Mill Creek: A Water Trail

Put in from the public boat launch located here and take a trip along the water trail!  Paddle upstream about 4 miles to Jerusalem Road or downstream .5 miles to the Huron River.  From there you can paddle another 2 miles to reach Dexter-Huron metropark.  

Look Out

There are lots of interesting sights along Mill Creek!  Look for deer in the woods, a family of ducks swimming by, or racoon tracks along the banks when you pass Dexter School’s Outdoor Education Lab and Forest Lawn Cemetery.

As you paddle under Main Street Bridge, you’re in for some fun among the rapids that were built as part of the creek’s dam removal.  When the water level is low, these rapids are considered Class 1 and are suitable for most people. During high water events, they are Class 3, and should only be attempted by experienced paddlers.

After you catch your breath, pass through the beautiful, historic Viaduct and you’re on your way to the Huron River!

This background image shows the Mill Creek watershed as part of the Huron River watershed.

Watershed boundary data courtesy of Huron River Watershed Council

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers 

Bach & Abel, Northwest Corner, Main and Washington, 1886

Dry Goods

Dry good were sold on this corner for over 120 years.  In 1867 Philip Bach moved his store to this new business block selling fabric, cloaks, blankets, linens and notions.  Ann Arbor once supported as many as fifteen stores selling dry goods.  Before these shops began to carry read-made items, most clothing, bed sheets, and household linens were made at home.  Dressmakers, milliners, and tailors provided custom clothing.  When Bruno St. James purchased the store in 1895, he employed Bach’s young bookkeeper, Bertha Muehlig.  Loved by her customers and employees, she owned and ran the business from 1911 until her death in 1955.  Muehlig’s specialized in old-fashioned, hard-to-find items like “Tillie Open Bottoms” (women’s long underwear).  William Goodyear, St. James’s former partner, ran another dry goods business nearby.  By the 1950s, Goodyear’s had expanded next to Muehlig’s to become downtown’s largest department store.

Before commercial laundries began to advertise in the 1870s, laundry was done at home.  By 1888 Ann Arbor Steam Laundry was the first to use coal-fired power.  In 1905 Varsity Laundry owners H.B. Tenny and Fred Lantz posed in their doorway at 215-217 South Fourth Avenuewith the women who did ironing, mending, and hand touch-up work.  The coal man wears a long black coat.

Sponsored by Hooper, Hathaway, Price, Beuche and Wallace

Photos courtesy of Marilyn Wackenhut and the Bentley Historical Library

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers 

Eberbach Hardware, Northeast Corner, Main and Washington, Ca. 1893

In 1872 William Herz built 112 West Washington Street on the alley to your left for his popular painting and decorating business

Hardware

As Ann Arbor grew, stores that once offered a variety of general merchandise began to specialize in groceries, dry goods, or hardware.  In 1878 Christian Eberbach took over Widenmann and Schuh’s store and turned it into the largest of downtown’s many hardware businesses.  He sold supplies to carpenters, painters, plasterers, and plumbers.  On Saturdays farmers loaded their wagons with cowbells, pitchforks, axes, and machinery parts.  Hardware stores also installed and repaired furnaces, roofs, gutters, and even locks.  Eberbach’s clerk, John Fischer, took over the business in 1892.  As Fischer Hardware, the store moved to Washington Street and Fifth Avenue in 1937 where it lasted into the 1970s.  Downtown’s last hardware store was Schlenker’s on West Liberty.  It specialized in tinware and provided contractors and loyal customers with hard-to-find items.  After more than a century in business, it closed in 1999.

When August Hutzel opened his store at 114 South Main Street in 1857, he sold groceries along with glass and painting supplies.  As the city’s gas and water works expanded, many hardware businesses added plumbing and heating equipment.  In the 1880s Hutzel laid miles of cast iron pipes for the city’s first water system.  August’s son Titus, trained as a plumber, sold and installed indoor plumbing, including flush toilets and claw-foot bathtubs.  Right: Hutzel’s colorful parade float, 1898.

Sponsored by the Hutzel Company with thanks to Washtenaw County citizens for 150 years of business

Photos courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers  

The Magician of Lublin

A metaphorical depiction of the delicate balance of life of the Jewish People.

A gift to the Jewish Community from the

Bernard  L. Maas Foundation

September 1996

Jerome Soble

Sculptor

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers 

MCKENNAN PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT 
COL. MELVIN GRIGSBY 
(1845-1917)

Submitted by @dwhitesock.

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL
CHINESE CAMP

REPORTEDLY FOUNDED ABOUT 1849 BY GROUP OF ENGLISHMEN WHO EMPLOYED
CHINESE AS MINERS. MUCH SURFACE GOLD FOUND ON HILLS AND FLATS.
HEADQUARTERS FOR STAGE LINES IN EARLY 1850'S, AND FOR SEVERAL
CALIFORNIA CHINESE MINING COMPANIES. FIRST CHINESE TONG WAR
IN STATE FOUGHT NEAR HERE BETWEEN SAM YAP AND YAN WOO TONGS.
PRESENT STONE AND BRICK POST OFFICE BUILT 1854, STILL STANDING.
ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILD 1855, RESTORED 1949.
FIRST PASTOR, FATHER HENRY ALERIC. 

HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 423  
TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION.  
BASE PROVIDED BY TUOLUMNE COUNTY COUNCIL NO. 2165, KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS  
DEDICATED JUNE 19, 1949.

In 1872 every building in this city block was leveled in what was called "the worst fire in Memphis history". The entire cost of the damage was $266,000 or about the cost of one large new house in 2003.

Submitted from the Shelby County Register's Office.

The Woolen Building was built with bricks made on-site in the 1840's. Federal troops later used its basement as a hospital during the Civil War. It is the oldest commercial building in Memphis.

Submitted from the Shelby County Register's Office.