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There Went The Neighborhood: Old Neighborhood Walking Tour

This filmed walking tour was created during production of There Went The Neighborhood: The Closing of Jones School by the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio (7CS). Led by three former Jones School students–Roger Brown, Cheryl (Jewett) O’Neal, and Omer Jean (Dixon) Winborn–the tour describes changes that have taken place in the neighborhood surrounding the school over the past several decades. Key stops in order of appearance include the former Jones School, Ann Street Black Business District, Dunbar Center, Bethel AME Church, Wheeler Park, and Second Baptist Church.

The route (although filmed in a different order) was inspired by the Living Oral History Project’s Walking Tour of a Historically Black Neighborhood in Ann Arbor, which was created in partnership between the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County (AACHM) and the Ann Arbor District Library. Check out that tour to view these locations in person alongside historical photographs and interview excerpts!
 

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AACHM Living Oral History Project Walking Tour

Presented in Partnership between the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County and the Ann Arbor District Library

Ann Street Black Business District

For most of the twentieth century, the 100 block of East Ann Street was a hub for Black-owned businesses in downtown Ann Arbor. A rotating set of barber shops, shoe shine parlors, dry cleaners, restaurants, blues bars, and pool rooms formed the backbone of Black social life, especially for men. The district stretched around the corner onto North Fourth Avenue where the Colored Welfare League housed Black-owned businesses and community organizations such as the early Dunbar Center.

Welfare League Sale Offer Rejected

Welfare League Sale Offer Rejected image
Parent Issue
Day
8
Month
June
Year
1965
Copyright
Copyright Protected

Decision Expected On Buying Building

Decision Expected On Buying Building image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
May
Year
1965
Copyright
Copyright Protected

To Appraise Offered Building

To Appraise Offered Building image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
October
Year
1964
Copyright
Copyright Protected

Building Offered For Sale

Building Offered For Sale image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
September
Year
1964
Copyright
Copyright Protected

Building For The Future

Building For The Future image
Parent Issue
Day
30
Month
November
Year
1992
Copyright
Copyright Protected

Accident Scene Of Parked Car Hit On N. Fourth Avenue, June 1947

Accident Scene Of Parked Car Hit On N. Fourth Avenue, June 1947 image
Year:
1947
Published In:
Ann Arbor News, June 16, 1947
Caption:
THREE CHILDREN HURT IN PARKED CAR: Kenneth, 3, and Herbert, 5 - sons of Dunbar Center director Douglas Williams - and Jackie Taylor, 7, of 114 E. Kingsley St., suffered minor cuts and bruises when the above car, in which they were sitting, was knocked through the plate-glass window of Sadie's Beauty Shop by another machine that went out of control in the 200 block of N. Fourth Ave. this morning. The other automobile, being driven the wrong way down the one-way street by Jack A. Predovich, 26, a disabled war veteran, hit two other vehicles and burst into flames after knocking down a gasoline pump at the Abbott Gasoline station, N. Fourth and Ann. The driver was only slightly injured.