Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States

🇺🇸 psilanti commonly shortened to Ypsi, is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan, best known as the home of Eastern Michigan University. The city is bounded to the north by Superior Township and on the west, south, and east by Ypsilanti Township. Ypsilanti is the historic site of the Michigan State Normal College, now Eastern Michigan University, the fourth normal school (teachers' college) established in the United States. Ypsilanti was home to the historical campus of the Cleary Business College, now Cleary University currently located in Livingston County, Michigan. It is also the location of the first Domino's Pizza restaurant.

History Originally a trading post established in 1809 by a French-Canadian fur trader from Montreal, a permanent settlement was established on the east side of the Huron River in 1823 by Major Thomas Woodruff. It was incorporated into the Territory of Michigan as the village Woodruff's Grove. A separate community a short distance away on the west side of the river was established in 1825 under the name "Ypsilanti", after Demetrios Ypsilantis, a hero in the Greek War of Independence. Woodruff's Grove changed its name to Ypsilanti in 1829, the year its namesake effectively won the war for Greek Independence at the Battle of Petra, with the two communities eventually merging. A bust of Demetrios Ypsilantis by Greek sculptor Christopher Nastos stands between a Greek and a US flag at the base of the landmark Ypsilanti Water Tower.

Ypsilanti has played an important role in the automobile industry. From 1920 to 1922, Apex Motors produced the "ACE" car. The quarter mile stretch of land along Michigan Avenue became a hub for car dealerships starting in 1912 when the first car dealership opened, and ending in the 1990s when the last dealership closed. This area has been referred to as "The Amazing Quarter Mile" and was eventually added to the Ypsilanti Historic District. This site is part of a collection of parcels known as the Water Street Redevelopment Area. It was in Ypsilanti that Preston Tucker (whose family owned the Ypsilanti Machine Tool Company) designed and built the prototypes for his Tucker '48. Tucker's story was related in the film Tucker: The Man and His Dream, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

In 1945, Henry J. Kaiser and Joseph W. Frazer bought the nearby Willow Run B-24 Liberator bomber plant from Ford Motor Company, and started to make Kaiser and Frazer model cars in 1947. The last Kaiser car made in Ypsilanti rolled off the assembly line in 1953, when the company merged with Willys-Overland and moved production to Toledo, Ohio. General Motors purchased the Kaiser Frazer plant, and converted it into its Hydramatic Division (now called its Powertrain division), beginning production in November 1953. The GM Powertrain Division ceased production at this facility in 2010.

Ypsilanti is also the location of the last Hudson automobile dealership. Today, the former dealership is the site of the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Collection. The museum is the home to an original Fabulous Hudson Hornet race car, which inspired the character Doc Hudson in the 2006 Pixar animated film Cars.

In the early 1970s, the citizens reduced the penalty for the use and sale of marijuana to $5 (the Ypsilanti Marijuana Initiative; see also the Human Rights Party).

In 1979, Faz Husain was elected to the Ypsilanti city council, the first Muslim and the first native of India to win elected office in Michigan.

In the 1990s Ypsilanti became the first city in Michigan to pass a living wage ordinance.

On July 23, 2007, Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that Ypsilanti, along with the cities of Caro and Clio, was chosen by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) to take part in the Blueprints for Michigan's Downtowns program. The award provides for an economic development consultant to assist Ypsilanti in developing a growth and job creation strategy for the downtown area.

Timeline • 1809 – Trading post established by French-Canadian Gabriel Godfroy from Montreal • 1823 – Village of Woodruff's Grove platted • 1825 – April 21, Plat recorded under the name Ypsilanti • 1827 – Ypsilanti Township organized • 1832 – June 19, Woodruff's Grove re-organized and incorporated as the Village of Ypsilanti • 1849 – Eastern Michigan University founded as Michigan State Normal School • 1858 – February 4, the Village of Ypsilanti reincorporated as a city • 1890 – Michigan's first interurban, the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Street Railway, begins service • 1890 – The Ypsilanti Water Tower is completed • 1929 – Miller Motors Hudson opens, it eventually becomes the last Hudson dealership in the world • 1931 – McKenny Union opens as the first student union on the campus of a teachers' college. • 1959 – Eastern Michigan becomes a university • 1960 – Tom Monaghan and James Monaghan found Domino's Pizza as DomiNick's Pizza at 507 W. Cross St, Ypsilanti. • 1967 – Ypsilanti resident John Norman Collins is suspected of being the perpetrator of the Michigan murders, a series of murders of female students at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. He was convicted in 1969, but of only one of the murders. • 1990 – Eastern Michigan University achieves its highest student enrollment of 26,000 • 1998 – The Michigan Firehouse Museum is established preserving a firehouse built in 1898.

Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.47 square miles (11.58 km²), of which 4.29 square miles (11.11 km²) is land and 0.18 square miles (0.47 km²) (4.02%) is water.

The Huron River flows through Ypsilanti with Ford Lake on the southern edge of the city. Paint Creek also runs through the city. The Border-to-Border Trail runs through the city.

Arts and culture Domino's Pizza was founded in Ypsilanti in 1960 near the campus of Eastern Michigan University.

By 1963, Clara Owens established the Ypsilanti Greek Theater in Ypsilanti, Michigan for the performance of Greek theater productions.

In 1966 the Ypsilanti Greek Theater opened at the EMU Baseball field. Bert Lahr and Dame Judith Anderson starred in two productions, The Oresteia, a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus and The Birds by playwright Aristophanes.

Since 1979, the city has become known for summer festivals in the part of the city called "Depot Town", which is adjacent to both Riverside and Frog Island Parks along the banks of the Huron River. Festivals include the annual Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, Michigan ElvisFest, the Orphan Car Festival, the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival, the former Frog Island Festival, and a Latino festival.

Painter Fay Kleinman moved to Ypsilanti in the late 1980s with her husband, pianist Emanuel Levenson.

Overlooking Riverside Park is the non-profit Riverside Arts Center. Established in 1994 through the efforts of the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority and several public spirited citizens, the Riverside boasts a 115-seat black box theater, a sizable art gallery and some meeting rooms and offices. In 2006 the adjacent DTE building was renovated with "Cool Cities Initiative" money and is in the process of being incorporated into the center's activities.

Since 2013, Ypsilanti has participated in First Fridays, an arts and culture-based monthly event that features a self-guided tour of participating businesses highlighting local artists, and often free samples of food and drink. The same organization that coordinates the Ypsilanti First Friday event series coordinates Ypsi Pride, established in 2017, and the Festival of the Honey Bee. Ypsi Pride takes place on the first Friday in June and seeks to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture across the community by hosting a variety of family friendly programming, entertainment, and educational content.

Sites of interest Ypsilanti has the second largest contiguous historic district in the state of Michigan, behind only the much larger city of Grand Rapids. The Ypsilanti Historic District includes both downtown Ypsilanti, along Michigan Avenue, and the Depot Town area adjacent to Frog Island Park and Riverside Park, which features many specialty shops, bars and grills, and a farmers' market.

The Tridge is a three-way wooden footbridge under the Cross Street bridge over the Huron River. The Tridge connects Riverside Park, Frog Island Park, and Depot Town.

The Ypsilanti Water Tower, adjacent to the campus of Eastern Michigan University, holds the unique distinction of being the winner of the Most Phallic Building contest.

Other sites of interest include: • Ypsilanti District Library • Ypsilanti Historical Museum (housed in a Victorian mansion built in 1860) • Automotive Heritage Museum • Michigan Firehouse Museum • Ypsilanti Water Tower, built in 1890 • Ypsilanti Food Co-op • Highland Cemetery, founded in 1864 • Pease Auditorium, built in 1914 (on the campus of Eastern Michigan University) • Starkweather House, built circa 1840 • Starkweather Hall, built in 1896 as a student religious center • Peninsular Paper Dam • Ladies' Literary Club Building, built in approximately 1843 • Brinkerhoff–Becker House, built in 1863–69

Parks and recreation There are many parks within the city limits of Ypsilanti, including: • Border to Border Trail • Prospect Park • Riverside Park, which hosts the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival, Michigan ElvisFest, and Michigan Summer Beer Festival • Frog Island Park • Rutherford Municipal Pool, which re-opened in 2014 after community members raised $1 million for reconstruction

Education Ypsilanti Community Schools serve residents of the city, as well as parts of Ypsilanti Township and Superior Township. Ypsilanti Public Schools and Willow Run Community Schools merged to form a new, united district on July 1, 2013. Charter schools in the city include Arbor Preparatory High School.

It also was the setting of a well known and long running High/Scope Perry Preschool Study regarding the effects of early childhood education in children. The study researched the effects of preschool on the later lives of low income children from the area.

Global Educational Excellence operates the Global Tech Academy (PreK-5) in nearby Ypsilanti Township.

Education: University A college town, Ypsilanti is home to Eastern Michigan University, founded in 1849 as Michigan State Normal School. Today, Eastern Michigan University has 17,500+ undergraduate and more than 4,800 graduate students. As well, Ypsilanti is home to Washtenaw Community College (WCC) sponsored off-site extension center.

Media Ypsilanti is served by daily newspapers from Detroit. Ypsilanti once had its own daily newspaper, the Ypsilanti Press, but that paper closed June 28, 1994, after 90 years in business. Upon closing, the Press sold its masthead, archives and subscriber list to The Ann Arbor News, which then began publishing an Ypsilanti edition. The Ann Arbor News ceased publication on July 23, 2009; it was replaced by a new Internet-based news operation, AnnArbor.com, which also produces print editions on Thursdays and Sundays. A weekly newspaper, the Ypsilanti Courier, is published every Thursday by Heritage Media from their Saline, Michigan offices. The only newspaper currently operating in Ypsilanti is Eastern Michigan University's independent newspaper The Eastern Echo.

Local radio stations include: • WEMU FM (89.1 FM), a public radio station, which broadcasts jazz and blues music and NPR news from Eastern Michigan University • WQBR (610 AM carrier-current and University Cable Channel 10), EMU's student-run radio station • WDEO (990 AM), a Catholic religious radio station targeting the Detroit area • WSDS (1480 AM), licensed to nearby Salem and a former longtime country-music station, now broadcasts Spanish-language popular music as "La Explosiva" and has studios in Ypsilanti. • WAAM (1600 AM), a conservative Talk and News station serving Washtenaw County. Broadcasting local talk, sports and music shows. Owned by First Broadcasting.

Major highways • I-94 forms part of the southern boundary of the city. • US 12 (Michigan Avenue) runs concurrently with I-94 through the city. •

Bus. US 12 is a business loop route through downtown Ypsilanti. • M-17 (Washtenaw Avenue) runs though the city and connects to Ann Arbor. • The Border-to-Border Trail winds through Ypsilanti, linking the city to Ann Arbor and (eventually) Dexter.

Transport: Bus • The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority operates bus service in the area, with ten routes serving the Ypsilanti Transit Center on Pearl Street. A new Ypsilanti Transit Center is scheduled to open in 2026 to accommodate additional services.