Broadway Park: Renewing Ann Arbor's Public Riverfront

The three main types of manufacturing in the Broadway Park area were milling, agricultural implement production, and slaughterhouses. These river based operations, excepting the slaughterhouse, used the force of the dammed water to power machines. But the slaughterhouses too, relied on the river as a place to dump the animal carcasses.

The history of industry in Lower Town.
(Click to enlarge.)

This timeline offers a framework and illustrates the overlap in time of these three industries. Note that as the 20th century arrives, electricity generation becomes the objective of harnessing the river's strength. To learn more about this development, see Era of Dams, Electrification, and Parks.

Mills
Agricultural Works
Slaughterhouses

Industry