Historic Map - Ypsilanti, MI - 1868

View of Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County, M.I., 1868 / drawn & published by A. Ruger.

This bird’s-eye view print of Ypsilanti, Michigan was drawn and published by Albert Ruger, Chicago Lith. around 1868. Ypsilanti was settled along the banks of the Huron River in the 1820's, as the prospective Detroit & Chicago link was expected to pass through the site.

Ypsilanti was incorporated as a village in 1832 and named for Demetrius Ypsilanti, a hero of Greece’s war of independence from Ottoman rule.

The village maintained important flouring mills in the early days. A dam, built in 1847 on the river, enhanced Ypsilanti’s manufacturing interests. At various times, Ypsilanti held broom factories, pump factories, brick yards, lime kilns, bucket factories, spoke factories, agricultural implement factories and many others.

The Cornwall Paper Mills were established here in 1855. The mills burned down in the early 1870s and new paper mills were built in 1874 by Cornelius Cornwall and family, adopting the name Ypsilanti Paper Company. Another firm, Peninsular Paper Company, began operations in 1868 at a large complex of buildings just outside of town.

Ypsilanti re-incorporated as a city in 1858.

The illustration includes labeled roads, buildings, waterways and railroad route.

Features references to the following locations:

• State Normal School.
• Union School.
• Baptist Church.
• Presbyterian Church.
• Episcopal Church.
• Methodist Church.
• Catholic Church.
• Second Advent Church.
• Lutheran Church.
• M. C. R. R. Depot.
• Highland Cemetery.