49 Fun Facts About Ann Arbor

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

John Allen and Elisha Rumsey were both escaping money troubles when they met in January 1824; within weeks they had bought 640 acres of federal land for $800 and laid out a town.

By tradition, the 'Ann' in Ann Arbor honours what?

The founders' wives, both named Ann, get the credit in most tellings, but historian Russell Bidlack argued that the name honours only one of them: the other wife's middle name was Ann, and she was not called by it.

The 'Arbor' in Ann Arbor's name refers to groves of which tree?

Bur oak. In Virginia, where one founder grew up, 'arbour' meant a bower of trees, which suited the sunshine and shadow under the scattered oaks; local historians call the wild-grape arbor tale a myth.

Ann Arbor is the seat of which Michigan county?

Washtenaw. The speculators' brand-new village was picked for the county seat, a choice that all but guaranteed the young town would last.

Which city ranked second in Michigan in the 2020 census, three places above Ann Arbor?

Grand Rapids. It counted 198,917 people to Ann Arbor's 123,851, which was still enough for fifth place and well clear of Flint, a city that had outnumbered Ann Arbor as recently as 2000.

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

Lansing. It was still wilderness when lawmakers picked it in 1847 as a compromise, after Ann Arbor, Jackson and other established towns had all lobbied for the prize.

The University of Michigan began in which city before moving to Ann Arbor in 1837?

Detroit. It was founded there in 1817 as the 'Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania', and moved after Ann Arbor offered 40 acres of land for a campus.

Which insect killed thousands of Ann Arbor's trees after 2002?

Emerald ash borer. Ash trees it killed were built into a new Ann Arbor library branch, with trunks stripped of bark so that visitors can see the beetle's tracks.

Which river runs through Ann Arbor?

Huron. Ann Arbor draws drinking water from the river and runs four dams on it, two of which generate hydroelectric power.

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

Domino's. When steelworkers building the complex in 1984 rang a Domino's store for pizza, they were told it was outside the delivery area, so rival Little Caesars fed them instead.

Tom Monaghan and his brother bought their first pizza shop in 1960 in which town next to Ann Arbor?

Ypsilanti. Within about eight months James wanted out, so Tom bought his brother's half of the shop with the Volkswagen they used for deliveries.

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

Borders grew from one small Ann Arbor shop into a pioneer of the big-box bookstore, then was undone in the e-reader era: its last 399 stores were liquidated in 2011.

Which Ann Arbor eatery was days from opening in 1982 as Greenberg's when another Greenberg claimed the name?

Zingerman's. With days to go, founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig sat down with six-packs and phone books, hunting for a Jewish-sounding name that began with A or Z.

What is the central open space of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus called?

The Diag. Students and professors cutting from corner to corner of the open ground wore diagonal paths across it, and the main path's nickname spread to the whole space.

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

Gerald Ford played centre for Michigan and had offers from two NFL teams, the Lions and the Packers, but took a coaching job at Yale, where he later studied law.

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

Michigan Union. Kennedy never said 'Peace Corps' on the steps: he asked how many future doctors would spend their days in Ghana, and gave the idea its name only later.

Michigan Stadium's official capacity ends in a '1', an extra seat said to honour which namesake of Michigan's basketball arena?

Fritz Crisler. As athletic director he oversaw the expansion to 101,001 seats in the 1950s, and every official capacity since has kept his odd seat, though nobody knows where it is.

What is Michigan Stadium's nickname?

The Big House was built in 1927 as a 72,000-seat stadium that could grow past 100,000, because Fielding Yost foresaw crowds of up to 150,000.

Which team beat the Red Wings in a shootout at Michigan Stadium in the 2014 NHL Winter Classic?

Toronto Maple Leafs. They won 3-2 and set an NHL attendance record of 105,491, a year late: the game was first set for New Year's Day 2013 and lost to a lockout.

Michigan Stadium was formally dedicated in October 1927 with a win over which rival?

Ohio State. Michigan won, five years after spoiling the dedication of the Buckeyes' own stadium; the true first game had come three weeks earlier, a 33-0 win over Ohio Wesleyan.

In 2013, a crowd of 115,109, then an NCAA record, filled Michigan Stadium for a game against which team?

Notre Dame. The record stood until 2016, when 156,990 people watched Tennessee play Virginia Tech on a field laid inside a NASCAR track, Bristol Motor Speedway.

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

Hash Bash began as a celebration of the campaign that freed John Sinclair, the local activist sentenced to ten years in prison over two marijuana joints.

The Ann Arbor Art Fair fills the downtown streets with artists' booths each year in which month?

July. The first fair, in 1960, was a sideshow to the merchants' Summer Bargain Days: volunteers strung wire between parking meters on South University for 132 artists.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival, founded in 1963, is North America's oldest festival of what kind of film?

Experimental. Filmmakers who screened early work at the festival include Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant and George Lucas.

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

Fairy doors first turned up inside the home of illustrator Jonathan B. Wright; in April 2005 one appeared outside a downtown coffee shop, and he has played their 'fairyologist' ever since.

Endover, the 2,400 lb steel sculpture on U-M's campus that spins at a gentle push, has what shape?

A cube. Sculptor Tony Rosenthal, a 1936 Michigan graduate, stood it on one corner over a pivot sunk into the ground, which is why more than a ton of steel turns so easily.

Tony Rosenthal's spinning sculpture at U-M was commissioned after residents of which city petitioned to keep its twin, Alamo?

New York. Alamo was meant to move from Astor Place to Ann Arbor after six months, but locals petitioned to keep it, so Michigan's class of 1965 commissioned a new one instead.

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

The Stooges made their debut at a Halloween party in 1967, when they were still calling themselves the Psychedelic Stooges.

Before he became a punk frontman, Iggy Pop played which instrument in his Ann Arbor high-school band, the Iguanas?

Drums. Jim Osterberg kept time for the Iguanas through high school, and the band's name gave him the nickname that became his stage name, 'Iggy'.

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

Students for a Democratic Society held its first meeting at the University of Michigan in 1960 and elected Alan Haber president; two years later Tom Hayden drafted its famous manifesto.

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

Human Rights Party. Its two councillors, elected in 1972, could not legalise marijuana under state law, so they settled for the next best thing: a $5 fine for possession.

A well-worn local joke describes Ann Arbor as a few square miles 'surrounded by' what?

Reality. The line pokes at the college town's left-leaning politics, like its other tongue-in-cheek nickname, 'The People's Republic of Ann Arbor'; the number of square miles changes with the teller.

Which Ann Arbor software startup did Cisco buy for $2.35 billion in 2018?

Duo Security. Founders Dug Song and Jon Oberheide started it in 2010 to make secure logins simple, and kept the headquarters in Ann Arbor after the sale.

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

Albert Kahn worked with acoustical engineer Hugh Tallant on Hill Auditorium, a hall built around its sound that has hosted everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Bob Marley.

Which Ann Arbor movie palace was saved from demolition in the 1970s?

Michigan Theater. The volunteer organists who had brought its silent-film organ back to life led the fight that stopped the building being turned into a food court.

Nichols Arboretum, 'the Arb', is known for its century-old garden of which flower?

Peonies. The garden began in 1922, when William Upjohn, founder of the Kalamazoo drug company, gave the university his own collection; 196 of his varieties still grow there.

As of 2025, what is the tallest building in Ann Arbor?

Tower Plaza. When the 26-storey block was proposed in 1965, the city council answered by debating an 18-storey height limit, and no later building in the city has risen above it.

Which Ann Arbor neighbourhood, settled largely by German immigrants, became a national historic district in 1972?

Old West Side. Neighbours organised in 1967 to stop a block of its houses being replaced with apartments, and five years later the whole district was on the National Register.

Which camera maker, whose brick-shaped C3 sold over two million, began in 1931 as an Ann Arbor radio company?

Argus. Radios sold poorly every summer, so the International Radio Corporation launched a cheap 35 mm camera in 1936 to fill the gap, and the sideline soon took over the company.

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

The Wolverine. Its trains no longer call at the city's grand 1886 stone depot: the railroad sold the building in 1970 to a restaurateur, who turned it into the Gandy Dancer.

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

Jonas Salk left Michigan for Pittsburgh in 1947, but the verdict on his polio vaccine was delivered in Ann Arbor: his old mentor Thomas Francis ran the trial and announced there in 1955 that it worked.

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

The Michigan Daily. The playwright Arthur Miller wrote for it as a journalism student in the 1930s, years before Death of a Salesman made his name.

KMS Fusion, a private Ann Arbor company, spent the 1970s trying to ignite tiny fusion fuel pellets with what?

Lasers. Founder Kip Siegel, a former Michigan professor, bet his own company on laser fusion, then the only privately funded effort of its kind in the United States.

Which rocker's 1977 hit 'Mainstreet' looks back on his teenage years in Ann Arbor?

Bob Seger. The street he had in mind was Ann Street, just off Main, where as a boy he would stand outside a smoky blues club to listen to the band.

In March 1965, University of Michigan professors opposed to the Vietnam War invented which kind of all-night campus protest?

The teach-in. The professors had first called a one-day strike; when the governor and legislators objected, they kept their classes and taught about the war all night instead.

Which automotive magazine moved its headquarters to Ann Arbor in the late 1970s?

Car and Driver. The editor who led the move, David E Davis Jr, walked out in the mid-1980s, took some of the staff with him and started a rival magazine, Automobile, in the same city.

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

Tübingen. The 1965 partnership honours Ann Arbor's Swabian roots: most of its 19th-century German settlers came from villages around Stuttgart, a short way north of the town.

Which Michigan architect, who once studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, designed Ann Arbor's city hall?

Alden B. Dow, the son of Dow Chemical's founder, turned his back on the family business for architecture after a teenage trip to Japan, and spent the summer of 1933 at Wright's Taliesin studio.

In 2003, Ann Arbor voters approved a tax to create what around the city?

A greenbelt. The city pays farmers on its edge for the development rights to their fields, so the land stays in farming and cannot be sold off for subdivisions.