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Ann Arbor's Historical Buildings, Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor's Historical Buildings (Self Guided), Ann Arbor

Founded in the 1820s and centered on the University of Michigan, the city of Ann Arbor boasts hundreds of splendid buildings, many of which are included in the National Register. The U-M campus itself was registered as Historic District in 1978.

The abundance of down-home charm, especially in the historic district, is richly complemented by plethora of time-tested architectural landmarks in downtown Ann Arbor, providing an unforgettable sightseeing experience. To make your stroll around this "college town" particularly exciting and enlightening, here is the outline of some of Ann Arbor’s most interesting historic locations not to miss along the way:

Angell Hall – an academic building named after James Burrill Angell, the University's president from 1871 to 1909; completed in 1924.

Nickels Arcade – a historical commercial site of 1918, accommodating some of the best cafes and shops in town.

Michigan Theater – hailed as “a Shrine to the Arts” since in 1928; an integral part of Ann Arbor’s cultural scene, home to the local annual film festival.

Judge Robert S. Wilson House – an outstanding specimen of Neoclassical design from 1839.

Kempf House Museum – a Greek Revival edifice dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the Bennett-Kempf house, its garden and collections.

First National Bank Building – an iconic Romanesque Revival structure finished in 1930; once the tallest building in the city.

To explore these and other beautiful and historically significant works of architecture, and to learn more about the people and buildings that made Ann Arbor the incredible city it is today, take this self-guided walking tour!
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Ann Arbor's Historical Buildings Map

Guide Name: Ann Arbor's Historical Buildings
Guide Location: USA » Ann Arbor (See other walking tours in Ann Arbor)
Guide Type: Self-guided Walking Tour (Sightseeing)
# of Attractions: 10
Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.7 Km or 1.7 Miles
Author: Sandra
Sight(s) Featured in This Guide:
  • President's House
  • Angell Hall
  • Nickels Arcade
  • Michigan Theater
  • Kempf House Museum
  • Jacob Hoffstetter House
  • Weinmann Block
  • First National Bank Building
  • Kellogg-Warden House (Museum on Main Street)
  • Judge Robert S. Wilson House
1
President's House

1) President's House

The President’s House, situated on the University of Michigan’s Central Campus, has welcomed visitors since 1840, making it the oldest remaining building on campus. Originally one of four Greek Revival-style residences built for faculty as the university relocated from Detroit, it soon became the official residence of the university’s first president, Henry Philip Tappan, in 1852. Over time, the house evolved into a graceful Italianate mansion, undergoing multiple additions and modifications that reflect its storied past.

As you wander past its stucco-over-brick walls, bracketed eaves, and Doric-columned porch, you’re tracing the architectural narrative shaped by successive presidents. In the 1860s, Erastus Otis Haven added a third story and kitchen wing; in the 1890s, James Burrill Angell oversaw enhancements that included a semicircular library wing. Through the early 20th century, further renovations brought sun parlours, sleeping porches, glassed-in plant rooms, and stone terraces, marrying function with charm.

Today, the President’s House continues to serve its ceremonial role, representing a living link between the university’s past and present. Inside, you’ll find inviting common rooms, a period library that hosts receptions, and carefully preserved historic details alongside modern upgrades completed most recently in 2023 to ensure accessibility and comfort. The 22-room residence, once a quiet private domicile, now quietly celebrates milestone gatherings—from graduates’ receptions to community events—echoing more than 180 years of intellectual and civic life.

For tourists visiting Ann Arbor, a stop at the President’s House offers a contemplative interlude amid the bustling campus. It stands as both architectural anchor and storied witness to the university's evolution—from fledgling institution to national leader. While interior tours are generally private, the exterior’s dignified presence invites reflection on how campus life and leadership have changed, yet maintained a steadfast sense of place since the mid‑19th century.
2
Angell Hall

2) Angell Hall

Angell Hall is an academic building at the University of Michigan. It was previously connected to the University Hall building, which was replaced by Mason Hall and Haven Hall. Angell Hall is named in honor of James Burrill Angell, who was the University's president from 1871 to 1909.

Construction began in 1920, and finished in 1924 at a cost of about $1 million. An addition opened in 1952 adding auditoriums, a classroom wing, and an office wing. The addition replaced old Haven Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1950, the 1841 Mason Hall, and two other buildings.

The building's exterior, particularly the Doric columns, was intended to match that of campus other buildings at the time, including Hill Auditorium, Alumni Memorial Hall, and the Clements Library.

On the front facade, the carving reads, "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The text is taken from the Ordinance of 1787.
3
Nickels Arcade

3) Nickels Arcade

Nickels Arcade is a historical commercial building on South State Street in Ann Arbor. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. The building is notable as perhaps the only remaining example in Michigan of a free-standing commercial arcade building of a type that was popularized by the Cleveland Arcade.

John Nickels owned and operated a meat market at this location on State Street. His grandson Tom Nickels inherited a portion of the property, and bought other portions of the property from his brothers and sister. Nickels hired local architect Hermann Pipp to design this building. Construction began in 1915. The first tenant, the Farmers and Mechanics bank, moved in that year. The entire building, however, was not completed until 1918, due in part to delays caused by the onset of World War I. Nickels owned the Arcade until his death in 1932, when he passed it on to his children, James and Nora.

Nickels Arcade is a 261-foot-long gallery linking State Street on one side to Maynard Street on the other. The principal facade faces onto State Street, and consists of a three-story, three-bay open portico flanked with store and office blocks. The facade is clad with a buff-colored decorative architectural terra cotta. The Maynard Street facade is similar to the State Street facade in design, but is clad primarily with yellow brick, with additional ornamental detailing of terra cotta. The gallery running between the facades is covered with a gable skylight of metal-framed wire-glass panels.

On each side of the gallery are ground-level shops which face onto the roofed passage. These shops are essentially two stories in height, some with a mezzanine level. Upper-story office windows above the commercial spaces also face onto the gallery. The arcade is floored with blocks of square red tile in black borders. The arcade is divided into three sections: the section nearest State Street continues the terra cotta cladding and detailing of the State Street facade. This section is separated from the next by a segmental archway; a similar archway near the other end separates the center section from an entrance vestibule.
4
Michigan Theater

4) Michigan Theater (must see)

The Michigan Theater is a movie palace in Ann Arbor. It shows independent films and stage productions, and hosts musical concerts.

Designed by Detroit-based architect Maurice Finkel and built in 1927, the historic auditorium seats 1610 and features the theater's original 1927 Barton Theatre Pipe Organ, orchestra pit, stage, and elaborate architectural details.

The Michigan Theater opened on January 5, 1928, and was at the time the finest theater in Ann Arbor. The theater not only showed movies, but also hosted vaudeville acts, live concerts, and touring stage plays. Over the years, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Paul Robeson, and Ethel Barrymore all appeared at the theater.

During a renovation in 1956, many of the original ornate designs were destroyed. After a period of low attendance, the theater was threatened with demolition when its 50-year lease to Butterfield Theatres ran out in 1978, but members of the community and local organists helped raise funds to save and renovate the theater, returning it to its original design. A second screen, the Screening Room, with a state-of-the-art sound system, seating for 200, and the ability to project films digitally, was added in 1999.

The Michigan Theater is the current home of the annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Ann Arbor Symphony, and the Ann Arbor Concert Band. The theater has been named Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theaters in 2006.
5
Kempf House Museum

5) Kempf House Museum

The Kempf House Museum, also known as the Henry Bennett House or the Reuben Kempf House, is a house museum in downtown Ann Arbor. It was originally built as a single-family home in 1853. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Henry DeWitt Bennet was the postmaster of Ann Arbor during most of the 1850s. In about 1853, Bennett had this house built. Bennett was later the secretary and steward of the University of Michigan. In 1886 Bennet retired and moved to California, selling his house to a neighbor. The neighbor rented it out for a few years, and in 1890 sold the house to Reuben and Pauline Kempf.

Both Reuben and Pauline Kempf were musicians, and they give music lessons in their house. Pauline taught vocal lessons and Reuben gave piano lessons. The Kempfs were very active in the community music events. Pauline served as the choir director of the Congregational Church, and Reuben was the first organist and choir director at Saint Andrew's. Reuben also served as the music director of the University Glee Club and the Michigan Union Opera.

The Kempfs turned their house into a local center for the musical arts often hosting diverse groups from students to dignitaries. Among their guests are musical figures such as Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Victor Herbert, and Ernestine Schumann-Heink. The Kempfs lived in the house until their deaths: Reuben's in 1945 and Pauline's in 1953.

In 1969 the city of Ann Arbor acquired the house and turned the house into a historic museum. The house has been restored, and includes a music studio that looks as it did when the Kempfs were first giving lessons. The house is open for tours weekly.

The Bennett House is a frame, 1-1/2 story, temple style Greek Revival house sitting on a brick foundation. The facade has four massive, squared Doric columns, along with three frieze windows and a graceful tympanum. A small, two-room addition holding the kitchen, built in the 1890s, is attached to the rear.

Kempf House is open for guided tours on Sundays 1-4pm (except holidays), from September through December, and April through May. Tours are also available by appointment for groups or individuals. Admission is free.
6
Jacob Hoffstetter House

6) Jacob Hoffstetter House

Jacob Hoffstetter House stands as a striking testament to late Victorian elegance. Built in 1887 for German immigrant Jacob Hoffstetter, the two-story red‑brick residence sits proudly on a coursed ashlar foundation. Guests will be drawn to its Queen Anne details—segmental-arched windows capped with carved stone keystones, oculus attic windows, king-post gable ornaments adorned with pierced trefoils, and bracketed cornices gracing the bay windows.

Jacob Hoffstetter emigrated to Ann Arbor at five years old in 1854, joining a wave of German settlers who shaped the city’s cultural character. By 1872, he had built a thriving grocery and saloon on Main Street, living above it with his wife and two sons. With the success of his business, Hoffstetter sold it in 1887 and commissioned this elegant home. Within a year, parts of the house began to serve as lodgings, most notably housing members of the newly formed Alpha Tau Omega fraternity from 1888 to 1894.

In 1937, the house underwent adaptation, converted into apartments with a new southeast entry. Nonetheless, many original wood trims were preserved. Then, in 1980, Peter Heydon restored the structure for mixed commercial and residential use, earning recognition from the Historical Society of Michigan for his careful work.

Today, the Jacob Hoffstetter House endures as one of Ann Arbor’s most handsome late-19th‑century structures and a rare relic of the neighborhood that once surrounded it. Visitors traversing Washington Street are invited to pause and reflect on its architectural flourishes—a tangible echo of the city’s immigrant heritage and the success stories that helped shape its history.
7
Weinmann Block

7) Weinmann Block

The Weinmann Block stands as a finely preserved example of late‑Victorian Italianate commercial architecture, built in two stages in the 1880s–1890s. Originally established by German immigrant John M. Weinmann, the eastern corner section was constructed in 1885 to house his prosperous butcher shop. In 1891, his son Louis and nephew George Stein expanded the block, adding a western portion adorned with ornate galvanized‑iron ornamentation designed to mimic stone detailing, a fashionable and economical technique of the day.

The building’s façade captures the attention of every passerby: arched window pediments, bracketed wooden cornice, and metal‑front fluted pilasters impart a refined elegance to the streetfront. A prominent central pediment on the western half still proudly displays the “Weinmann Block” name and construction date, conveying a sense of architectural storytelling that connects visitors directly to Ann Arbor’s commercial emergence in the nineteenth century.

Throughout the early 1900s, the Weinmann Block remained a bustling center of daily commerce. The original meat market operated until 1937, after which the esteemed Jno. C. Fischer hardware company took residence until the early 1980s. In later years, a development firm sensitively rehabilitated the structure into modern retail and office spaces, most recently featuring the Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant and other downtown establishments, while preserving its historical character.

Today, the Weinmann Block is more than just a building—it is a lively testament to downtown Ann Arbor’s layered history. For tourists, it offers both visual delight and a connection to the city’s story: of immigrant ambition, evolving commerce, and architectural ingenuity. As part of any walking tour of Ann Arbor’s historic core, this building reveals how craftsmanship and community converge on East Washington’s streetscape.
8
First National Bank Building

8) First National Bank Building

The First National Bank Building is a ten‑story limestone- and terra-cotta‑clad structure that first crowned the city skyline upon its completion in 1930. Designed by local architects Fry and Kasurin between 1927 and 1930, it rose as Ann Arbor’s tallest building and was celebrated for its refined blend of Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and subdued Romanesque revival detailing—including broad terra-cotta verticals, decorative gargoyles, and a dignified cornice that crowns the tower.

Commissioned by Michigan’s first nationally chartered bank—established in 1863—the building was more than a financial landmark: it hosted the bank’s main offices and eight floors of professional suites. Nearly 5,000 people attended the grand opening in February 1929, marking the end of a roaring era before the onset of the Great Depression. By 1936, following a merger, the bank departed, and the elegant banking hall was adapted into ground‑floor retail, with offices above—a change that preserved the building’s civic role while reimagining its interior life.

Despite the economic upheavals, the building endured as Ann Arbor’s visual beacon. Floodlit at night in its early years, it remained the city’s tallest structure until the 1980s. Its architectural finesse earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, following purchase and renovation by First Martin Corporation in 1981–82.

Today, the First National Bank Building continues to anchor downtown. Visitors admire its ornamental façade, towering presence on the corner of Main and Liberty, and ornate detailing—especially the restored banking lobby, gargoyles, and terra-cotta craft.
9
Kellogg-Warden House (Museum on Main Street)

9) Kellogg-Warden House (Museum on Main Street)

The Kellogg-Warden House is a single-family house located on North Main Street in Ann Arbor. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. It now houses the Washtenaw County Historical Society's Museum on Main Street.

The Kellogg-Warden House is a side-gable, side hall, Greek Revival half-I-house with a one-and-one-half-story gable-roof rear addition. It measures approximately twenty-six feet by forty-six feet. The house is sided with clapboard, and currently sits on a concrete block foundation, which has been faced with the fieldstones and bricks form the original foundation. The house has a box cornice with returns in the gable ends. The main facade is three bays wide, with the front door at one end. The door is flanked by four fluted pilasters. The windows are primarily double-hung sash units with two-over-two lights, save for a six-over-six window in the attic.

This house was originally located at what is now 1015 Wall Street. Although the date of construction cannot be verified, tax and sales records suggest that the original section of the house was built in about 1835. In 1837, Dan W. Kellogg purchased five contiguous lots, including the one this house sat on. In 1838, Kellogg sold them to his brother-in-law Ethan A. Warden. In 1839, Warden sold two of the lots, including the one containing this house, to his father-in-law (and Dan Kellogg's father) Charles Kellogg, who had moved to the Ann Arbor about this time. The sales prices suggest that the main portion of the house was constructed by Warden before his father-in-law's arrival.

In 1988 the house was sold to the University of Michigan. The University planned to use the land for a parking lot, but recognizing the historical significance, gave the house to the Washtenaw County Historical Society. In 1990, the house was moved to its current location on North Main. The Washtenaw County Historical Society refurbished the house and it now houses the Museum on Main Street.
10
Judge Robert S. Wilson House

10) Judge Robert S. Wilson House

The Judge Robert S. Wilson House, also known as the Wilson-Wahr House, is a historic residence constructed around 1839 for Robert S. Wilson, an attorney who relocated to Ann Arbor from New York in 1835. The house embodies the professional and political legacy of its original owner. Wilson served briefly as a probate judge and later held a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. He lived in the house until 1850 before relocating to Chicago, after which the property was sold to John H. Welles.

Architecturally, the house is a well-preserved example of Greek Revival design, with elements that have drawn attention in architectural surveys of the region. Its most distinctive feature is the temple-style façade, complete with four fluted Ionic columns rising two stories, which architectural historian Fiske Kimball traced to the ancient Temple of the Wingless Victory in Athens. The symmetrical front portico and entry framed by pilasters enhance the building’s classical proportions, while external shutters and a stucco finish over brick complete its formal exterior. A rear addition, thought to have been built by Welles, expanded the structure and added space for a kitchen and servants' quarters.

The interior maintains a period-appropriate layout, with a central hallway and staircase flanked by parlors, and fireplaces in all principal rooms. The house remained in private hands through several generations, including a period when it was rented out by the Wahr family to student organizations. It returned to residential use in the early 20th century and was last known to be owned by Norman and Ilene Tyler after 2002. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

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