Ann Arbor’s neighborhoods were racially segregated until the 1960s. Most Black residents lived in the North-Central and West Side neighborhoods now known as Kerrytown and Water Hill. This area was a former industrial site near the Huron River and the train station. North Fourth and Fifth Avenue, Beakes Street, Depot Street, and Fuller Street had nearly all Black residents, and several families lived on Kingsley Street. The neighborhood also ran up the hill to include Felch, Hiscock, West Summit, Pearl, Sunset, Daniel, Spring, Fountain, Hillcrest, Miner, Gott, and Brooks Streets. This area had about 80% Black residents.
Most realtors would not show houses to Black families outside the North-Central area. Some mortgage contracts in other subdivisions prevented owners from selling to non-white buyers. It was not until 1968 that these covenants became illegal due to the Fair Housing Act.
Until the late 1960s, the North-Central neighborhood featured remnants of industrial businesses. Lansky’s Junk Yard and Peters Sausage Company remained for decades. Concerned residents finally convinced the city to buy the lots. This area became Summit Park (now Wheeler Park) on Depot Street. In the 1960s, the city planned to build a Beakes-Packard bypass. The road would have divided the neighborhood. Residents stopped the bypass, but the city had already purchased many homes from Black families. Within a couple decades, the demographics shifted. Black churches relocated to areas with more room for growth. Younger, white-majority residents took the place of Black homeowners and renamed the neighborhoods Kerrytown and Water Hill.