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The whole guide
Browse all
Five sections, 20 guides, every one of them reachable from this page.
Landmarks
Section 01The structures, what they were built to do, and what they are now.
- The Water Tower Is a Standpipe, and That Explains the Shape7 min
Working infrastructure in a limestone coat, and what a standpipe does.
- The Thompson Block4 min
A Civil War-era barracks block, and what survives of it.
- Michigan Avenue at Dusk3 min
The old Chicago Road as a commercial strip.
- What Stands Above the Trees3 min
The three or four things you can navigate the city by.
Depot Town & the Streets
Section 02Brick frontages, cast iron, and how to read a 19th-century street.
- What Depot Town Was For6 min
Rail, freight and the reason the brick is where it is.
- A Brick-and-Cornice Key6 min
Corbelling, segmental arches, cast-iron shopfronts — learn to read a frontage.
- The Cast-Iron Shopfront3 min
Columns bought from a catalogue, and how to spot them.
- The Streets Behind3 min
Where the brick stops and the frame houses start.
Built in Ypsilanti
Section 03The marques assembled, bodied or born here.
- Ypsilanti Built Cars Nobody Remembers6 min
Hudson, Kaiser-Frazer, Tucker, Corvair — the marques and the plants.
- Kaiser-Frazer at Willow Run4 min
A bomber plant that became a car plant.
- The Corvair Connection4 min
What was actually made here, stated carefully.
- The Interurban and the Rails3 min
How people moved before the cars they built.
The River
Section 04The Huron, bridge by bridge — the reason there is a city here.
- The Huron Runs Through the Middle of It7 min
Five bridges, one river, and the city assembling itself from mid-span.
- Forest Avenue Bridge3 min
The quiet end, below the old paper-mill dam.
- Frog Island3 min
A park the river reclaims and returns.
- Cross Street Bridge4 min
The hinge of the city — brick on one bank, the tower on the other.
- Riverside Park: The Back of the Town3 min
The view most towns suppress: the backs of the buildings.
Museums & Collections
Section 05The rooms that hold the city's industrial past.