Press enter after choosing selection

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

Sponsored by the Ann arbor Area Community Foundation

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library and the Ann Arbor News

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

Panel Information: Courthouse Square: A Center of Civic Life

Citizens from town, country, and university gathered on Courthouse Square for important civic events. In 1861, friends of the Union assembled there to hear reports of the Confed-erate army attack on Fort Sumter. On April 15, university president Henry Tappan and other prominent townspeople went to the old Court-house to address citizens about the crisis. The meeting overflowed across the square into the street. Resolutions were passed supporting President Lincoln and establishing a committee to assist in organizing military companies.

Four Ann Arbor military units were quickly formed. The "Silver Greys," a Home Guard unit made up of men over age forty-five, included Tappan and the town's most illustrious citizens.

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

Sponsored by the Ann arbor Area Community Foundation

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

Panel InformationUniversity President Henry TappanTappan addresses citizens about the attack on Fort Sumter, April 15, 1861

Panel Information: Politics and Processions on Courthouse Square

The Ann Arbor Guard and the Ypsilanti Light Guard formed a procession to honor former President Grover Cleveland before he delivered the annual Washington's Birthday Address at University Hall, February 22,1892.

This speech marked the launch of his successful national campaign for an unprecedented non- consecutive second term. Cleveland and his wife received visitors in the courthouse that evening.

In October 1900, Democratic Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan visited Ann Arbor and came to the courthouse to deliver a campaign speech. As soon as Bryan was introduced, a group of several hundred university students began taunting and heckling the famous orator.

He appealed to the students to let him speak: "I shall be glad to talk to you if you are willing to listen. I can't talk unless you will".

Eventually, Bryan (holding umbrella) gave up trying to quiet the verbal barrage from the raucous crowd, and the speech was canceled.

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

Sponsored by the Ann arbor Area Community Foundation

Photos Courtesy of Wystan Stevens and the Bentley Historical Library

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

Panel Information: Building New Around Old: The Construction of the Present Courthouse

Washtenaw County solved a dilemma in 1954. By the terms of town founder John Allen's original gift, proceeds of the sale of the Courthouse Square land might go to Allen's heirs, not to the county, if it were sold for other use. That incentive to keep the courthouse on the same site presented the unattractive prospect of moving the entire operation of the county to another site during construction, then moving back once the new courthouse was finished.

The architect's plan cleverly solved this problem and provided parking as well. The new courthouse was built around three sides of the existing structure, which continued to function until the new building was finished in 1955.

The old building was then torn down and the space it occupied became a parking lot. An employ-ee then working at the courthouse recalled, "I could open my window and reach out about twelve inches and touch the new building." Much of the move was made by employees handing materials through the old windows into the windows of the new structure.

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

Sponsored by The Mosaic Foundation (of R. & P. Heydon)

Photos Courtesy of the Ann Arbor News

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

Panel Information: The Last Deposit

On a hot August night in 1927 four fully loaded interurban freight cars, parked near the County Fairgrounds (out Jackson Ave.,where Veterans Park is today), broke loose from their couplings and began rolling back to town.Gaining momentum with every downhill turn of the wheels, they screeched around the Jackson-Huron bend, and careened through residential areas and under the Ann Arbor Railroad viaduct over Huron St.Climbing the grade toward Main St., the freight cars lost little speed.Where the tracks made a 90-degree turn onto Main St., the cars leaped the rails at forty miles an hour and smashed into the lobby of the Farmers & Mechanics Bank.

Late diners at Prochnow’s Dairy Lunch next door were thrown from their seats by the tremendous impact.The walls bulged and bricks flew into the streets.Late patrons at Candyland on Huron St.and the Sugar Bowl Restaurant on Main St.rushed into the street and were showered with particles of dust and brick settling from the air.

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

Sponsored by National City

Photos Courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

SITE 7: COURTHOUSE SQUARE: HURON and MAIN

   The Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program visually portrays the city’s history and relates it to the present streetscape. The exhibit sites below celebrate the history of Courthouse Square as the original heart of Ann Arbor.



Sponsored by The Ann Arbor Historical Foundation

Click within the image below for a closer look
print this panel

site mapmap keyMap of Courthouse Square in 19081907 Panoramic Photo of Huron and Main