Ann Arbor 200 is proud to debut a newly-created piece that is both a map and a work of art: the Natural Ann Arbor Map by Marcy Marchello. The Natural Ann Arbor Map focuses on the nature of Ann Arbor, featuring both contemporary and historical elements. It is an expression of place, rather than a navigational tool, highlighting the Huron River, parks, trails, wildlife and more. Hand-drawn illustrations and text form a mosaic of information that opens the viewer to new understanding.
The Natural Ann Arbor Map is available for sale as an art print and provides alternative frames of reference compared to conventional road maps. Marcy’s map is oriented to the watershed and historical paths of travel through the area. You won’t find most of the built elements in town you are used to seeing and yet you are likely to see something new with multiple viewings!
The Natural Ann Arbor Map evolved over 8 years, through Marcy's explorations while in town visiting family, online research, and 500 hours in the studio. Everything on the map was drawn multiple times to position elements for lively interaction and meaning.
Marcy is thrilled to offer the Natural Ann Arbor Map to the community during Ann Arbor’s bicentennial year. The art print is available in both black and white ($40) and in color ($75), in a 24” x 36” size, printed with soy-based inks on 30% post-consumer waste recycled paper. The color edition can be purchased downtown at Found Gallery. Both maps can be purchased online at Ferncliff Studio on Etsy. You can learn more about Marcy and how she developed the map on the Ferncliff Studio site.
About the Artist:
Marcy is an Ann Arbor native who grew up in Dixboro and lives in Massachusetts, where she is an adaptive outdoor recreation manager for Massachusetts State Parks. While her livelihood is in service to quality of life for others, she has been an artist and naturalist since childhood. Born of two very creative parents - both graduates of the U of M School of Art - Marcy’s graphic arts have taken various forms, including cards and stationery, nature journaling, and custom maps of natural places.
Marcy recalls, “As a child, while riding in the backseat of the family car, I noticed how the cloverleaf at Plymouth Road and I-23 had brought about a change in the landscape compared to what it must have been previously. I always wanted to go back in time to experience the landscape as it was before Europeans came. This map both celebrates present nature and offers a sense of peeling back time to reveal some of the underpinnings of the area.”
She attended Huron H.S. (‘76-‘79) and the U of M School of Art briefly, worked at Ulrich’s Books as an art department manager, then left Ann Arbor to pursue her “collage” degree. Marcy traveled on the National Audubon Expedition Institute for 2 years, followed by a year at Prescott College in Arizona, earning a B.S. in Environmental Education from Lesley College (now University) in Cambridge, MA.
With much gratitude, Marcy thanks the following people for their time and support in evaluating the project in process:
Becky Hand, Natural Area Preservation
Bev Willis and John Kilar, Washtenaw County Historical Society
This project was created to highlight the history and progress related to voting and voter rights in Ann Arbor throughout the last 200 years. In preparing these posters, City Clerk's Office staff researched the history of voter registration, student voting, polling places, voting technology, and the ever-increasing ways Ann Arbor residents can access the ballot box. We hope you enjoy!
The Ann Arbor Public Library traces its origins from two strands, public and private: the high school library started in 1856, and the Ladies Library Association founded in 1866. But both of these groups had predecessors, the high school library in the township district libraries and the Ladies Library Association in four earlier book lending groups.
For a few, brief years in the 1870s the Mozart Watch Factory of Ann Arbor was on the rise to rival the best watchmakers in America. Don Joaquin Mozart was one of Michigan’s “most promising inventors.” Called a “genius” in the New York Times, he patented 11 inventions related to clockwork. Yet his business skills never quite lived up to his innovations and he died in the county poorhouse.
Patent for an "automatic fan" by Don J. Mozart, 1856
A Family Missing & A Family Made
The details of Mozart’s early life are uncertain. He was born in Italy sometime between 1820 and 1826 and moved to America with his family near the age of three. His father’s occupation varies by the source: he was a watchmaker and his son took after him, or a street musician distantly related to the more famous Mozart, or a man of wealth who fled Italy for political reasons and was assassinated in America. None of these are particularly likely, but what can be said with more confidence is that he died when Don was young.
The remaining Mozart family ended up in the Boston area. It was near the harbor there, when Don was around the age of 9, that he was lured onto a ship “by the promise of curious shells” and taken out to sea. It wasn’t uncommon for ships to capture young men or boys as crew members when they couldn’t find volunteers for arduous journeys, and they often preyed upon poor immigrants. Young Don Mozart sailed for seven years. He searched for his family when he returned, but his efforts failed and he never saw his mother or siblings again.
Fending for himself, Don found work as a tradesman where his skill at mechanics became clear. By age 30 or so he was the established owner of a jewelry store in Xenia, Ohio and filed his first patent for an “automatic fan” propelled by clockwork. The patent advertised a quieter machine that would be particularly useful for fanning the sick or sleeping, and keeping bugs away. With his profession secured, he married Anna Maria Huntington on September 4, 1854.
Don and Anna started their family in Ohio, welcoming their first daughter, Donna Zeralla, on February 28, 1857 and then their second, Estella Gertrude, on November 28, 1858. Don continued to invent, patenting an improved clock escapement (the mechanism that moves the timepiece’s hands at precise intervals) in 1859 wherein he listed himself as a resident of Yellow Springs, Ohio. By 1862 the family had relocated to New York City and welcomed one more daughter, Anna Violet.
Mozart & Co. jewelry store advertisement, Michigan Argus, January 18, 1867
Career Clockmaker
As a resident of New York Don patented another improved clock and watch escapement in 1863 with Levi Beach and Laporte Hubbell credited alongside him. The three men followed this in January 1864 with a simplified and more compact calendar clock that claimed to register leap years and run for a year with one winding.
Don’s talents gained him enough recognition that a company was created to produce his patents. The Mozart Watch Company was established in the spring of 1864 in Providence, Rhode Island and the family relocated there. Capital of $100,000 was secured along with a factory and machinery. Then, before any product seems to have been produced, the stockholders pulled out in the spring of 1866. No distinct reason could be found to explain their change of heart, other than a new belief that they wouldn’t earn a return on their investment. Don was replaced as superintendent, the company was renamed the New York Watch Company and, in contrast to the name, moved to Springfield, Massachusetts.
Less than a year later, in January of 1867, Don Mozart began anew in Ann Arbor. Advertisements for “Mozart & Co,” a dealer in clocks, watches, jewelry, and silver-plated ware, ran in the Michigan Argus. The shop was located in the Gregory Block on the corner of Huron and Main. Still tinkering with timepieces, his first patent in this new era was filed in July of 1867 wherein he listed himself as living in New York despite his new store in Michigan. Regardless of the residency, the patent was granted on December 24, 1867 and became the basis of his even greater business venture in Ann Arbor.
Michigan’s Mozart Watch Company
An Illustration of the "Three-Wheeled" watch, based on the December 24, 1867 patent
By the summer of 1868 the second Mozart Watch Company was progressing in Ann Arbor. According to a July 24, 1868 article in the Michigan Argus, “the capital for testing the invention has been furnished, a building secured in which to commence operations, an engine put up, the best of machinery purchased, and a force of experienced mechanics set to work, not exactly making Watches, but making tools with which to stock the factory.” The goal was to produce watches based on the recently issued patent that contained no dead-center or setting-point and required only a small number of parts, allowing for cheaper production.
The company’s growth continued, occupying three stories of Dr. Chase's building according to the February 19, 1869 issue of the Michigan Argus. The article concluded, “We shall expect to see the company soon turning out A. No. 1 watches.” On New Years Eve 1869 a gold watch was presented to Reverend Charles H. Brigham of the First Unitarian Church, confirming that the Mozart Watch Company had managed to start production.
Just six months later the Michigan Arguswas pleading with citizens to prevent the company from leaving the city. It had “turned out a number of beautiful watches,” but “the few men who took hold of the enterprise find themselves without means to prosecute the work on the large scale which is necessary to make it a success, and that they have not met the encouragement and support which they had a right to expect from the community at large.”
Advisors to businessmen from Milwaukee and New York had visited the factory to assess the machinery and patent’s chances of success. “The agent of the Milwaukee parties – a practical man – pronounces the watch, and clock soon to come out, a perfect success…If Milwaukee men stand ready to invest $300,000 in it, cannot our capitalists be induced to invest one third of that sum to retain it here?”
The appeals went unanswered and a group from Rock Island, Illinois bought out the Mozart Watch Company, renaming it the Rock Island Watch Company. Then, like in Providence, the company failed to produce anything before the stockholders withdrew their support. A lawsuit commenced in the fall of 1871, alleging fraud in the sale. The battle concluded in the fall 1873 when it was dissolved after an appeal.
Panic & Final Patents
Just as the court case was wrapping up a greater worry replaced it. The financial panic of 1873 swept the nation and the local banking house of Miller & Webster closed its doors for good in September of that year. The Michigan Argusreported that “a large share of the losses will fall upon parties illy able to bear them,” and this seems to have included Don Mozart.
Advertisement from the Michigan Argus, November 21, 1873
Don had always been reliant upon his strengths in innovation. He is recounted as saying, “that he never knew the time when, if he was short of money, he could not hide himself in a hole for a month, and work out an idea that would bring him $1,000.” The article concludes that “money has come to him so easily he has valued it little, has spent it with a prodigal generosity, not to say reckless, and having, most of his life, no special occasion for what is called business shrewdness has in later years been victimized by speculators in his genius.” As he had all his life, he persisted, and that same fall the Michigan Argus included an advertisement for watch repairs by Don Mozart.
Before the loss of his savings, Don had filed a series of three patents that were approved in July of 1873: another improved escapement, an upgrade to calendar clocks, and a self winding watch. This trio held the potential to earn his savings back. They were designed to be used together in one watch that would include dials showing the month, day of the month, day of the week, AM or PM, quarter seconds, seconds, minutes and hour. It would be wound by the user opening and shutting the watch case five or six times a day and no damage would be sustained by heavier use. He is said to have gone to New York to find funding, but the wealthy residents who would be able to offer the capital were away at their summer homes and he was told to return later.
Always seeking improvement, he took a portion of the watch apart during the interim and lost a piece of it in the process. He was never able to figure out how to put it together again. Before he could return to New York, he lost control of his mind. On December 2, 1874, Don Mozart was taken to what was then known as the “Michigan Asylum for the Insane” in Kalamazoo. Reports claimed that his “fits of temporary insanity” had been going on “for some time” and that up until his removal to Kalamazoo “he was talking extravagantly but coherently enough, of his brilliant prospects and the wealth and success that awaited him, and detailed to friends minutely the terms of an agreement that he claimed to have just made with persons in New York, though he had never gone to that City after his visit in the early Summer.”
It is difficult to determine exactly how many Mozart watches were finished. Estimates vary from 13, to 30, to only a few. The examples that were reported on or have since been located often contain personalized engravings indicating that they were made for investors and friends. They remain as exemplary samples of American watchmaking and their rarity makes them highly sought after by collectors.
Photos of the Mozart Watch sold by Bonhams, 2016
In 2016, a "Chronometer-Lever Escapement" watch signed "Mozart Watch Co., Ann Arbor, Mich., No. 7, Don J. Mozart Patent Dec. 24, 1868" was sold by the auction house Bonhams for $5,250 (the patent date seemed to be a mistake, corresponding instead with the patent of December 24, 1867). Sotheby's auctioned another in 2004 as part of their “Masterpieces from the Time Museum” group.
Andye Fulton with her camera at an outdoor rock concert, 1970 (Photo by Doug Fulton)
The Andrea Fulton Concert Collection includes over 500 photos from local concerts featuring rock, soul, R&B, and blues bands performing, recording, and sometimes just posing for promotional shots. Several local and regional bands from the late 1960s and 1970s are here in Andrea's collection -- from Guardian Angel, Carnal Kitchen, and the Mojo Boogie Band to Sixto Rodriguez, Mitch Ryder, and Bob Seger.
Bob Seger performs at Crisler Arena, February 11, 1976
Andrea Lee Fulton grew up with music from all cultures and genres. The first music she heard -- on the day she was born -- was Bach. She recalls an enlightened and exciting childhood: "My dad was hip, my mom was groovy. We all kinda became hippies together.”
So it was no surprise that when rock-n-roll came to Ann Arbor, Andrea was all ears. And as she grooved to the music, she picked up a camera. Her father, Doug Fulton, an editor at the Ann Arbor News, was an accomplished photographer, so photography was in her blood. Most of the photographs in the collection are Andrea's; a few are Doug's. (Additional concert photos are available in AADL's Doug Fulton Online Exhibit.)
Gary Rasmussen at Gallup Park, 1970
While Doug is best known for his photographs of outdoor environmental activity and the blues greats who came to the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals, Andrea was on the scene in the 1970s to snap photos from the backstages and front rows of over 100 concerts. Andrea (then known as Andye) also worked for concert organizers as a Psychedelic Ranger to assist with crowd control, parking, security, and first aid. At 17, legendary Ann Arbor concert promoter Peter Andrews hired her as the box office manager for Daystar Productions where her job included picking up tickets at the airport, selling seats in the Michigan Union, and manning the box office at Hill Auditorium or Crisler Arena. Andrea recalls some highlights from this period:
John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, December 1971
"I remember getting cheeseburgers for Yoko Ono, burning one with John Prine behind the P. Bell, and the night Bonnie Raitt stayed in my bedroom after one of dad's famous all-night BBQs following the Sunday Blues Festival. I’ve seen Bob Seger a dozen times. Mitch Ryder. The Rationals. The Lost Planet Airmen with Commander Cody. SRC. Savage Grace. The Up. MC5. I hung out at 1510 Hill Street [home of the Trans-Love Commune, John Sinclair, and the MC5], and was friends with the Mojo Boogie Band, brothers Jim & Terry Tate, and sax genius, Steve Mackay. Venues included the 5th Dimension, Flood’s, Flicks, and the West Park Love In’s at age 15. That was my Ann Arbor life! I was so in the moment and had no idea how incredible my life was. So I’m grateful to have these images now. Revisiting my young self 55 years later, I can tell you -- I’m still that rock and roll hippie at heart.”
Some of the subjects of these photos aren't recognized by us and are beyond our ability to identify. If you recognize a performer or venue, please add a comment to the photo to help enrich this collection!
Grace Bigby Outside "The Broadway" Card Shop, June 1970
In 1960, housewife Demaris Cash (Dee, to her friends) was forced to confront how she would provide for her family if she lost her husband, Travis, who had recently survived his second heart attack. The couple had two daughters: Janis, who had been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, and Elaine. At a luncheon with friends, the idea of a consignment store was floated and soon Demaris was on the search for a business partner.
Unlike Demaris, who had never held a job outside of the home, Grace Bigby was an experienced businesswoman. Her entrepreneurship began around 1945 when she learned to mount figure skating blades for her daughters. As her daughters grew it became wasteful to keep purchasing new skates, so she started a skate exchange and blade mounting enterprise. In 1966, she added a gift and card store to her ventures at 1115 Broadway in the converted old Northside Baptist church and she moved her skate business into the basement there.
Treasure Mart Exterior, 1978
The Beginning
Grace and Demaris had never previously met, but after Grace heard of Demaris’s business idea they exchanged a phone call and soon were signing a lease for 529 Detroit Street. The old industrial brick building was originally constructed in 1869 as a steam wood planing mill, the second at that location after a previous mill had burned down. It was operated by John G. Miller, who lived next door at 521 Detroit Street. The large commercial space had lived many lives, having previously been home to a machine shop, furniture store, toy company, and a produce distributor. The pair’s plan to open a retail shop required a vision, and some remodeling.
They named their store Treasure Mart and their first sale was a matter of fate. Demaris had learned that her daughter’s dance instructor was looking for a chandelier. A sign was hung during construction to announce a future resale business. As painting was still underway a man who had taken notice of the upcoming store stopped to offer up a chandelier. Demaris was a pious woman and saw that her prayers had been answered; she brokered the exchange.
Grace and Demaris’s partnership fit their strengths. Grace handled the financials and bookkeeping, while Demaris managed the inventory. After 15 years, family illness led Grace to leave the business and the Cashes stepped in. Treasure Mart became a family corporation owned with daughters Janis and Elaine, along with Elaine’s husband, Carl Johns.
Treasure Mart Interior, September 1960
The Business
Treasure Mart’s sales floor encompassed the building’s three stories and a garage. Each level was filled to the brim with furniture, antiques, collectibles, and home decor of all sizes and eras. Items were brought in by consignors who paid an annual membership fee and earned a percentage of the item’s profit once it was sold. If something didn’t sell after a few months the price would be reduced, as would the profit. By 2018 the store had 1,000 consignors and a two-month wait for members looking to join. The specifics changed throughout the years, but in 2018 the annual fee was $25 and sellers earned 65 percent of the sold price, or 50 percent for items listed at less than $4.
Treasure Mart went through expansions and experiments throughout its 60 years. The company tried its hand at managing estate sales and used them as a means to collect inventory. The popularity of the consignment led to franchises and by 1979 Treasure Marts could be found in Elyria, Ohio; Kokomo, Indiana; Minneapolis; Bloomington, Illinois; and Flint. Travis Cash's health had improved and in 1962, soon after his heart attack that had spurred Demaris into starting Treasure Mart, he retired from his career as a Quaker Oil Salesman. In order to fill his time he began to manage a few racks of clothing at the store. In 1963, after outgrowing the allotted space, he founded “The Tree" for clothing consignment just up the block from Treasure Mart at 419 Detroit Street.
Travis Cash At The Tree, July 1974Demaris Cash At Treasure Mart, April 1989
The Second Generation
Janis Cash At Treasure Mart, July 1979
In 1982, twenty years after his retirement, Travis Cash passed away and Demaris became the proprietor of both Treasure Mart and The Tree. The following year the family was able to purchase Treasure Mart's building and the house next door that had once belonged to John G. Miller.
When Treasure Mart was established Grace was 50 and Demaris was 55 -- ages when a person is more likely to be planning for retirement than entrepreneurship. Demaris could be found greeting customers at the store into her 80s, but after developing Alzheimer’s Disease she spent her final years at the Chelsea Retirement Center. She passed away in February of 2001, two weeks after Grace.
Elaine was teaching in St. Joseph, Michigan when she decided to come home to help her mother with the store in the summer of 1974. After that, she never left. Carl joined her soon after and the two took over the store’s management in 1995 as her mother’s health was declining, with Janis remaining as a co-owner.
After the loss of both parents, and increased competition from chain stores like Value World, Janis and Elaine made the difficult decision to close The Tree in 2005. Manager Josephine Watne was 83 and had been there for all but two of the store’s 43 years.
The Treasure Mart remained an Ann Arbor staple, but the family confronted more obstacles in November of 2019 when Elaine was diagnosed with ALS. The Johnses had a balanced partnership like Demaris and Grace before them. Travis worked the floor and took care of billing and payroll while Elaine worked in the office. Alongside Elaine's diagnosis, Carl had gone through a series of pacemakers and their adult children had pursued careers of their own.
Treasure Mart had begun in response to health complications and now was ending for the same reasons. The building and business were listed for sale together in January of 2020 with the hopes of finding an owner to maintain the consignment.
Elaine Johns, Demaris Cash and Carl Johns inside Treasure Mart, October 1995
The End
The surrounding neighborhood had changed immensely in the store’s 60 years. Treasure Mart moved in when it was still "The Old Neighborhood'' and industrial works could be found nearby. When it came time to sell, real estate in what's now known as “Kerrytown” was highly sought after. The Johnses acknowledged that their vision for the store’s continuance may lose out to the building's redevelopment potential.
The store's listing closely pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic precautions that disallowed dense in-person shopping. It was a historically bad time to get into business and no buyer came forward. The store's permanent closure was announced in a Facebook post in June of 2020.
At Treasure Mart, it was common for employee's tenures to last a decade, or multiple. Frequent customers and consignors could expect to be greeted by the same faces, including the Cash and Johns family members. Both generations of owners had emphasized that Treasure Mart was always about the community of people who shopped and worked there. The hundreds of comments and likes that flooded in to profess gratitude and well wishes in the wake of the imminent closure proved that to be true.
Five months later, in November of 2020, Elaine (Cash) Johns passed away. She was followed two years later by her sister Janis (Cash) Raber, who lived in Florida and, true to the family business, had established herself as an antique dealer.
The building was purchased in 2021 by the nondenominational Redeemer Ann Arbor church for $2 million with plans to undertake renovations and restoration. Treasure Mart may be gone, but the cherished finds and relationships formed there remain throughout Ann Arbor.
529 Detroit Street Under Renovation, July 19, 2024Treasure Mart, May 1, 2020
The Ann Arbor District Library’s LGBTQ+ Walking Tour documents historical locations important to the queer community, pulling from interviews with community members in podcasts like AADL’S Gayest Generation, LGBTQ+ Washtenaw oral histories, and other archival collections. We heard from community members about their favorite hangouts over the decades, including bars, bookstores, and sites of political advancement for LGBTQ+ rights. This tour walks you through important locations, some of which have changed over the years and may no longer exist.
