University of Michigan 177 years ago.

[AuburnSpeedster]

Back when the University of Michigan was in Detroit instead of Ann Arbor... does anyone know where it was located? And are there any buildings or relics left over from where it once stood?

[Eber Brock Ward]

Pretty sure it was where the parking garage attached to One Detroit Center stands now. There should be a plaque on the exterior of that garage on its northwest corner. Here's a street biew:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/De...76864e35b9c4d2

[EastsideAl]

Here is what the Burton Historical Collection says is a circa 1858 shot of the U of M building in Detroit [[the university had moved to Ann Arbor abut 20 years earlier) on Congress near Bates, just before it was torn down.

[Danny]

That building was called Catholepistemiad at the time before it became the University of Michigania. Now the University of Michigan.

[Detroitdave]

I thought it was where the city county building is on woodward and jefferson ?
There is a plaque on the wall in the lobby , stop by and check it out

[renf]

http://detroit1701.org/Catholepistemiad.html

Bates at Larned

[EastsideAl]

http://detroit1701.org/Catholepistemiad.html

Bates at Larned

Bates and Larned, if it was on the south side of Larned, would put it in the footprint of the City-County Building [[the block of Bates between Larned and Jefferson was removed when that building was built)

That link leads to an extremely interesting story. That ol' Judge Woodward was kind of a crazy guy, with his ornate city plans, his punning street names, his "universal science", and his 13 "didaxim" professorships. No wonder Jefferson exiled his "old friend" to the hinterlands of Detroit.

It also shows that the Detroit history of the university, ummm, excuse me, "Catholepistemiad" [[another piece of Woodward magic), is largely a historic fraud. Anything that anyone could actually call a university really didn't get going until 1841 in Ann Arbor.

Of course, that would mean that U of M is only a scant 14 years older than my old alma mater up in the deep mid-Michigan woodlands.

[EastsideAl]

This 1835 map clearly shows it as located on Bates between Congress and Larned.



So this may be source of the Congress/Larned confusion. That block isn't there anymore, and that location would put it squarely under the western part of the One Detroit Center garage.

[jackie5275]

This 1835 map clearly shows it as located on Bates between Congress and Larned.

Attachment 23045

So this may be source of the Congress/Larned confusion. That block isn't there anymore, and that location would put it squarely under the western part of the One Detroit Center garage.

The attachment isn't opening.

[EastsideAl]

Attachment reposted. Hope it shows now.

[AuburnSpeedster]

This 1835 map clearly shows it as located on Bates between Congress and Larned.



So this may be source of the Congress/Larned confusion. That block isn't there anymore, and that location would put it squarely under the western part of the One Detroit Center garage.

So it appears that it was only one small building? Hardly a university at that point. Thanks for all of the answers everybody. It's hard to find history like this.

[EastsideAl]

So it appears that it was only one small building? Hardly a university at that point. Thanks for all of the answers everybody. It's hard to find history like this.

Yup. the building shown in the above-posted photo in ruins, or shown below in a drawing in a more working condition, seems to be all there was of the ol' Catholepistemiad. And it also seems historically doubtful that it ever really operated as much of a university.

[Hermod]

Thomas Jefferson created the ideal that major universities should be ivory towers in bucolic settings far from the hurley-burley of filthy commerce where scholars could pursue knowledge undisturbed.

[gnome]

I believe Kalamazoo College is the oldest college in Michigan. IIRC the school that would become U of M got its charter in 1817 but didn't graduate anyone until the mid 1830s.

might be wrong, maybe..

[jackie5275]

The attachment isn't opening.

Thank you, Al.

[mikefmich]

UM also had a branch in Romeo, the bldg./house it was located was on Church St, 99% sure it's still standing.

[Hermod]

If Coleman Young was mayor back then he would never have allowed Ann Arbor to steal one of Detroit's jewels like UofM.