50 Fun Facts About Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by which two land speculators?

They paid $800 for 640 acres of federal land at $1.25 an acre.

The 'Ann' in Ann Arbor honours what?

The 'Arbor' refers to the stands of bur oak on the founders' land.

The 'Arbor' part of the name refers to groves of which tree?

The Ojibwa called the settlement kaw-goosh-kaw-nick, after the sound of Allen's sawmill.

Ann Arbor is the seat of which Michigan county?

It became county seat in 1827 and was chartered as a city in 1851.

With about 123,851 residents in 2020, Ann Arbor ranked where among Michigan's most populous cities?

It is the principal city of its own metro area and part of the Detroit combined statistical area.

Ann Arbor lost a bid to become Michigan's state capital to which city?

The 40 acres set aside for a capitol went instead to the University of Michigan in 1837.

In what year did the University of Michigan move to Ann Arbor?

It had been founded in Detroit in 1817 and is the oldest university in the state.

Ann Arbor's nickname 'Tree Town' reflects roughly how many street trees?

The emerald ash borer wiped out many of its 10,500 ash trees in the early 2000s.

Which river runs through Ann Arbor?

The Border-to-Border Trail follows it to the neighbouring city to the east.

Which pizza chain is headquartered at a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired complex just outside Ann Arbor?

Its founder Tom Monaghan also started a Catholic law school in the city before moving it to Florida.

The Monaghan brothers took over DomiNick's pizzeria in 1960 in which town next to Ann Arbor?

The original owner would not let them keep the DomiNick's name, so it was renamed in 1965.

Which bookstore chain was founded in Ann Arbor in 1971 by two brothers?

Kmart bought it in 1992; the chain was liquidated in 2011 and its name went to Barnes & Noble.

Zingerman's Delicatessen, founded in 1982, was originally going to be named after what?

'Greenberg's' was dropped after another business objected, and Zingerman's grew into a bakehouse, creamery and roadhouse.

Ann Arbor ranks first among US cities for what per capita?

It is also home to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

Which US president's presidential library is in Ann Arbor?

Ford graduated from Michigan in 1935 and used 'The Victors' instead of 'Hail to the Chief' as his entrance music.

On the steps of which Ann Arbor building did JFK first float the Peace Corps in a 2 a.m. speech?

The date was October 14, 1960; a plaque marks the spot.

Michigan Stadium's official capacity is what?

It has hosted crowds over 115,000 and is the largest American football stadium in the world.

What is Michigan Stadium's nickname?

It opened in 1927 with a capacity of 72,000 and footings built for future expansion.

Which two NHL teams played the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium before a record crowd of 105,491?

The same year a Real Madrid v Manchester United friendly there drew 109,318, a US soccer record.

Michigan Stadium's first game, in October 1927, was against which opponent?

Michigan won 33-0; the formal dedication came three weeks later against Ohio State.

The 2013 Michigan v Notre Dame game set an NCAA single-game record with what attendance?

It beat the previous record of 114,804, set two years earlier by the same matchup.

What is Ann Arbor's annual cannabis rally, held on the first Saturday of April, called?

The first one, on April 1 of its founding year, followed a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that freed activist John Sinclair.

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs, drawing upwards of half a million visitors, are held in which month?

They are actually several concurrent juried fairs; the original dates from 1960.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival (1963) is North America's oldest festival of what kind of film?

It is one of a handful of Academy Award-qualifying festivals in the US.

What tiny works of installation art are scattered around downtown Ann Arbor?

They appear on the outsides and insides of shops and are a favourite children's hunt.

Endover, the spinning black steel cube on the U-M campus, is by which sculptor?

A 1936 Michigan graduate, he also made the similar Alamo cube at Astor Place in New York.

Roughly how much does the Endover cube weigh, despite spinning with relative ease?

It measures 15 feet on each side and sits in Regents' Plaza next to the Michigan Union.

Which proto-punk band was formed in Ann Arbor in 1967 by Iggy Pop and the Asheton brothers?

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Iggy Pop got his stage name from which earlier Ann Arbor-area band he drummed in?

His bandmates in the Prime Movers coined the nickname.

Which national left-wing campus group held its first major meetings in Ann Arbor in 1960?

Five years later the city hosted the first US teach-in against the Vietnam War.

Which student-backed 1970s Ann Arbor party won council seats pushing to decriminalise marijuana?

They also fought for antidiscrimination ordinances and rent control.

Locals jokingly call Ann Arbor '25 square miles surrounded by' what?

Other nicknames include A2, 'A-squared', Tree Town and 'The People's Republic of Ann Arbor'.

Long-time Ann Arbor residents call themselves what?

A person from the city is formally an Ann Arborite.

Which Cisco-owned two-factor-authentication firm is headquartered in Ann Arbor?

The city is also home to Internet2, the Merit Network and a Google AdWords office.

Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium, opened in 1913, was designed by which famous Detroit architect?

He set out to build a hall where 5,000 people could hear from every seat; it seats about 3,500.

The Michigan Theater, opened in 1928, still has its original 1927 pipe organ made by which company?

Of about 7,000 theatre organs built, it is one of only about 45 still in their original homes.

Nichols Arboretum, 'the Arb', is famous for North America's largest collection of which heirloom flower?

It opened in 1907 beside the Huron River and hosts Shakespeare in the Arb each June.

What is the tallest building in Ann Arbor?

The 26-storey condominium block towers over a downtown of mostly two- to four-storey buildings.

In which year did Ann Arbor's Old West Side join the National Register of Historic Places?

Its 19th-century streetscape survives virtually intact.

Which Ann Arbor company built the first mass-produced AC/DC set, the Kadette, in 1931?

Two years later it followed with the first pocket radio, the Kadette Jr.

Amtrak's train through Ann Arbor between Chicago and Pontiac is named what?

The old Michigan Central Depot next door became a restaurant in 1970.

Which polio vaccine pioneer served on the University of Michigan faculty?

He worked in Ann Arbor before developing the vaccine whose success was announced there in 1955.

The University's student newspaper, founded in 1890, is called what?

It is editorially and financially independent of the university.

From 1967 to 1990 Ann Arbor hosted KMS, the first company to commercially pursue what?

It closed in 1990 without ever cracking the problem.

Ann Arbor's soccer club, founded 2014, calls itself what?

AFC Ann Arbor plays in the NPSL.

Ann Arbor hosted the first US 'teach-in' against which war, in 1965?

The city was already a hub of New Left activism, having hosted the first major meetings of Students for a Democratic Society in 1960.

Which two car magazines are based in Ann Arbor?

The Ann Arbor News, meanwhile, ended its 174-year daily print run in 2009, reputedly the first significant US city to lose its only daily paper.

Ann Arbor's oldest sister-city link, dating from 1965, is with which German university town?

The city now has eight sister cities, from Belize City and Hikone to Dakar, Remedios in Cuba and, since 2024, Lubny in Ukraine.

Which architect designed Ann Arbor's city hall, approved by a 1960 bond vote and opened in 1963?

It was renamed the Guy C. Larcom Jr. Municipal Building in 1995 after the city administrator who championed it.

In 2003 Ann Arbor voters approved what plan to curb sprawl into the surrounding countryside?

Under the plan the city purchases development rights on agricultural parcels next to the city so they cannot be built over.