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Workshop sheds

Workshop sheds image
Description

In 1902 Mayor Royal Copeland complained that the area where Alber & Co., the tannery, and the slaughterhouses had been was a serious problem. Visitors arriving at the railroad depot were confronted by "foul-smelling dump heaps" across the tracks. Copeland appointed a committee to purchase the property between the river and the railroad tracks that later became Broadway Park. By 1907 the city had acquired the land, but it remained overgrown and was long known as "Hobo Park" for the homeless people who camped there. It was often used as a shortcut from Lower Town to State Street. The park was transformed when the bridges were rebuilt in 2005.

It took the Parks Commission, led by its Superintendent, Eli Gallup from 1925 to 1934 to buy up a maze of small workshops and garbage dumps that had replaced the slaughterhouses on the opposite bank of the river. Gallup built Riverside Park there using workers from the federal WPA jobs program.

Frame location: on Broadway Bridge

This image may be protected by copyright law. Contact the Bentley Historical Library for permission to reproduce, display or transmit this image. Repository: Bentley Historical Library

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Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program
Site 10: Broadway Bridge Porcelain Displays
From Industry to Parks