The Andrea Fulton Concert Collection includes over 500 photos from local concerts featuring rock, soul, R&B, and blues bands performing, recording, and sometimes just posing for promotional shots. Several local and regional bands from the late 1960s and 1970s are here in Andrea's collection -- from Guardian Angel, Carnal Kitchen, and the Mojo Boogie Band to Sixto Rodriguez, Mitch Ryder, and Bob Seger. 

Andrea Lee Fulton grew up with music from all cultures and genres. The first music she heard -- on the day she was born -- was Bach. She recalls an enlightened and exciting childhood: "My dad was hip, my mom was groovy. We all kinda became hippies together.” 

So it was no surprise that when rock-n-roll came to Ann Arbor, Andrea was all ears. And as she grooved to the music, she picked up a camera. Her father, Doug Fulton, an editor at the Ann Arbor News, was an accomplished photographer, so photography was in her blood. Most of the photographs in the collection are Andrea's; a few are Doug's. (Additional concert photos are available in AADL's Doug Fulton Online Exhibit.) 

While Doug is best known for his photographs of outdoor environmental activity and the blues greats who came to the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals, Andrea was on the scene in the 1970s to snap photos from the backstages and front rows of over 100 concerts. Andrea (then known as Andye) also worked for concert organizers as a Psychedelic Ranger to assist with crowd control, parking, security, and first aid. At 17, legendary Ann Arbor concert promoter Peter Andrews hired her as the box office manager for Daystar Productions where her job included picking up tickets at the airport, selling seats in the Michigan Union, and manning the box office at Hill Auditorium or Crisler Arena. Andrea recalls some highlights from this period:

"I remember getting cheeseburgers for Yoko Ono, burning one with John Prine behind the P. Bell, and the night Bonnie Raitt stayed in my bedroom after one of dad's famous all-night BBQs following the Sunday Blues Festival. I’ve seen Bob Seger a dozen times. Mitch Ryder. The Rationals. The Lost Planet Airmen with Commander Cody. SRC. Savage Grace. The Up. MC5. I hung out at 1510 Hill Street [home of the Trans-Love Commune, John Sinclair, and the MC5], and was friends with the Mojo Boogie Band, brothers Jim & Terry Tate, and sax genius, Steve Mackay. Venues included the 5th Dimension, Flood’s, Flicks, and the West Park Love In’s at age 15. That was my Ann Arbor life! I was so in the moment and had no idea how incredible my life was. So I’m grateful to have these images now. Revisiting my young self 55 years later, I can tell you -- I’m still that rock and roll hippie at heart.”  

Browse the Andrea Fulton Concert Collection

Some of the subjects of these photos aren't recognized by us and are beyond our ability to identify. If you recognize a performer or venue, please add a comment to the photo to help enrich this collection!

As Ann Arbor celebrates its bicentennial, now is an apt time to look back at how the city honored its first hundred years during the 1924 centennial. Planning for celebrations began well in advance with the Chamber of Commerce putting together a Centennial Committee in 1923. The committee proposed ideas to commemorate the occasion as diverse as planting trees along a newly broadened Washtenaw Ave, laying out land for a new public park, installing a permanent historical exhibit, or erecting a war memorial. None of these plans ever came to pass, but the city celebrated in other ways.

A Banquet Birthday Party

The first event to kick off the centennial year was a formal banquet hosted at the Michigan Union on the evening of Wednesday, February 27th, 1924. Pitched as a “birthday party” of sorts for the town, the event was also intended to raise money for future centennial celebrations. 

Tickets sold for $2 a plate. Many tables were reserved for local clubs, with as many as 34 different groups ultimately present. The majority of guests, however, were invited in honor of their historical significance – and encouraged to come in historic dress! Any resident over 80 was invited, as well as those who had lived in Ann Arbor for more than 50 years. The most important guests were the descendants of those who had settled in Ann Arbor within the first ten years of its founding. Fifty such families attended, often bringing whole generations. The Mann family, for instance, reported 40 descendants of original settlers. 

In total, 588 people attended the banquet, forcing the hosts to rent an additional side room to accommodate overflow guests. At the time, the only other gathering of a similar size ever held at the Union had been a banquet for soldiers returning from WWI.

In a nod to the patriotic feeling which would color all the centennial celebrations, the banquet commenced with a rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner." University of Michigan President Emeritus Harry B. Hutchins presided over the evening and began with a toast. Next Rev. Leonard A. Barrett, then-pastor of the first church in Ann Arbor (First Presbyterian), gave an invocation. The banquet itself consisted of fruit salad, green salad, celery and olives, roast chicken, sweet potatoes, and corn pudding.

After the meal, university professor Orlando W. Stephenson presented on “Early Settlements in Ann Arbor.” Stephenson had also been put in charge of crafting a general history of Ann Arbor, which was eventually published by the Chamber of Commerce in 1927 as Ann Arbor, The First Hundred Years. In contrast, Mayor George E. Lewis gave a speech entitled “Ann Arbor Today,” primarily focused on the city’s industrial feats. The principal speaker for the night, however, was sitting University President Marion L. Burton who delivered an address on “Civic Pride.” During dinner, university organist Palmer Christian led a band through renditions of popular ballads from the 1824-1834 era. 

Attendees were seated in the order in which their families settled in Ann Arbor, with the oldest families closest to the speakers’ table. The formal program ended with a roll call of descendants. The loudest applause was given to the 57 present descendants of Frederick Staebler, who had settled in Ann Arbor in 1830. In Ann Arbor, The First Hundred Years, Stephenson reports that a telegram arrived mid-banquet announcing the birth of Staebler’s 129th descendant, a baby Paul Staebler of Kalamazoo.

The night ended with a big surprise. As the program finished, the Chamber of Commerce presented guests with an enormous birthday cake which had been donated by a team of 12 local bakeries. Members of the Chamber had to team up to carry the delicacy to the speakers’ table. With eight layers and 100 candles, the cake measured seven and a half feet in circumference and reportedly weighed 240 pounds. The cake was large enough to serve all 588 guests, with coffee and ice cream to accompany. Attendees satisfied their sweet tooths, then joined together in renditions of “Auld Lang Syne” and “Home Sweet Home” before departing.

A Failed Vote

The Centennial Committee was buoyed by the success of the banquet and had grand plans for further celebrations. They hoped to organize a full week of events in the early fall, culminating in a pageant to represent the history of Ann Arbor. Such an elaborate theatrical undertaking was sure to cost, though. The committee suggested a budget of $10,000 (about $177,000 today) for the Centennial Week, with anything leftover from the celebrations to be put toward a permanent memorial.

This request for a $10,000 levy appeared on the city ballot in a special election in April 1924. Centennial committee secretary D.W. Springer led a speaking campaign around the city urging people to vote for the measure. However, the centennial levy was the only measure on the ballot not to pass, with a resounding 60% opposition.

The Committee briefly considered trying to raise the funds privately, but ultimately decided that the will of the people should direct their efforts and determined that a more moderate celebration would prove most popular with local citizens. The idea for the pageant was scrapped altogether. Instead, the committee moved forward with a proposal to mark sites of historical importance and plan a single-day celebration.

County-wide Celebration

In a bid to frugality, the centennial celebration was combined with traditional Independence Day festivities. Willis G. Johnson acted as chairman of a new planning committee. It was decided that the week leading up to the celebration would be marked with a carnival at the fairgrounds put on by the Veterans of Foreign War Graf O’Hara post. On July 4th, the fairgrounds would be cleared to host a county “homecoming.” Early settlers who had since moved out of town were tracked down and invited to come for a reunion. The Ann Arbor Business Men’s Club donated $1000 to make the celebration possible. A whole bill of events took place on Friday, July 4th, and admission was free for everyone. 

The festivities kicked off at 9:30am at the City Courthouse, where Otto’s Knights Templar Band played on the steps to a waiting crowd. The band then led a parade to West Park where a City League baseball game took place at 10am, with The Elks facing off against the State St team. 

The game was scheduled to be completed by noon, at which point attendees headed to the fairgrounds for a nostalgic basket picnic luncheon in the shady ravine known as Dexter Del. 

The picnic grove was divided into “precincts” matching the old layout of the city so that early settlers from those areas could easily find and connect with old neighbors. 

Company 1 of the National Guard displayed a guard mount. Otto’s band continued to provide musical entertainment, as well as “Split” Anderson’s Quarter from Ypsilanti. At 2pm, Judge H.W. Newkirk gave the principal address from the stepbridge over the ravine. After the address, the Ann Arbor Driving Club hosted a series of harness horse races, for which they offered “$600 in purses.”

The day concluded with more music and an elaborate fireworks show which was said to attract thousands of viewers.

Memorial Plaque

Today, the most recognizable artifact of these centennial celebrations is a plaque on W Huron St near The Last Word. Originally placed on the Artificial Ice Company plant building, the plaque was removed when that building came down and added to a permanent stone marker. Underneath an engraving of Ann Arbor’s founding wives Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey, it reads:

“THIS TABLET ERECTED BY CITIZENS OF ANN ARBOR 1924 COMMEMORATES THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.”

The plaque follows with the oft-cited myth of how the city got its name from a grape arbor the Anns liked to rest beneath. Though that romantic story has since been debunked, the memorial remains. The Ann Arbor Bicentennial Committee plans to add a small plaque to the stone this year which will both correct the historical record and honor the founding of the city, now two hundred years ago.