Ann Arbor's Dance for Mother Earth Powwow celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend at Pioneer High School. The Powwow, hosted by the U-M Native American Student Association (NASA), is one of the largest university powwows in the nation. We've added to Oldnews some of the articles and photographs from past powwows that we found in our Ann Arbor News archive.

Grand entry is at noon and 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 17, and noon on Sunday, March 18. Learn what to expect if you're a first-time attendee. For more information, visit www.umich.edu/~powwow.

Parthenon Interior

Several local restaurants have recently joined the ever-expanding list of Ann Arbor's Lost Eateries. Champion House closed suddenly last week, as did Old Country Buffet over the weekend. But I was particularly saddened to hear that the Parthenon Restaurant, which has stood on the corner of Main and Liberty Streets since John and Steve Gavas opened in 1975, will be closing its doors. Later this year Cafe Habana, formerly located on East Washington, will be moving into 226 North Main.

The Parthenon has command of possibly the best-known intersection in town, located on the same corner as Cunningham's Drugs and Mack & Co. a generation earlier.

We found some articles, a photo, and restaurant reviews on the Parthenon in our Ann Arbor News clipping file and have digitized them here for you to savor. While you're at it, you can also read about the Flim Flam Restaurant, which recently closed its doors after 30 years in business. Don't miss the Flim Flam's recipe for their famous eclair!

Welcome to the future of old newspapers at your library. This is the launch of OLD NEWS, a platform that we'll be using to bring the information contained in thousands and thousands of historic newspapers to the web. We've obtained copies and rights to many local newspapers over the years, including the Signal of Liberty, The Ann Arbor Argus, The Ann Arbor Courier, and most recently, The Ann Arbor News, whose archives AADL took possession of in 2010. OLD NEWS is the online home for all of this information, and we have put together an opening day collection of thousands of articles and images from the Ann Arbor News and other papers as a starting point for this project. Like all AADL products, we'll be continually refinining, enhancing, and expanding OLD NEWS, and one of the most exciting things about working with old newspapers is that there is always more work to be done.

And that's where you come in. Part of the plans for OLD NEWS include ways that you can help AADL to organize, filter, tag, and identify the information brought online, and part of that work starts now with the PHOTOMIC DESCRIBORATOR. We've loaded this tool up with images digitized from the negative collection of the Ann Arbor News, and you can help us to organize these images by simply typing a word to describe the image you're presented with. Anything goes. The more the merrier. And this is just the beginning! There's plenty of images to tag, and plenty of content to explore here on OLD NEWS.

So, have a look around, check out our FEATURES, where AADL staff pull together articles, images, and other materials to get deeper into a story, or see the PAPERS that are contained here; or examine our lists of the PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS or TOPICS contained in these articles. Or contact us if you have questions or have something you'd like to add to the collection. Thanks for your interest, and enjoy OLD NEWS!

Articles and Photos from the Ann Arbor News were Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.

Bill Treml spent forty years at the Ann Arbor News working the police beat--"chasing cops and robbers," as he puts it. In that time he saw and reported on many of the stories we remember: the Coed Murders of John Norman Collins, UFO sightings, a bank robbery in Ypsilanti that left one police officer dead. Much of what we remember we remember from what he wrote. We got a chance to talk to Bill about some of those stories and what kept him at it through all those years. Treml's self-effacing manner cannot hide the fact that he went places most of us have never gone and witnessed things most of us never want to see. He stood in mud in his pajamas at murder scenes. He chased down paddy wagons. He took a front row seat to riots. He sat across the table from one of the worst serial killers in Michigan's history. Treml shared his stories of years as a reporter and told us what it takes to be a great reporter in any age of news reporting. Read some of Bill Treml's articles from the Ann Arbor News at Old News.

Schlanderer & Sons, Jewelers and Silversmiths has occupied the same prime location on Main Street for over seven decades. It is one of the few local businesses that survived and thrived continuously in the hands of the same family through cycles of boom-and-bust. Recently we sat down with Charles Schlanderer, Sr. (Charlie) and Charles Schlanderer, Jr. (Chuck) – the third and fourth generation of store owners, for a conversation about history of the family business.

In 1933 C. Henry Schlanderer and his two sons Paul and Arthur opened the store in a historic building at 208 South Main. We learned why, at the height of the Depression, Henry chose to open a store for “luxury goods”; how each successive generation came into the business and the improvements they have made; their decision to stay “downtown” against the gradual exodus of others to the malls; and more importantly, their vision of the retail landscape in the near future.

The Schlanderers also reminisced with us about their most memorable sales over the years, the friendships formed; and loyalty of their clients.

Apart from the discussion about the business, we talked about families; growing up in Ann Arbor, Hillsdale College and Michigan Hockey (Want to know why? Listen to the podcast). You can read articles about Schlanderer & Sons in Old News.

Four generations of Vogels have been giving Ann Arbor what they want and need since 1913, changing the business with the tastes and tempo of life in the town. We talked to David Vogel, the 3rd generation of Vogel's Lock & Safe, who retired and handed over the business to the 4th generation, Rob and Denise Vogel, some years back. Dave has done a lot of research on the family's coming to Ann Arbor area over a hundred years ago and has collected a trove of documents, photos and family stories and shares them with us in this podcast.

The Vogel's began fixing, building and re-building "anything and everything mechanical" that farmers and businesses brought to the shop. Dave gave us a tour of the building's back rooms that house some of the equipment used back then and we've put a selection of those images up with the podcast. The business eventually changed to safes and locks and Dave talks about the "dividing line" in the 1960s, when the townspeople and students at the University of Michigan began asking for locks and deadbolts instead of sporting goods and bicycles. Dave has some interesting stories to tell about raids with the FBI and opening safes with the U.S. military.

The family is one of the older Ann Arbor "townies" and Dave keeps up with the other families that built the businesses, homes and neighborhood that define Ann Arbor. Dave talks about hunting where Pioneer High School now sits, living through World War II in Ann Arbor and the way local heritage businesses still depend on each other for support and growth.

Old News Launch | Friday, October 21 | 7 pm | Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Join us this Friday as AADL unveils Old News, a new, online product devoted to the digitization of newspapers from Ann Arbor's past. Old News features articles and images from Ann Arbor newspapers including selections from the clippings and photo files of the Ann Arbor News, as well as 18 years of issues of Ann Arbor's 19th century newspapers.

Old News opens with thousands of articles and images from Ann Arbor and the surrounding areas and is just a beginning to be added to as time goes by. In addition to the ever-growing collection of materials from the Ann Arbor News documenting the 20th century in Ann Arbor, Old News provides online access to decades of newspapers from the 19th century as well. Browse or search through full issues of the Ann Arbor Argus, Ann Arbor Courier, Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat, Signal of Liberty, and Michigan Liberty Press. Explore over 100,000 articles from 1880-1900 to learn about where Ann Arbor was 125 years ago.

This event includes a discussion of the importance of historic newspapers and digitization from Frank Boles, Director of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University; an introduction/demo to Old News by AADL staff; and post-presentation refreshments.

runrun

They were a hale and hearty group in 1974 despite being temporarily delayed by a passing train at the first Dexter-Ann Arbor Run. We've gathered together a few articles and pictures from the Ann Arbor News Archives about the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run to jog your memory and get you motivated for this year's race on Sunday, June 5th.

Check out a few items from the archives:

-Article about the first race

-Photo of runners pack in the 1979 Dexter-Ann Arbor Run

-Article about friendly rivalry

cornfield

A new book arrived in our Local History Collection recently, Brookwater Farm of Webster Township, and in one of those serendipitous moments we're having at the Archives lately, we came across some articles related to the history of the Brookwater Farm.

In 1948, the Ann Arbor News ran a long article, Restoration of Brookwater, complete with a description of the annual livestock auction and historic photos of the farm. The new owner, Lawrence F. Carlton, undertook an extensive restoration of the farm house. However, later articles from 1950 describe the "Corn War", a year-long legal battle with suits and countersuits over 29 acres of corn crop. There's even an article about Mr. Carlton temporarily blinding himself when a tear gas bomb went off as he was showing it to folks.

George J. Burke 1947

Not only is it the oldest "name" file so far, It's a historical gold mine. The first article we unfolded in the file was on the appointment of Mr. Burke as a judge for the Nuremberg Trials. The 1928 article concerns a speech Mr. Burke gave to fellow Democrats in Port Huron. Back in the day, when newspapers were the medium of record, the full-text of the speech was included in the day's paper. Mr. Burke had a long and distinguished career of public service to Ann Arbor, Michigan and the nation.

Read more to see the oldest article, the article about George Burke's appointment to the Nurenberg Trials, and George Burke's obituary from the Ann Arbor News.