The Observer’s call for historical artifacts earlier this year yielded an interesting range of items. Many will be documented by the Ann Arbor District Library as part of its digital archive of the city’s history.
The artifacts:
A book of pioneer memories by Mary Lathrop Crane. Her father arrived in Washtenaw County in 1828, and she was born here in 1832. She was named for her aunt, Mary Ann Rumsey, the wife of Ann Arbor’s cofounder, Elisha Rumsey.
Crane’s account makes vivid the rigors of frontier life. By the time she was six, illness had claimed her younger sister and her mother had died of “child bed fever” after giving birth to her brother. “After her death my father went east and brought his sister Miranda back with him and she stayed until my father married Miss Emily Thayer,” Crane wrote. Her aunt “brought the first matches I had ever seen … Before the advent of matches every body [sic] covered their fire at bedtime with ashes and it was quite an art to make it keep.”
Crane taught school and married a minister who was posted in many frontier towns. When she died at her daughter’s home in Pasadena, California, in 1915, her life was described as “a sermon of good deeds and useful love.”
Photos of a tureen imported by Andrew DeForest, one of Ann Arbor’s pioneers, arriving when the settlement consisted of only eleven houses! Kim Hudolin, who lives in a house DeForest built on N. Division, writes that “[a]fter his career as a builder, Mr. DeForest owned a store called the People’s Store,” and that his obituary “notes that he was the first merchant to bring fruit cans to Ann Arbor. One night, while researching the history of the house, I found an antique shop in Cincinnati that had a miniature tureen labeled as being imported by A. DeForest, Ann Arbor, Michigan. I purchased the tureen, and it holds a place of honor on the fireplace mantel.”
A downtown photo, estimated to date to about the late 1800s, featuring a millinery shop and a firewood dealer.
A 1935 map of Ann Arbor and a 1952 revision of a 1935 map of Ypsilanti, rescued by John Ohanian from the courthouse when they were being discarded. The Ann Arbor map shows Washtenaw Ave. meeting North University at what is now the U-M Ruthven Administration Building—it hadn’t yet absorbed the northern end of Forest Ave. to connect to Huron St.
Memorabilia of the Ann Arbor icon Shakey Jake, who sold “I Brake for Jake” bumper stickers and other personalized souvenirs out of his guitar case on downtown sidewalks for decades until his death in 2007. Brendan Casey emails that “this may not fit the description of what you are looking for but I thought it might, and it would be a better place to store them than a box in my closet.”
A photo of the 1974 city council swearing-in ceremony that included Kathy Kozachenko. “I’ve never seen any other photo of that particular swearing in ceremony,” emails owner Colleen McGee, who also joined council that day. Two previous councilmembers, Jerry DeGrieck and Nancy Wechsler, had come out as gay after winning election in 1972, but Kozachenko (center, next to McGee) was already out when she ran. Her victory made her the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate to successfully run for office in the United States. Credit: Colleen McGee.
A menu from Thano’s Lamplighter Restaurant, which operated on E. Liberty from 1967 to 2006. Along with standards like spaghetti and meatballs ($4.75), it featured deep-dish Sicilian pizza (half tray, $5.95) and “a little taste of Greece”—moussaka, pasticcio, and souvlaki (all $5.45).
A six-inch ruler from Morrill’s typewriter, office supplies, and furniture stores (one store in Ann Arbor, one in Ypsilanti). Founded in 1908, the Ann Arbor store was at 314 S. State (where Amer’s Deli is now) for about sixty-five years.
Piano sheet music for the 1948 song “The Beautiful Hills of Ann Arbor”:
I love the chimes up in the college tower,
In memory again I hear them strike each hour…
Original ads and promotional materials from the Peak sporting goods shop when it was located on Carpenter during the 1970s. “My husband David Beauchamp, aka ‘Champ’ and his fraternity brother owned [it],” Norma Beauchamp emails. “It was a great sporting goods business specializing in ski, hiking, tennis and other sports equipment.” The Peak hosted “many sports celebrities,” including pro tennis players Rod Laver, John Newcombe, and Björn Borg.
A 1961 calendar marking the birthdays of members of Bethel AME Church. It was discovered at a home on N. Fourth Ave., since demolished, when the Baker family moved out after more than a century.
Photos of a souvenir football and other items from Drake’s Sandwich Shop that Susan Landauer hopes to sell or donate. Drake’s did business on North University from 1929 to 1994 and ranks high on the list of fondly remembered Ann Arbor institutions.
A massive cast-iron “Outing” barbecue grill created at the Ann Arbor Foundry. It operated from 1920 to 1972 in a building on Jones Dr. that originally was home to the Northern Brewery. The foundry’s chimney, now painted orange, can still be seen from Plymouth Rd.
Scrapbooks about the founding of the Huron Valley National Bank in the early 1960s. It was “known as the ‘Apple Bank’ because it always had apples on hand for customers,” emailed Jeanne DeLay. “My father, Jay DeLay, was the person who ‘thought up’ the apple idea. And was the founding President of the Bank.” HVNB was acquired by Comerica in 1982; its building at S. Fifth Ave. and E. Washington St., much expanded and renovated, is now the headquarters of the Bank of Ann Arbor.
An interior photo of the Cloverleaf Restaurant in 1978. This modest diner started out on Broadway, in the building now occupied by the Northside Grill, and later moved to the corner of Liberty and Fourth Ave. It survived the pandemic shutdowns only to close in 2021 after more than fifty years. Its last location is now a Dunkin’, but George Stamadianos, who’d succeeded his parents as owner, now runs George’s Saline Inn.
Interest in Ann Arbor’s history won’t stop this year—the AADL will continue to document artifacts. Once scanned, the items can be returned to the owner. If you have an artifact you’d like to share, contact [email protected].