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Emanuel Mann House, 1850

Emanuel Mann House, 1850 image
Year
1850
Description

303 South Division Street

Emanuel Mann House, 1850

Emmanuel E. Mann came to Ann Arbor in 1830 with his parents, Jonathan and Louise Mann, at the age of 16. He learned the tanner's trade under his father's direction and opened the first steam tannery in Ann Arbor. After the tannery was destroyed by fire, Mann went into business with Christian Eberbach under the firm name of Eberbach and Company, manufacturing pharmaceuticals and medical apparatus. Some years later he purchased a drug store on Main Street. His sons, Albert and Eugene, were proprietors of the Mann Brothers Drug Store well into the 1900s.

A successful and much esteemed man, active in politics, Emanuel was vice president of the organizational meeting of the Republican Party "under the oaks" at Jackson, Michigan, on July 6, 1854. His office at Eberbach and Company was a meeting place for politicians of his day and a rendezvous for prominent early settlers. His sister, Louise, became the wife of Frederick Schmid, the first Lutheran minister in Michigan and the organizer of many German Lutheran churches in the state. Emanuel served on the school board and as an alderman, and for a time represented his district in the state senate.

In 1850 he purchased this lot on the corner of Liberty and Division to build a home for his wife Anna (Niethamer) and their children. Mann sold the house in 1868 when he moved to a nearby farm.

Although its appearance has suffered from use and neglect, the structure is notable for its clean Greek Revival silhouette, the classical doorway with side-lights, and the stucco veneer over its brick surface, scored to resemble large blocks of stone. This aesthetic device, which was practical as it made a dry, snug house, and was characteristic of early local building, once earned Ann Arbor the nickname "little stucco village." Ownership has changed frequently and the house has been adapted for many different residential and commercial uses.

Rights Held By
Photos used to illustrate Historic Buildings, Ann Arbor, Michigan / by Marjorie Reade and Susan Wineberg.