Published In:
Ann Arbor News, September 17, 1965
Caption:
Promenade Planter Box - This 9 1/2-foot-square box in the 300 block of S. Main is one of 48 to be built as part of a three-block-long promenade on Main in between Huron and William. Each planter box will have a 20 to 30-foot-high moraine locust or linden tree, ground cover and/or shrubbery. Brick walkways will separate planter boxes. Two drinking fountains and several benches are planned for each block of the promenade which is being formed from parking lanes on either side of the street. Each planter box will have an automatic sprinkler system, permitting all plantings to be watered simultaneously. Completion date of the three-block project is Nov. 9.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, November 15, 1965
Caption:
Promenade Trees Being Planted - Tree planting on the Elizabeth R. Dean promenade along Main St. was well under way today with many of the trees already planted or being planted. This is the section of Main between Liberty and Washington, looking north from Liberty. The initial planting began Friday and is expected to be completed within two weeks. Trees shown are moraine honey locusts. They have a diameter of five inches or more and a height of between 25 and 30 feet. These are expected to grow to a height of 55 feet. There will be 34 of the locusts planted, and 10 little leaf lindens will also be planted along the three-block promenade. The trees, costing nearly $400 each, are being paid for out of the funds willed the city by Miss Dean. The locusts are being shipped here from Indiana, while the lindens will be shipped fromChicago. General contractor for the planting is Lankenau-Damgaard Associates, a company which is located in Dearborn.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, April 14, 1965
Caption:
Three-Lane Main St. Tried Out - A city experiment to determine what effect three-lane traffic on S. Main St. would have on traffic movements was conducted today. Pylons were set in place from Huron to William and temporary white paint was placed on the surface to indicate lane widths and left-turn movements. A promenade for these three blocks of Main St. is planned which will necessitate three-lane traffic, the promenade jutting into the street some 10 feet. Feasibility of switching Main St. traffic onto other streets is being studied. Officials of the Police Department said the experiment caused some problems this morning because of the abrupt change from four to three lanes of traffic at Huron and William.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, January 6, 1961
Caption:
Main St. Trees Go Down: City workmen today were removing two old elm trees in front of the former Bertha Muehlig home in the 300 block of S. Main St. A spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation said the trees are dying and that it would be less costly to remove the trees than to continually remove dead branches that are hazardous.

Published In:
Ann Arbor News, April 24, 1973
Caption:
From Our Pictorial Archives, Ann Arbor 1941 (published April 24, 1973): If you thought environmental concerns started in the 1960's you might be right about some places, but not Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor was fighting over preservation of trees at least as far back as 1951. Music School Dean Earl V. Moore (left) seems to be saying: "How could anyone want to cut down such a magnificent tree?" And Music School Secretary James B. Wallace (right) is in complete agreement. It was October 1951, and Music School officials were embroiled with city officials in one of the most dramatic Town and Gown confrontations in Ann Arbor history. The elm shaded the old Music School building on Maynard St., but its also narrowed the sidewalk and its roots kept growing into sewers along the street. The Board of Public Works ordered it destroyed, but Music School officials won a reprieve from the Parks Department with an "impassioned appeal." The City Council upheld the BPW in a 9-4 vote, and then Council President Cecil O. Creal, acting mayor in the absence of Mayor William E. Brown Jr., vetoed the council's action, saying that "in this day and age we're apt to be ruthless in our efforts to make progress." Later that fall the episode of the tree was dramatized in the half-time U-M band show at the Michigan-Northwestern game. Unfortunately the only tree on the east side of Maynard St. lived only a short time longer anyway, crowded as it was by concrete and utility lines. Jacobson's and the city's Maynard Street parking structure extension now occupy the area taken up by the Collins Shoppe, the University Press Building, Ann Arbor Press and the Music Building.