State Street, 1870s
Year
c.1870
Town and gown came together on State Street after 1870 to create Ann Arbor's second shopping district. Grocers, barbers, and tailors served both communities, while billiard parlors, dining halls, bathhouses, and bookstores catered to the growing student population. John Nickels Meat Market, added to the front of his home, was one of the early commercial buildings transforming the neighborhood. After 1890 the streetcar linked Main Street and campus, and several downtown businesses added branches here. J. J. Quarry opened a drugstore in his new building at State and North University in 1898. It specialized in supplies for nearby University hospitals and the medical and dental schools, as well as the offices of doctors and dentists over neighboring shops. James Foster's House of Art, which opened in 1906 featuring Arts and Crafts gifts, drew an affluent and sophisticated clientele to State Street. In 1915 Tom Nickels replaced his father's meat market with the city's first shopping arcade. The terra-cotta building's bank, luxury shops, and post office branch symbolized State Street's twentieth-century identity as a fashionable shopping destination. That market was challenged in the 1960s by shopping malls, the lifting of UM's ban on cars for undergraduates, and changing tastes of the Vietnam War era. By the end of the century, chain stores, coffeehouses, restaurants, and sportswear shops replaced many older businesses. Books and music remained staples; Tom and Louis Borders opened their first bookstore here in 1971.
Frame location: South side of North University east end of the Diag facing northwest toward Nickels Arcade
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
Photo
Subjects
Downtown Ann Arbor Historical Street Exhibit Program
Site 13a: A Second Shopping District
Stores & Shops
State Street
Businesses
Real Estate Development - Ann Arbor
University of Michigan - Students
Nickels Meat Market
Streetcars
Transportation
James Foster's House of Art
University of Michigan
University of Michigan - Buildings
Streetscapes
J. J. Quarry
Tom Nickels
Tom Borders
Louis Borders
Comments
This is a awesome picture to…
This is a awesome picture to see what things use to look like.