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Map Series

Lower Town Map Series

The maps below illustrate the settlement of Lower Town beginning in 1824. Click on any image for an enlarged view.

	Anson Brown's property in Lower Town along Broadway, where he built his general store in 1830.
	This is the Ormsby and Page property addition to the Village of Ann Arbor in 1838. It includes Depot Street and the area that became Broadway Park.
	The Broadway Bridge area of Ann Arbor in 1843. The future Broadway Park site is now the location of houses, with State Street running through it.
	This mid-late 19th century Ann Arbor land survey includes property ownership of the Lower Town area. The three mills and the Agricultural Works factory are visible on the Huron River.
	A dense street pattern in Lower Town, the 5th Ward of Ann Arbor, as of 1861.

The next set of maps and images describes the changes in the Lower Town landscape, from mills and factories to the coal gasification plant and later, to the switch to electricity generation along the Huron River. The timeline offers a chronology of the types of industrial development in Lower Town. (Click the timeline to zoom in.)

	The Agricultural Works factory on the east side of Broadway. A railroad siding brought materials into the factory, and head and tail races of the Huron River were constructed to bring water into and out of the factory for power.
	Eastern Michigan Edison is using the Huron River to generate power through the Argo Power House. The Agricultural Works complex is now owned by the Ann Arbor Machine Company. Note the details of the mill races and the rail siding paralleling Broadway Bridge.
	1888: Note the Ann Arbor Woolen Mill, the Grist Mill, the Sinclair Flour Mill, now owned by the Swift family, and the sprawling Agricultural Works complex. The Michigan Central Railroad siding is visible leading into the complex.
	1899: Mill Street is now called Swift Street, and an Argo Feed Mill has been built just north of the Swift Flour Mill. Note the Town Hall building at the junction of Swift Street and Pontiac Trail.
	1908: The mills are gone, though the head and tail races remain. Eastern Michigan Edison has rebuilt on the site of the Swift Flour Mill, (which burned in 1903) to use the water to generate electricity. The Ann Arbor Machine Company has replaced the Agricultural Works.
	1916: Town Hall has been renamed 5th Ward Hall (made part of Ann Arbor in 1861). The tail race has been built over in the Ann Arbor Machine Company complex. The Broadway Bridge is now made of steel.
	1931: By now, Detroit Edison Company has taken over Eastern Michigan Edison, as well as the property of the Ann Arbor Machine Company (1924). Both of these buildings exist today. The railroad bridge, the tracks into Lower Town and the siding into the former complex have been dismantled.

Maps of the Old Fourth Ward

	The Old Fourth Ward/ North Central Neighborhood around Depot Street in 1888.
	The Old Fourth Ward/ North Central Neighborhood around Depot Street, 1931.
	This map shows the locations of important places in the Fourth Ward's African American community: the 2nd Baptist Church (1865), the Bethel A.M.E. Church (1857), and three successive sites of the Dunbar Community Center (1923, 1938, 1960).