The Anti-Suburb

Built up helter-skelter in the 19th century, North Central is the "anti-suburb." The neighborhood's original homes come in every shape and size, from impressive Queen Ann houses to tiny cottages that one longtime resident compares to Southern "shotgun shacks."

Before the passage of open-housing laws in the 1960s, Ann Arbor's apartment complexes were whites-only. During this period, many North Central homes were subdivided and rented out. Many still are, and today, people of all races and incomes rent in the area, from plain, affordable apartments operated by resident landladies to spiffy "creative class" units in the Brewery and the onetime Bethel AME Church.


Other buildings have returned to single-family use. Thirty-five years ago, my 1,400-square-foot house on Fourth Ave. was owned by an absentee landlord and divided into four one-bedroom units. Deb Hollister and Ron Wollock converted it to a two-family, which was the only reason my late wife and I could afford to buy it in 1980. We counted ourselves lucky that when our last tenant moved out ten years later, we were doing well enough to pay the entire mortgage ourselves (and were grateful for the space--by then our daughter was three years old).

Families generally need more space, and that's the most striking change in North Central in the last twenty years: the construction of big new single-family homes and duplexes. Combined with generational turnover in exiting homes, they've brought a welcome boost to our kid count. After many years when our Halloween jack-o-lanterns attracted few or no trick-or-treaters, our Main Street neighbor Kelly Fitzsimmons has revived the tradition. Last fall, for the first time in twenty-eight years, I had to ration my candy--just two per furry creature.

The new one- and two-families were "matter of right" projects, exempt from the planning process. But under Letty Wickliffe and her successors as president, Steve Cattell and Tom Fitzsimmons, NCPOA has consistently supported appropriately designed condos, apartments, and even office buildings (see "Yes In My Backyard").

Over the years, our "anti-suburb" has seen great change. Yet it's also remained astonishingly diverse. And thanks to good zoning and (generally) good design, it still has the neighborhood "look and feel" that welcomes walkers, joggers--and trick-or-treaters.