Video

What restaurant did Car & Driver magazine rank as one of the best places for ribs?
When did we finally get a professional fire department? 
What was special about the downtown Denny's franchise?
Which longtime business got a Centennial Award even though it wasn't quite 100 years old? 
And who exactly was the man whose name is still inscribed at Fourth Avenue and Ann Streets?!

Join Vanishing Ann Arbor authors Patti Smith and Britain Woodman as they take you on a tour of our city’s past, from Bach & Abel’s dry goods store to Aunt Agatha’s bookstore. Learn about the history of public schools in Ann Arbor beginning with the log cabin built at the corner of Main and Ann Streets, through the ward schools, and to Ann Arbor High. Find out how folks passed time in the 1880s, from ice skating to bowling to socials. Trace the history of bookstores from Wahr’s and Sheehan’s to Common Language and the Wooden Spoon. Walk the streets with school principal Mary Clark, philanthropist Elizabeth Dean, and publisher Alvin Chase.

Come along to reminisce about the places you remember—Maude’s, Fiegel’s, Drake’s—and learn about the places you don’t.