About an hour west of Detroit, Ann Arbor is most well-known for being a college town to the famous University of Michigan’s main campus. But it was also known to be an automotive industrial town in the 20th century. The red brick buildings along the former Ann Arbor Railroad tell this story.
The buildings used to be factory housing for factories that were torn down in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, the last factory was torn down, it belonged to King-Seely, the firm that invented dashboard-mounted gauges for cars. Nearby, the Ann Arbor Excide Battery Service was owned by German Americans and provided car parts and service. In the 1910s and 1920s, Motor Products Corporation made windshields and American Broach made parts for cars.
Today the area has a diner, many gentrified restaurants and cafes, and the railroad can hardly be seen from busy sidewalks. The railway that enabled the town’s industry is mostly forgotten with the exception of a few plaques on building walls that remember the role it played in developing Ann Arbor.
