 council superiority. This seesaw pattern continued with the Democrats slowly acquiring a higher and higher percentage of the vote. In 1969 they captured the mayor's position and a council majority and in 1971 re-elected the mayor. The advent of student voting and the establishment in 1970 of a radical third party, the Human Rights Party, modified this pattern and left the city with a plurality government.

The '50's were most notable, however, for stilling the summer threnody sustained in newspaper reports of successive victims of infantile paralysis. On Monday, April 12, 1955, at 10:20 a.m., everything in Ann Arbor came to a standstill. Sixth graders at Angell Elementary School, knowing only that something big was happening, sat in uncomprehending silence as a medical report was piped over the PA into their room. Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, had directed the field testing program for the Salk polio vaccine. As the world listened, he gave an immensely detailed account of its results. His message was clear: the vaccine was eighty to ninety per cent effective in preventing the disease. The news made headlines and pictures on front pages all over the world.

The basic research had been carried out by Dr. Jonas Salk at Pittsburgh. Salk had been a student of Francis at The University of Michigan several years before. The National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis had supported the work for several years beginning in the late 1940's. All their efforts culminated in the year-long field testing program. Between April 26 and June 15, 1952, over 1,080,000 children received shots, one-third of them injected with a placebo. Throughout the summer records were kept on the characteristics of those stricken and the results tabulated and made public for the first time only as Dr. Francis spoke.

Prior to that year polio had struck up to 40,000 people each year, most of them children. Within the next seven years the disease was all but eradicated. In 1954 there were 24.8 cases per 100,000 population. By 1961 the incidence was down to 0.7 cases per 100,000.

From Protest to Outer Space

The 1960's in Ann Arbor opened on a bizarre note. In September 1959 Chhen Guan Lim, a University engineering student from Singapore, was discovered hiding in the loft of the Methodist Church at the corner of State and Huron streets. The live-in caretakers, disturbed by footsteps in the night and plagued by church groups' complaints of stolen food, had asked police aid. Once captured, Lim left a national audience dumb-founded by his tale. Humiliated by failing grades in November 1955, he destroyed all his personal identification papers and retreated to an uninsulated crawl-space beneath the church roof. For the next forty-six months, he had left his refuge only at night to forage for food.

As Lim emerged, the 1960's, characterized by extremes of experience, burst upon the city. Years of conscientious civic effort were rewarded when in 1967 Ann Arbor was named an All-American City for the quality of its life and the efforts of its inhabitants to improve that quality. Very nearly at the same time, the city was engulfed by macabre national publicity surrounding the hunt and trial of murderer John Norman Collins.

Long years of behind-the-scenes research and development were rewarded as Ann Arbor people and companies received praise and publicity for their contributions to America's space program. Several of the astronauts received training at The University of Michigan. Included were Gemini astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White for whom the corner of East and South University streets was named. White was later killed in a training accident. Apollo 15 astronauts James B. Irwin, David R. Scott, and Alfred M. Worden left a University of Michigan Alumni Chapter of the Moon charter on the moon. During the summer and fall of 1973, Ann Arbor High and University of Michigan graduate Jack Lousma spent nearly two months aboard the U. S. space laboratory "Skylab," and set a space-walking record.

Fulfilling Charles Ziegler's prediction, Ann Arbor was now completely "belted" by freeways, east, northwest, and south, and increasingly associated with the southeastern Michigan megalopolis. At the same time internal city life became more fractured. Presenting city government with an unusual threat to its authority, neighborhoods organized as pressure groups to protect their interests against what they saw as an indifferent municipal bureaucracy.

Parallel to national trends, the African-American community of Ann Arbor began to raise a concerted voice for a greater share of the opportunities of life in the city. In an unusual move, the African-American Economic Development League received "reparations" from all the city's churches. The funds have been used in a variety of ways to benefit local African-American citizens. One of the most recent innovations has been the awarding of scholarships to African-American youngsters to attend Washtenaw Community College. Other prominent African-American residents have committed a great amount of time and energy to the city's housing commission, charged with insuring the less affluent citizens of Ann Arbor suitable living quarters.

Too often in the '60's what began as deep, rational commitment was overtaken by mass frivolity. On March 24, 1965, as public frustration over the Vietnam War increased, the nation's first "teach-in" was organized at The University of Michigan. Utilizing films, discussion groups, and speakers, many sessions lasted all night in an effort to develop a coherent anti-war position. Later mass rallies and their support of "trashing" or the digging of "bomb craters" to rock music were sad declensions from the original. Serious attempts at creating "alternate life styles" were deflected by the publicity given hair length and increasingly bizarre tastes in clothing. Organized religions experienced sincere pietistic movements, such as the Word of God community in Ann Arbor. Many other seekers found solace in complete submersion into exotic Eastern religions.

There was a pervasive sense in the 1960's of constant remodeling and fabrication. The football team began wearing rubber cleats to play on plastic grass in old Michigan Stadium, and the trackmen ran on rubberized asphalt at Ferry Field. The railroad station, no longer really functional, was turned into a seafood restaurant where a discarded and refurbished baggage wagon served as a stationary salad bar. Good humored guests soon adopted the tradition of applauding the occasional train that came through or, more rarely, stopped. Ann Arbor compensated for the permanent loss of its rural heritage by recreating natural beauty within sculptured recreation areas. The city began to purchase properties along the Huron River in 1965. By 1973 park land, created by new dams and joined by bike paths, stretched almost unbroken along the river from the old canoe livery on the north to the new Huron Parkway Bridge on the east.

Progress and Preservation

Despite the uproar of the 1960's, underneath it all was a steady serious beat. Ann Arbor was a nationally important center of learning and opinion. Adlai Stevenson spoke from the steps of the Michigan Union in 1952. In 1960 two presidential candidates, both of whom eventually became presidents, visited Ann Arbor. Senator John F. Kennedy, hoping to harness the latent idealism he sensed in his youthful supporters, announced at the Michigan Union at 2:00 a.m., October 14, that if elected he would create a "Peace Corps" and send volunteer workers around the globe. A week later, Richard Nixon stopped his campaign train at the Michigan Central Depot and a crowd of 15,000 gave him a warm welcome. Four years later, on a hot May graduation day, President Lyndon Johnson spoke to a crowd of 80,000 in the Michigan Stadium. In perhaps the most important policy speech he ever made, the President unveiled to the graduates and a world-wide audience his plan for the "Great Society." He expressed his hope that a growing impulse for social change and greater equality of opportunity for all might fulfill the age-old promise of America.

All in all, the city responded well to the increased tensions of the '60's. Between 1940 and 1950, Ann Arbor's population increased from 30,000 to 48,000 without too much strain. Between 1950 and 1960 another 19,000 people were added to the city. Stress became evident through the 1960's as the population grew toward the 100,000 mark. By 1965 the University was enrolling 30,000 students. In 1970 the city had two high schools, each enrolling more than 2,000 students and participating in an intense sports rivalry.

Building furiously, Ann Arbor had acquired its first shopping center by 1965 and 9,000 apartment units at the same time. The spring of that year, high-rise construction totalled $21 million and forever changed the city's skyline. Although Ann Arbor was still a town of trees--and enormously proud of the flowering crabs on Awixa--a number of eighteen- to twenty-story buildings poked through the foliage. University Towers, Riverside Park Apartments, and the University's Physics and Astronomy Building joined venerable Burton Memorial Tower. Traffic became an even greater problem and the parking structure a common sight. With the return of Rose Bowl football teams at the turn of the decade, fall Saturdays became even more hectic. A massive regional shopping center, Briarwood, was under construction on the south-west side when this book went into press.

As the city neared its 150th anniversary, it turned its attention to its historic landscape and moved to preserve some of its visual heritage. The Ann Arbor program of preservation is commendable for its twin emphasis on those few aesthetically superior homes of the wealthy as well as the more numerous and modest homes of the working middle classes. In 1971 the Ann Arbor Historical Commission proposed and saw adopted a municipal preservation ordinance. Two years later the ordinance was used for the first time to create a historic neighborhood at Division and Ann streets encompassing four lovely old homes and Ann Arbor's oldest standing church. Previously the commission had purchased and restored the Bennett-Kempf House, a few hundred yards to the south, and made it a living museum of early city history.

The Old West Side Association, encouraged by a local architectural firm specializing in historical restoration, convinced the National Register of Historic Places for the first time that an area, rather than a single structure, could also qualify as a historic trust. The Old West Side is composed of modest late nineteenth and early twentieth century homes in which primarily German working class residents of Ann Arbor lived. The Old West Side has had the beneficial side effect of spawning a host of small shops and businesses in adjacent areas. Around the nearby Farmers' Market are the beginnings of an "Old Town," in conception and direction much like similar areas in Chicago, Cincinnati, and other major cities.

The landmarks of the 1820's and '30's in Ann Arbor are gone, without trace or photograph. Elisha Rumsey's "good framed house," the first such in the village, has long since disappeared from the corner of Huron and First streets. The county courthouse--surrounded by traffic--stands where John Allen once grew vegetables. Yet, the city's long-standing commitment to open parkland and the protection of its trees, coupled with the recent interest in historical restoration will, as the stately homes pictured in the last of these pages demonstrate, allow Ann Arbor to age gracefully.

Epilogue

If there is a theme in Ann Arbor's history, a persistent preoccupation of its citizens, perhaps it is a shared concern for the character of the town. The settlers and subsequent inhabitants of Ann Arbor are not unique in this cast of mind. The Pilgrims and Puritans were determined to construct the perfect society based on their understanding of Biblical precedent. Dissatisfied participants were encouraged to leave established villages, move a reasonable distance away, and organize their own settlements. Long after the religious content of such separations had evaporated, the tradition of moving on to more congenial surroundings remained.

John Allen was a participant and contributor to this restless tendency. His motives in platting "Annarbour" were personal and mercenary. Yet linking his wife's name with a synonym for a cultivated garden by its very sentimentality suggests Allen thought of a town as a safe haven, as did many others. Lucy Morgan's boosterism is produced without ulterior motive; her "modest" fortune took shape some twenty-nine years after she penned her initial favorable description of the village. One remembers also the Silver Greys demonstrating, symbolically, their desire for a safe, secure place to live.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the next, management of society became the specific concern of people history has labelled "reformers." To Ann Arbor's reform mayor Samuel Beakes, the security of the town's citizens was best assured under a city government run by specialists accountable to the public. Ann Arbor's pre-WWI "moral reformers" were part of a nation-wide movement to refurbish America. The rhetoric accompanying their activities suggests a seventeenth-century heritage as well as a continuing American tradition. The campaign against the fly is to insure "the ideal human environment" in a "City with a Conscience."

The commission completed by the Olmsted Brothers after WWI to draw up a master plan for the city is part and parcel of this "conscience." Despite its overemphasis on exclusive residential districts, the report did stress a long-acknowledged relationship between trees, grass, and quiet and contented human beings. Moreover, the report, simply by its very existence, provided assurance that the integrity of the town was being rationally defended. The town's extraordinary response to the early years of the Great Depression indicates that a sense of community responsibility was still strong.

All this is not to deny actual and potential conflict within Ann Arbor. Scarcely disguised ethnic animosities were all too prevalent during the First World War. Moreover, since 1940 it has been less common to speak of the community of Ann Arbor than it has to refer to the communities which make up Ann Arbor. Today, we have the African-American community and the University community as well as any number of neighborhood communities.

There are signs, however, that Ann Arbor's communities, which insisted during the sixties that they be recognized as autonomous cultures, have rediscovered an old pleasure. Immense good will was both the initiator and product of the city's first annual ethnic fair which celebrated the virtues of diversity. The public schools have moved quietly and effectively to create an atmosphere of intercultural affection with their increased emphasis on the fact that diversity is normal and indeed necessary for a healthy society. Thought permanently lost a decade ago, the traditional American sense of community seems to be reasserting itself in Ann Arbor.