Q. I could swear that when I first moved to A2 in 1960, there was a road named Glacier Way that is now known as Glazier Way. Am I hallucinating or was the road that was named for a geological phenomenon at some point changed to commemorate an installer of glass? If so, when and why?
A. The road name honors an Ann Arbor pioneer family (active with the Underground Railway and the Quaker Church). Originally spelled “Glazier,” it was accidentally changed to “Glacier” in the 1940s by a Detroit Edison street crew.
In 1987, the Ann Arbor City Council, Ann Arbor Township, and the Washtenaw County Road Commission agreed to change the name back to “Glazier.” The day of the council vote, the Ann Arbor News ran a letter to the editor from local historian Susan Wineberg, citing evidence that family members actually spelled their name Glasier.
That wasn’t enough to stop the momentum to return to the original spelling–but months later, Wineberg heard from a member of the Glasier family, confirming that her spelling was correct. The U-M North Campus stands on part of the old Glasier Farm.
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While doing some research for the upcoming 150th anniversary of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, I came across this question about the Glasier family. While the Glasier family identified as Quakers, Robert, Richard Jr and Emma Glasier were founding members of Ann Arbor’s Unitarian church in 1865. All three of their signatures appear on our May 14, 1865 Articles of Association and all wrote ‘Glasier’ with an ‘s’. (Document is on display at the church.)