The "Ann Street Block" still houses storefronts, offices, and residences. It was built in 1871 as the Hoban Block after fire destroyed earlier buildings. Customers came to butchers, grocery stores, saloons, restaurants, billiard halls, a laundry, hotel, and adjoining monument and harness shops.
By 1920 the growing Greek immigrant presence in the neighborhood added the social life of all-male coffee houses. After African American workers migrated to Ann Arbor and doubled the black population in the 1920s, the businesses in the Ann Street Block primarily served the black community. The block was restored in the 1980s.
Keywords :
Ann Street Block, African Americans, Greek Americans, streetscapes
Custom Fields
site_title
HURON and MAIN
frame_location
On North wall of Courthouse
frame_title
Commerce on the "Ann Street Block"
date
ca.1900
copyright
This image may be protected by copyright law. Contact the Bentley Historical Library for permission to reproduce, display or transmit this image. Repository: Bentley Historical Library (http://bentley.umich.edu/)
