Downtown is heart of Ann Arbor with restaurants, shops, theaters — and Google
Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com
If the University of Michigan is the city’s brain trust, downtown is its heart. With a Main Street that bustles even on Sunday evenings, downtown boasts fine restaurants and art galleries, historic churches, a farmer’s market that explodes on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the historic Kerrytown Market & Shops, rimmed by quaint cobblestone streets that give a nod to the city’s past.
While you may be hard pressed to buy a bottle of aspirin downtown, the neighborhood offers shoppers everything from haute couture to haute cuisine. It’s also a place for the every man and woman, with the Fleetwood Diner and its greasy spoon fare available 24/7, sturdy duds from Sam’s Clothing and some of the best soup in town from Le Dog, a tiny stand along Liberty Street.
Liberty connects town to gown, from Main Street to State Street. Along the way, there’s the stately Michigan Theater, which features art house movies along with hip and family-friendly live shows. And at the northeast corner of East Liberty and South Division, there’s one of the city’s biggest business catches: The bright-tiled offices of Google, which focuses almost exclusively on AdWords sales.
Take a giant leap over The Diag on the University of Michigan’s Central Campus and you’ll come to South University Avenue, just a few blocks — but another world — away from Main Street. Here, college students rule with the Safe Sex Store, bars, fast-casual restaurants and shops such as Middle Earth, with funky gifts, jewelry and incense.
But come July, campus and downtown become seamless for four days with the Ann Arbor Art Fairs. While it may seem like one big art extravaganza to the tens of thousands of shoppers who squeeze through the show on streets and sidewalks, the even is actually made up of four art fairs run by four distinct organizations.
Downtown shows its historic best with Germantown, an area surrounding the Gothic-style Bethlehem United Church of Christ and the stately Muehlig Funeral Chapel. The area has several turn-of-the-century homes, including the Beakes House, one of the city's oldest surviving houses.
After a developer said he wanted to tear down that and another turn-of-the-century house in Germantown to make way for the proposed City Place project, a committee was formed to consider the historical significance of the area. The project was placed on hold until the committee issues its findings.
Between Main Street and Kerrytown, Ann Arbor’s counterculture reputation lives strong. There’s Fourth Avenue Birkenstock and across the street, the People’s Food Co-Op and its adjacent Verde Café, serving up everything from organic groceries to some of the best espresso drinks in town. It’s only right that Community High School, the city’s alternative high school (affectionately known as Commie High) would stand a short hop away.
Down the street from Community High is Zingerman’s Delicatessen, the deli with a national reputation, which is a destination on its own. In a testament to thinking big but staying small. Zingerman’s has resisted the franchise pull and instead become an incubator for a family of businesses (11 and counting) that share the same goal of delivering the best, from its bakery to its creamery to its Roadhouse Restaurant.
Downtown in recent years has become home to a new kind of pioneer - the person who wants to abandon the suburbs and live in the thick of things. Several new apartment and condominium developments have been planned for downtown and a handful have been built, selling and renting everything from million-dollar units to affordable 600-square-foot lofts.
Editor's Note: This biography was last updated in February 2010.
Janet Miller has been covering the Ann Arbor area as a journalist since the mid-1980s, first as a freelancer for the Ann Arbor News then as a part-time staff reporter. It was here that she won a Michigan Press Association first-place award for investigative reporting and a third-place MPA award for breaking news reporting. She spent much of her time at the News covering K-12 and higher education. After leaving the News a few years ago, she began freelancing for the Ann Arbor Business Review. She began freelancing for AnnArbor.com when it launched last summer. She has lived in the Ann Arbor community for more than 25 years and volunteers in the areas of literacy and youth.
Contact the Community Team at community@annarbor.com.