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Do you ever look at the names of the streets you drive on in Ann Arbor and wonder where the names came from? I did. So I asked my Grandpa, Salanger the Squirrel if he knew. He told me that it was quite a big task to name all of the streets in Ann Arbor, so the two founders, John Allen and Elijah Rumsey, decided to spilt the job. Rumsey named all the streets that run north and south in the city. He wasn’t very imaginative, though, and just named them by number. He named the northern most street First Street, then Second, then Third, then Fourth, then Fifth, and the southern most street he named Sixth Street. If Ann Arbor had been bigger at the time, he probably would have just kept going!
John Allen was a little more creative. He got to name all of the streets that run east and west. Allen was from Virginia and four of the first five Presidents of the United States were also from Virginia. My Grandpa guessed that he like the state so much that he decided to name four of his streets Washington (for George Washington), Thomas (for Thomas Jefferson), James (for James Madison) and Monroe (for James Monroe). Can you think of where these streets are? Do you live near any of them?
Another street was named after a president. Tappan Street is named after Henry Tappan, the first real president of the University of Michigan. Allen didn’t make that one up, but he did make up five other names. He named one of the east-west running streets Ann. Can you think of who that is named after? Remember all the way back to the “Crash Course” in Ann Arbor history that we started with? Right: his wife, Ann Allen.
He also named a street after his brother, William. And he based one name on a fundamental belief that our country is based on, Liberty. That’s where we’re standing up above!
Finally, he named one street for the Native Americans who still lived in the area - Huron Street - now one of the biggest and busiest streets in the city. So now when you are in the car or just walking around Ann Arbor, look at the street signs and try to remember what they are named after!
Just to think about: