Ann Arbor is a city and county seat of Washtenaw County,
Michigan, United States. The city is located on the Huron River
about 40 miles west of Detroit. 123,851 people (as of the 2020
census) live on a total area of 71.7 km² (of which 70 km² is
land and 1.7 km² is water), which corresponds to a population
density of 1769 inhabitants/km², making Ann Arbor the sixth
largest city in Michigan.
Ann Arbor is decisively shaped
by the University of Michigan, which is located in the center of
the city and around which numerous research institutes, such as
those of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, have settled. The
university and its affiliated hospitals are by far the city's
largest employer, and Michigan Stadium, home of the Michigan
Wolverines football team, is the largest seated stadium in the
United States and the third largest in the world. The name of
the city is also internationally known for the Ann Arbor model
of empirical election research developed by social scientists at
the University of Michigan in the 1950s and for the Ann Arbor
classification of Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin that was created in
1971 and is recognized worldwide -Lymphoma.
Sights
Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey,
both of whom bought land in the area and hoped for growth. The Great
Lakes area saw its first major migration from the east coast during this
period, as the Erie Canal was under construction and was completed in
1825. On May 25, 1824 the place was registered within Wayne County under
the name "Annarbour" for the first time. Founders Allen and Rumsey named
the site after their wives, both of whom had the first name Ann, and an
oak grove that was located on 260 acres of land they purchased from the
US federal government for $800.
In 1827, Ann Arbor (as it was
then spelled) became the county seat of Washtenaw County, and in 1833 it
was incorporated as a village. When in 1835 the US state of Ohio and the
US territory of Michigan came to conflict over a strip of territory that
included the city of Toledo - the Toledo War - a meeting of
representatives of the Michigan territory came together in September of
that year Ann Arbor together. She turned down US President Andrew
Jackson's offer to make Michigan a state on condition that Toledo be
ceded to Ohio in exchange for Michigan receiving part of the Upper
Peninsula (then considered worthless). As the conflict subsequently
smoldered, another congregation convened in Ann Arbor in December 1836
(the so-called "Frostbitten Convention," i.e., "Frostbitten
Congregation"), which accepted the offer.
In 1837, when Michigan
was incorporated into the United States as the 26th state, a site
belonging to the site was designated as the seat of the University of
Michigan. In 1839 the Michigan Central Railroad reached the town, which
subsequently became an important transport hub on the route from Toledo.
As part of the controversy over the slave issue in the United
States, Ann Arbor became an important center for abolitionists. In
November 1836 the Michigan Antislavery Society was founded in Ann Arbor
and from April 1841 appeared here, edited e.g. by Rev. Guy Beckley, the
abolitionist newspaper Signal of Liberty. Accordingly, Ann Arbor became
a key station on the Underground Railroad, the network that helped
slaves from the South flee north and often on to Canada. After the end
of the American Civil War (1861-1865), numerous blacks from neighboring
Canadian Ontario returned to Michigan and settled e.g. also in Ann
Arbor.
After the civil war, the population of the place increased
only slowly, and it was only from the 1880s that there was strong growth
due to immigration from e.g. Germany, Canada, Greece, Italy, Russia and
Poland. During the 19th century, a particularly large number of Swabians
emigrated to Ann Arbor. The first Lutheran church in Michigan was
founded in 1833 by Friedrich Schmid near Ann Arbor.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a good third of Ann Arbor's
population was of German or German-speaking descent, and there were
numerous German-speaking clubs, churches, publications, and businesses.
This changed radically with the First World War, when there was
pronounced anti-German propaganda in the USA before and with the entry
into the war in 1917. As a result, numerous German-born professors at
the University of Michigan were dismissed, most German-language
publications were discontinued and German associations and companies
were renamed. After the end of the First World War, as part of the Great
Migration, more and more Afro-Americans, who mostly immigrated from the
so-called Deep South of the USA, settled in and around Ann Arbor.
During World War II, a Ford-operated factory, the Willow Run
Factory, was built near Ann Arbor to produce B-24 Liberator bombers.
Over 8600 machines were manufactured here. After aircraft production
ended in 1945, the Kaiser Motors car company took over the plant.
In 1960, during the US presidential election, both candidates, John
F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, made important speeches in Ann Arbor. On
October 14, 1960, Kennedy announced his proposal to form a Peace Corps
in front of the Michigan Union building. On May 22, 1964, President
Lyndon B. Johnson introduced his Great Society initiative at a speech
for graduate students from the University of Michigan.
During the
1960s, Ann Arbor, and its university in particular, became an important
site for the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War initiatives. In
1960, the first major meeting of the Students for a Democratic Society
took place at the University of Michigan, and in 1968 the White Panther
Party was founded in An Arbor, which, based on the Black Panther Party,
campaigned radically for social change. In June 1969, demonstrators and
police rioted around the university. On December 10, 1971, before a
crowd of 15,000, John Lennon and Yoko Ono led the "Free John Now Rally"
at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena, demanding and three days later securing
the release of anarchist John Sinclair. In the 1970s, the Human Rights
Party, joined by John Sinclair and other members of the White Panther
Party, gained influence in and around Ann Arbor. At times, the party
provided two members of the city council. Under pressure from the Human
Rights Party, Ann Arbor legalized the private possession of small
amounts of marijuana and passed an anti-discrimination policy. A party
councilwoman, Nancy Wechsler, declared in 1972 that she was a lesbian -
making her the first openly gay elected official in the United States.
During the 1960s and 1970s, numerous important rock and pop
musicians and bands, including the MC5, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, George
Clinton, Bob Seger, and Mitch Ryder, came from or lived in Ann Arbor.
Madonna attended university in the late 1970s.
Ann Arbor has a
total of 37 structures and sites listed on the National Register of
Historic Places as of March 1, 2020, including the Michigan Theater.
According to data from the United States Census Bureau, the city's
area is 74.33 km², of which 72.08 km² is land and 2.25 km² is water. Ann
Arbor is located about 35 miles west of Detroit on the Huron River.
The metropolitan area is slightly hilly, ranging from 230 to 300 m.
The metropolitan area has 158 small and large parks, including several
larger municipal parks and a university park along the Huron River,
including the university's Nichols Arboretum, which houses 49 .7
hectares hundreds of plant and tree species can be seen. Major shopping
centers are located downtown in the Kerrytown area (which also has a
farmer's market) and along State Street. Further out is the Briarwood
Mall. The tallest building is Tower Plaza, built in 1969.
Outside
of the city center, the urban area and surrounding area was determined
by agriculture until after the end of the Second World War. Mainly
wheat, oats, barley and potatoes were grown on the fertile soil. There
was also fruit growing, especially apples and peaches, as well as dairy
farming and cow, pig, sheep and horse breeding. Due to the growth and
the expansion of the infrastructure after the war, the farms gradually
disappeared from the 1940s and many agricultural areas were built over.
The nearest large city is Detroit, which is 56 km east of Ann Arbor,
and the nearest megacity is Chicago, 324 km west of the city. Lansing,
the state capital of Michigan, is 52 miles northwest of Ann Arbor. Other
nearby cities include Ypsilanti, whose metropolitan area has now merged
with Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids, 130 miles northwest of Ann Arbor.
Flint is 81.5 km north, Toledo 70 km south and Windsor in Canada 72 km
east.
Ann Arbor has a boreal, fully humid continental climate typical of
the American Midwest (effective climate classification Dfa), which is
influenced by the surrounding Great Lakes. The four seasons are clearly
demarcated with cold winters with light to heavy snowfall and very hot
and humid summers; Spring and autumn are both short and mild. The Lake
Effect prevails in the Ann Arbor area, causing heavy cloud formation,
especially in the fall and winter.
In July, the average
temperature is 23.1 °C, in January -4.2 °C. The temperature reaches or
exceeds 32 °C on ten days of the year, while falling to or below −18 °C
at night on 4.6 days. The amount of precipitation is usually highest in
summer, while precipitation is most common in winter. Snow falls mainly
between November and April; the average rainfall is 147 cm per winter.
The lowest temperature ever measured was −30.3 °C on February 11, 1885,
the highest temperature ever measured 40.5 °C on July 24, 1934.
Tornadoes are rare in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area, but they do
occur. According to data from the TornadoHistoryProject, 27 tornadoes
struck Washtenaw County between 1951 and 2012, killing two and injuring
63. One of the deadliest tornadoes hit the Ann Arbor area in 1917,
completely destroying the village of Delhi, which was home to numerous
industries. Today the former territory of the village is a park.
According to the 2010 Census, Ann Arbor was home to 113,394 people in
45,634 households, including 21,704 families. The population density was
2653.47/km². The racial makeup of the city's population, according to
census categories, was 73.0% White (70.4% non-Hispanic White), 7.7%
African American, 0.3% Native American, 14.4% Asian American, 1.0 %
Other and 3.6% declared themselves to belong to two or more ethnic
groups. Hispanics or Latinos made up 4.1% of the population.
In
the 2000 census, 14.9% of respondents indicated they were of German
ancestry, 8.5% indicated English and 7.9% Irish ancestry. Of those
surveyed, 79.2% said English was spoken at home. Other languages
mentioned were Chinese (3.2%), Spanish (3.1%), Korean (1.2%), German
(1.2%), Japanese (1.1%) and French (1%). The size and importance of the
University of Michigan means that Ann Arbor has one of the highest
proportions of the population in the United States who were born outside
the country at 17.4%.
The average household income was US$ 46,299
and for families US$ 71,293. Men earned an average of US$48,880 and
women US$36,561. About 4.6% of families (16.6% of residents) lived below
the poverty line.
The level of education in Ann Arbor is high.
According to data from the American Community Survey (2009-2013), 41.7%
of the population have a college degree with a bachelor's, master's, or
doctoral degree, 28.9% have a bachelor's degree, and 4.6% have an
associate's degree (e.g., from a community college).
In Washtenaw County, 33.4% of the population belonged to a religious community in 2000 (US average 50.2%). Of these, 38.7% were Catholics, 27.6% Protestants, 19.4% Evangelicals, 6.5% Jews, 4.5% Muslims, 0.8% Orthodox and 0.7% Mormons.
Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor holds about as many spectators as the
city has inhabitants and is one of the largest sports stadiums in the
world. The city's museums include the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the
Exhibit Museum of Natural History, the University of Michigan Museum of
Art (UMMA), and the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.
Since 1969, Ann
Arbor has also been known for the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival,
which takes place there almost every year, as well as for the Ann Arbor
Art Fair since the 1960s.
In 2015, MCity, a proving ground on the
university's North campus for autonomous driving, opened.
The
Detroit Observatory is located there.
Richard Newbold Adams (1924–2018), anthropologist and professor at
the University of Texas at Austin
Ian T. Baldwin (born 1958),
ecologist
Eve Beglarian (born 1958), composer, performance artist,
and audio producer
Robert Eric Betzig (born 1960), physicist, 2014
Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
William J. Bouwsma (1923–2004),
historian
Rudolf Ernst Brünnow (1858–1917), orientalist
Ian Cole
(born 1989), ice hockey player
Monica Coleman (born 1974), author and
theologian
Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929), sociologist
Andrew
Copp (born 1994), ice hockey player
Caleb Curtis (born 1985), jazz
musician
Arthur C. Danto (1924–2013), philosopher and art critic
Denise Donovan (born 1986), actress and dancer
Jad Fair (born 1954),
musician and artist
Lee Fisher (born 1951), politician
Joshua
Gamson (born 1962), author and sociologist
Deborah Garrison (born
1965), poet
Constance McLaughlin Green (1897–1975), historian
Jeff
Gross (born 1986), poker player
Charles F. Haanel (1866–1949), writer
Ali Haji-Sheikh (born 1961), football player
Jim Harbaugh (born
1963), football player and coach
Mayer Hawthorne (born 1979),
musician
Dave Hildinger (born 1928), musician
Douglas Huebler
(1924–1997), conceptual artist
Gary Hutzel (1955–2016), special
effects artist
Steven Kampfer (born 1988), ice hockey player
Lawrence Katz (born 1959), economist
Chris Kolb (born 1958),
politician
John D. Kraus (1910–2004), physicist
Aaron Krickstein
(born 1967), former tennis player
Frederica de Laguna (1906–2004),
pioneer anthropologist and archeologist of Alaska
Anya Marina (born
1976), singer-songwriter
Ann Marshall (born 1957), swimmer
Dean
McLaughlin (born 1931), science fiction writer
Austin Nichols (born
1980), actor
John Francis O'Hara (1888–1960), Archbishop of
Philadelphia and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
Jeff Petry
(born 1987), ice hockey player
Alvin Plantinga (born 1932),
theologian and philosopher of religion
Ken Read (born 1955), alpine
skier
Raoul Rodriguez (born 1963), rower
Brian Schatz (born 1972),
politician, Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii
Rajiv Shah (born 1973),
medic and civil servant
Patrick Sieloff (born 1994), ice hockey
player
Gene Sperling (born 1958), economist, head of the National
Economic Council
Kent Steffes (born 1968), beach volleyball player,
Olympic gold medalist
Colin Stetson (born 1975), jazz musician
Gerald F Tape (1915–2005), physicist
Samuel Chao Chung Ting (born
1936), physicist
James Toney (born 1968), world boxing champion
Martha Vickers (1925–1971), actress
Kenneth Waltz (1924–2013),
political scientist
Austin Watson (born 1992), ice hockey player
Thomas Huckle Weller (1915–2008), bacteriologist, virologist and
parasitologist
Robert G. Wetzel (1936–2005), limnologist
Grace Lee
Whitney (1930–2015), actress
Evan Zhu (born 1998), tennis player