A2 Communities​
Ann Arbor and surrounding Washtenaw County, with a combined population of about 350,000, provide an outstanding place to live and work. Whether you choose to live in Ann Arbor, or in one of the other delightful communities in the greater Ann Arbor area, you'll find a wonderful mix of city advantages and scenic beauty. Water is a major theme here, with every one of our cities and towns sited on or near a river or lake. You'll find lots of parkland, too: 150 parks within the city of Ann Arbor, and thousands of acres of parks throughout the county. If golf is your passion, you'll find plenty of holes to play, with 23 public courses in Ann Arbor and the surrounding area, including courses in Ypsilanti, Saline, Milan, Dexter, Chelsea, and Whitmore Lake. A number of private courses can be found as well.
Yet, while surrounded by all of this natural beauty, you'll also find that Ann Arbor is less than an hour from the big city advantages of Detroit, with its major symphony and museums, its professional sports teams, and extraordinary shopping. Within a four hour drive of Ann Arbor are Chicago and Toronto, or take a 25-minute trip to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the world is at your feet. Amtrak makes several stops daily in Ann Arbor, connecting passengers to over 450 locations across the country.
There is a very broad range of major employers countywide, many of them located in and near Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan, the UM Health System, Visteon, and the St. Joseph Mercy Health System are among the area's leading employers. These opportunities allow many of the county's residents to work quite close to home; other residents commute less than an hour to greater Detroit or Lansing.
Whether it's life in a college town that you prefer, or the appeal of a small town conveniently located to a larger urban area, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County has it all. Read on to learn more about the area. Come see why our home is well-loved by so many!
Neighborhood info courtesy of the Ann Arbor Observer City Guide.
Neighborhoods:
Abbot | Angell | Bach | Burns Park | Dicken | Haisley | King | Lakewood | Lawton | Logan | Mitchell | Northside | Mack Open | Thurston | Wines
Abbot Neighborhood
Abbot Elementary School | 2670 Sequoia Parkway | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
The M-14 freeway divides the Abbot area. The small starter homes east of the highway offer some of the most affordable housing in Ann Arbor. West of M-14, newer rural residential development carpets onetime farmland between Wagner and Zeeb; these Scio Township lots are typically big enough to require a riding lawn mower.
The outer fringes of Abbot dip south of Jackson to include the 900-unit Scio Farms manufactured-home community. Around Abbot School itself, the flat and quiet streets along Sequoia in the Hollywood Park subdivision are conveniently close to highway access ramps and the commercial strip along Maple and Stadium.
With a new Plum Market in Maple Village and Skyline High, which opened in September 2008, this is becoming a less sleepy corner of town. Multifamily housing is available at the sprawling Arbor Landings apartments on Dexter west of Maple. Abbot schoolchildren graduate to Forsythe Middle School and Skyline High.
Angell Neighborhood
Angell Elementary School | 1608 S University Ave | Ann Arbor, MI 48104
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Named for the U-M’s longest-serving president, the Angell School area includes a piece of student housing near the university. Most of it, however, is dominated by large, secluded homes along winding streets in the lovely hills south of the Huron River and east of downtown.
Angell’s boundaries include the U-M’s Nichols Arboretum, a hilly, wooded natural area sloping down to the Huron River. East of the Arb, the streets north of Geddes are lined with large, stately older homes built in the 1920s and 1930s. Perched on the slopes overlooking the river are newer custom-built houses, many of them architecturally significant. South of Geddes are the winding, wooded streets of one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, Ann Arbor Hills. Here the custom design of each house projects an individualized vision of the good life.
Angell Elementary grads go on to Tappan Middle School and Huron High. Children bused to Angell from two outlying neighborhoods—U-M family housing on North Campus, and the Golfside Lakes apartments along Washtenaw east of US-23 in Pittsfield Township—go on to Scarlett Middle School.
Bach Neighborhood
Bach Elementary School | 600 West Jefferson Street | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
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Bach is home to some of Ann Arbor’s oldest neighborhoods, including 13 historic districts and numerous historic properties. Nearly every house has a porch, sidewalks are well traveled, and downtown is within a 10-minute walk. The north end of downtown, historically an economically and racially diverse area including the Old Fourth Ward Historic District, is now increasingly gentrified, with rehabbed single-family homes as well as new homes and condos, but also a large contingent of student renters.
The quaint old homes, many of which have won historic preservation awards, are just a few minutes’ walk from the Farmers’ Market, the People’s Food Co-op, Zingerman’s, and Kerrytown Market & Shops. Northwest of downtown, north of Miller, houses are set close to the sidewalk on narrow lots. The result is a warm street life, with porch sitters, bike riders, and kids playing on the sidewalk. Always racially mixed, this neighborhood, too, has become more gentrified with young professionals. Rentals are common.
Nestled in a valley between Huron and Miller, West Park has a band shell, a baseball diamond, and a great view of downtown from sloping lawns and walks. The surrounding area has a blend of families and older residents, thanks in part to the presence of Miller Manor, the city-owned apartment building for senior and disabled citizens, and the Lurie Terrace senior apartment high-rise.
The Old West Side—the neighborhood just west of downtown between Huron and Pauline—is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its claim to fame is not the grandeur but the simplicity of its architecture: most homes are small Victorians originally built by 19th-century German workmen. Many have been painstakingly restored, and their owners proudly show them off in an annual home tour. In exchange for some of the highest prices per square foot in the city, buyers get shady streets, neighbors on porches, houses with character, and a fabulous location. A minor student presence is concentrated around First St. in small apartment buildings. The 208-unit Nob Hill apartment complex is integrated into the neighborhood’s southern edge; the Ashley Mews condos are farther north, between Ashley and Main.
Since the 1980s, rehabbers also have been rescuing long-vacant upstairs apartments in downtown commercial buildings and turning them into lofts. South of Pauline, single-family bungalows, small ranches, and a few story-and-a-halfs (most built after World War II) thread outward from Allmendinger Park, a center of activity with its softball diamonds, playground, tennis and basketball courts, and picnic facilities. Lilacs line its perimeter.
Bach kids living north of a line that runs along Arborview, Miller, Brooks, and W. Summit can choose whether to go to Forsythe or Slauson for middle school; the others go to Slauson. Bach also serves the newer subdivisions of townhouses and densely packed homes bounded by S. Main, Ann Arbor- Saline Rd., and Eisenhower Pkwy.; children in this triangle go on to Tappan Middle School. Bach kids who live north of Huron are in Skyline High’s area, while the rest go to Pioneer.
Burns Park Neighborhood
Burns Park Elementary School | 1414 Wells St | Ann Arbor, MI 48104
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Blocks of tree-canopied streets and beautiful old homes set around a historic park and school, as well as its location near both U-M's campus and downtown--make Burns Park one of the city's most desirable and expensive neighborhoods.
Northeast of the park, the shady streets climb the gentle slopes of the area known as Ives Woods, which has one of the highest median household incomes in Ann Arbor. Even higher in income is the area north of Washtenaw, where expensive homes on large, wooded lots, including some new construction, dot the streets stretching east toward Huron Pkwy.
Burns Park includes the South University business district, home to the 18-story, 240-unit University Towers apartments-ugly to some, but home to Madonna back in the day. After it was built in the 1960s the city slapped a height limit on the area that lasted forty years. When it was finally lifted in the mid-2000s, developers quickly responded with new luxury student high-rises, including the ten-story Zaragon Place on East University and the fourteen-story Landmark, cater-corner from U Towers.
Near Packard and Hill, older houses occupied by longtime residents mingle with large fraternity, sorority, and cooperative houses and student apartment buildings. More student rentals sprinkle "Lower Burns Park" west of Packard, though recent zoning changes seek to halt any further advance. Adults predominate in the 262-unit Ann Arbor Woods apartments on East Stadium.
Students from the immediate Burns Park area all go to Tappan Middle School, but then they split, with those north of Washtenaw going to Huron High and the rest to Pioneer. Students also are bused in to Burns Park from Arbor Pointe, with 280 apartments across from Washtenaw Community College, and the huge Glencoe Hills complex, whose 584 units extend from Washtenaw to Clark east of US-23. Students from these areas go on to Scarlett Middle School (except for a few living north of Clark who are in the Clague area) and to Huron High.
Dicken Neighborhood
Dicken Elementary School | 2135 Runnymede Boulevard | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
The area around Dicken Elementary is dominated by single-family ranches and two-story homes built in the 1960s. This family-friendly neighborhood is bounded on the northeast by Stadium, on the south by Scio Church, and on the west by I-94.
The older brick homes surrounding the school are simple and unassuming, with tidy lawns on quiet, shaded streets. Small parks are sprinkled throughout the area. Mushroom Park is known for its comical ceramic fungi, Las Vegas Park has a soccer field and playground, and Greenview Park, on the west side of Seventh St., provides a natural retreat for dog walkers and picnickers.
Dicken Woods, at Pauline and Maple, became a city park after neighborhood residents beat back plans to build a housing development there; it remains undeveloped except for new pathways through thickets. Hundreds of condominiums, townhouses, and apartment units are stashed near S. Maple and Pauline, including Country Village, Maple Meadows, Park Place, Surrey Park, and Walden Hills. Residents are close to several shopping centers and to restaurants, gas stations, and the many stores along Maple and Stadium.
On former croplands southwest of I-94 and north of Scio Church can be found the Ravines and Meadowinds developments, with amenities like tennis courts and playgrounds. West of Upland Drive, the 1990s-era Uplands subdivision offers slightly larger brick and wood residences, often with decks, and more housing variety, with a mix of modern and traditional styles. Between the Uplands and Wagner Rd. are the upscale homesites of Tuscany Ridge. Also attending Dicken are residents of the Woodchase Apartments and the subdivisions along Scio Ridge Road south of Liberty. Dicken students go on to attend Slauson Middle School and Pioneer High School.
Eberwhite Neighborhood
Eberwhite Elementary School | 800 Soule Boulevard | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
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Eberwhite is perhaps the most cohesive elementary school area in the city. Located on the former property of Eber White, an early settler who helped fugitive slaves escape to Canada, this neighborhood has a mix of homes of different eras, all within a few blocks of Eberwhite Woods, one of the city’s most beautiful, secluded natural areas.
The school and its grounds were carved out of the southeast corner of the oak-hickory woods in 1950, adjoining a neighborhood of broad, hilly, tree-lined streets and predominantly two-story homes built between the two world wars.
In the 1960s subdivisions wrapped around the south and west edges, but the woods have remained safe from development, nurtured by a school-based stewardship group. They have walking trails, a profusion of spring wildflowers, and three ponds, one of which lies in a natural amphitheater and is the site of cacophonous early-spring concerts by frenzied spring peepers.
North of Liberty, the Virginia Park area has many two-family duplexes and Cape Cods. Behind the strip of fast-food joints along Stadium is a mixed neighborhood of small homes and apartments. South of Pauline, 1950s- and 1960s-era neighborhoods stretch toward Stadium, where apartment and condominium complexes rise along the neighborhood’s southern boundary.
Eberwhite graduates all go to Slauson Middle School and to Pioneer High, both within walking distance.
Haisley Neighborhood
Haisley Elementary School | 825 Duncan Street | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Haisley School draws from two separate areas: the compact neighborhood around the school and the newer subdivisions between Liberty and I-94 in Scio Township. Students in the older neighborhood can choose Forsythe or Slauson middle school; elsewhere, all attend Forsythe. Both areas are Skyline High turf.
Close to the school the ranches, Cape Cods, and colonials are small and the streets are social. Some were built as recently as the late 1980s; others have been around since the 1940s. Nearby, Miller Nature Area is a hidden pocket of woods.
During the summer months, neighbors gather to stay cool at Veterans Memorial Park Pool on Jackson near Maple. At the park, the evenings come alive with the crack of bats and the sound of wild cheering as softball, baseball, and kickball teams compete. In the winter, children slide down the steep hills behind the indoor skating rink.
Outside the beltway in Scio Township, kids are bused in from the new developments along Jackson. Big-box stores, light industry, and chain restaurants keep springing up along the corridor, providing a commercial node for the condos and subdivisions, in line with the township’s plan to concentrate development there and try to preserve rural character elsewhere.
Southwest of the Jackson-Wagner intersection are three cohousing developments—Sunward, Great Oak, and Touchstone—where individually owned, condolike units cluster around a common house with shared service and social areas. The Polo Fields, off Zeeb north of Liberty, is a classic late-20th-century subdivision, with massive homes clustering around a golf course and country club. Beyond, Scio’s dirt roads are dotted with individual country houses, large and small.
King Neighborhood
Martin Luther King Elementary School | 3800 Waldenwood Dr | Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Nestled in an upscale, woodsy 1960s subdivision on the northeast side, King Elementary draws students from both sides of US-23 and is known for its diverse international population with families at the school representing more than 25 countries.
The winding streets north of Glazier offer colonial, ranch, and tri-level homes. Young families, retirees, and single people live in King's mature subdivisions and apartment buildings. On the hilly terrain south of Glazier are contemporary custom-built homes on big lots in natural settings, with neatly landscaped townhouses and condominiums along Huron Parkway.
East of US-23 is a growing area of low-density development with prime freeway access and office parks. Off Dixboro Rd. are Radrick Meadows and Fleming Creek, both with large single-family homes. Farther east, off Gale, is the retreatlike Matthaei Farm community, with expensive custom-built homes. South of Geddes, private drives wind away to carefully isolated riverfront mansions, as well as the elegant Towsley Farms and Geddes Glen developments.
The 501-unit GreenBrier and 216-unit Village Park apartment complexes are within walking distance of King. Other students are bused from Arrowwood Hills Cooperative (350 townhouse units) and the luxurious 520-unit Village Green on Dixboro Rd.
Major condominiums include the 174-unit Earhart Village, the luxury 103-unit Laurel Gardens along Dixboro Rd., and the 360-unit Geddes Lake on Huron Pkwy.-a resident calls Geddes Lake "an island of affordability" in the city's pricey east side. Clague Middle School and Huron High serve the entire King area.
Lakewood Neighborhood
Lakewood Elementary School | 344 Gralake Avenue | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
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Lakewood Elementary, off Jackson west of I-94, is set in a compact neighborhood of colonials, small ranches, and custom-built tri-levels. The nearby freeway is a mixed blessing, generating easy access but also traffic noise that’s only partially muted by the neighborhood’s many trees.
Westgate shopping center, the Quality 16 movie complex, Liberty Athletic Club, and many stores are a short hop away. Yet, in the midst of all this bustle, the neighborhood slopes down to the unspoiled, grassy shores of tiny First Sister and Second Sister lakes and Dolph Park.
To the immediate southeast of the school are the Liberty Pointe and Liberty Oaks condos and the Burr Oak subdivision. Another substantial condominium development, the massive 130-unit Summerfield Glen, is across Liberty. The rest of the Lakewood area is in southern Scio Township and northern Lodi Township.
Kids are bused from the Orchard Grove manufactured-home community on Wagner and from subdivisions nearby. Outside the subs, big houses on park-size lawns intermix with the remaining farms, with their rustic red and white barns on stone foundations, towering grain silos, split-rail or white picket fences, and occasional horse pastures and stables.
Expensive new homes have sprung up in several areas, including a cluster on Tessmer off Waters where houses are separated by fields of wildflowers, and Pheasant Hollow on Scio Church east of Zeeb, where executive homes perch on sprawling, hilly lots. Across the street is another subdivision on Encore, and to the west is Sandy Creek, with three-to-six-acre homesites and equestrian trails.
Some developments are well established, such as the Country French Estates subdivision in the Lakewood area’s northwest corner. East of Zeeb is the Arbor Meadows development, with stonework facades and landscaped lawns. In Saginaw Hills Estates, modern brick and stone homes and decks rise above impressively large landscaped lawns. Lakewood students who live north of Liberty go on to Forsythe and to Skyline High; those who live south go to Slauson and Pioneer.
Lawton Neighborhood
Lawton Elementary School | 2250 South 7th Street | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
The Lawton School area includes established neighborhoods inside the freeway ring, new ones to the southwest in Pittsfield Township, a section of rural Lodi Township to the west, and Pinelake Village Cooperative, a 1960s-vintage federal project on S. Maple.
All students go on to Slauson Middle School and Pioneer High. Around the school itself, south of Scio Church, a variety of ranches, colonials, tri-levels, and traditionals were built from the mid-1960s through the 1970s, although a few are newer. Close to I-94 is Meadowbrook Village, a collection of two-story apartment buildings. On Northbrook behind the apartment complex are simple two-story homes. Here kids play in the yards or nearby Meadowbrook Park.
The Arbor Creek and Boulder Ridge subdivisions hug the west side of I-94, tucked behind the Village Centre shops. Arbor Creek provides large two-story cul-de-sac homes with tidy lawns. The colonial-style Boulder Ridge has a play park, and the two sub-divisions share a common area with a walking path. South of Waters is the Hawthorne Ridge subdivision, whose two-story homes boast big garages and vaulted brick entranceways.
Beyond the Lake Forest golf club lie small brick ranches, two-story houses, and open fields; homes are set far back down long driveways. Farther west, Lodi Township still has active farms. Some horse farms, complete with white wooden fences, cluster along Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. Along Wagner are older country homes with vegetable gardens and big yards with lots of trees, and sometimes even a tractor or dilapidated barn. There are fields of wildflowers along the road and open expanses of farmland.
Neighborhoods:
Abbot | Angell | Bach | Burns Park | Dicken | Haisley | King | Lakewood | Lawton | Logan | Mitchell | Northside | Mack Open | Thurston | Wines
Logan Neighborhood
Logan Elementary School | 2685 Traver Road | Ann Arbor, MI 48105
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This is the largest elementary school area in the district, stretching out from the city into portions of four townships: Ann Arbor, Northfield, Salem, and Superior. The area is ethnically diverse, with one of the highest concentrations of Asian Americans in the city. Many people have settled on this side of town for its convenient access to metropolitan Detroit. Some of the city’s newest subdivisions are located off Dhu Varren, including Foxfire and Dhu Varren Park.
Several apartment complexes sit along Plymouth and Nixon roads, including senior and low-income buildings; a new development, Plymouth Green Crossings, offers ranch- and townhouse-style loft condos above first-floor retail hugging wetlands with paths for walking and jogging.
The Plymouth Road Mall and Traver Village complexes offer residents nearby grocery stores, restaurants, and a coffee shop. The district library’s new Traverwood Branch stands nearby. Logan School itself is surrounded by modest single-family homes and the Traver Ridge apartment complex. The Logan area stretches north of US-23 and east into Salem and Superior townships.
Beyond the reach of public sewer and water, homes here are on large lots of two acres or more. In the Pine Brook Estates subdivision off Gleaner Hall, north of Pontiac, homes cluster on one-acre lots around a 22-acre common area that includes several ponds. The 100-home Tanglewood community, south of M-14 and east of Dixboro, features multistory contemporary homes on large lots. From Logan, students go on to Clague Middle School. Those living east of Nixon go to Huron High; the rest go on to Skyline.
Mitchell Neighborhood
Mitchell Elementary School | 3550 Pittsview Drive | Ann Arbor, MI 48108
This area includes the neighborhoods straddling Platt Road south of Packard and winds its way eastward past Showcase Cinemas and as far south as the intersection of Carpenter and Merritt. Young families find the neighborhood near the school appealing: the prices are modest for Ann Arbor, and shopping and schools are nearby. Houses range from small three-bedroom ranches to a few two-story colonials on modest lots on both sides of Platt.
The 210-home Turnberry subdivision on Packard just west of US-23 is slightly more expensive and caters to an older crowd. The affordable Colonial Square Cooperative on Platt attracts a mix of older families, retirees, and a few young families. The branching trails of the Scarlett-Mitchell Nature Area provide breathing space near the school. Mitchell’s area extends across US-23 to include the apartment complexes that mingle with the big-box stores and restaurants on the west side of Carpenter.
Farther south in Pittsfield Township are Arbor Meadows, a 408-lot manufactured-housing community, and the Oakengates and Willow Pond subdivisions, set amid older individual homes on large lots. Mitchell children go on to Scarlett Middle School and Huron High.
Northside Neighborhood
Northside School | 912 Barton Drive | Ann Arbor, MI 48105
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Long known as Lower Town, this portal to the northeast side is in transition. The apartments and condominiums along Wall St. and Maiden Lane, a location favored by the U-M’s medical students and residents, have been joined by a small condo project, Kessler Commons. Despite a groundbreaking in early 2008, little progress is apparent on the ambitious Broadway Village development, which promises multifamily housing, a health club, medical offices, retail, and restaurants.
The neighborhood has some of the city’s oldest surviving houses, such as the Beckley House, built in New England Georgian style, at Pontiac and Argo. It was once a stop on the Underground Railroad, and schoolchildren used to take field trips there to see where the slaves hid. Rising northward from the river, the Broadway neighborhood combines rental housing with older single-family houses on large, well-kept lots on and near Cedar Bend, a street that offers spectacular views of the Huron River valley and leads down a rutted drive to Cedar Bend Nature Area.
Many older homes have been rehabilitated, and the area has become more popular with families who have young children. In the established, low-key, well-integrated neighborhoods off Pontiac, neighbors fix their cars, children play tag in the streets, and retirees sit in rockers on the porch. Closer to the river, on Longshore, the houses are bigger and the street less social.
A popular boardwalk along Barton near the river provides scenic and safe pedestrian access to Bandemer Park and combines with a bicycle path to complete a walking and biking loop around Argo Pond. Farther up Pontiac, the brick Cape Cods off Brookside and Skydale in the Huron Highlands area are home to families, retirees, and singles.
Across the street is the 350-unit Arrowwood Hills Cooperative, an affordable townhouse complex built in the late 1960s. Its diverse members participate in many shared programs and have cooperative garden plots. Carrot Way Apartments is a 30-unit affordable housing complex off Dhu Varren, near several subdivisions of large single-family homes.
Leslie Park, with its golf course and nature area, combines with the new Olson Park to provide ample recreation space. The area south of Plymouth and west of Huron Pkwy. is dominated by the U-M’s North Campus, a mixture of classroom and research buildings, residence halls, and rental apartments and townhouses for students and staff.
South of Plymouth, off Hubbard, married U-M students live in a large complex of townhouses called Northwood V. Half of the residents are from abroad, and nearly all have young families. Their kids are bused to Northside, which historically has been one of the most diverse elementary schools in town. The school’s annual potluck is an international feast. The Huron River Plaza apartments and high-rise Huron Towers on Fuller Ct. augment the U-M’s Baits Houses to create a densely settled neighborhood dominated by students. Almost all of the residents in the North Campus neighborhood are renters. Northside is in the Clague Middle School and Skyline High areas, except for North Campus, where children are bused to Tappan and then go to Huron High.
Open @ Mack Neighborhood
Open @ Mack School | 920 Miller Road | Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Ann Arbor Open offers a radical educational alternative to students, teachers, and parents in the Ann Arbor Public School District. Parents and Teachers founded Ann Arbor Open in the belief that children come to school already immersed in their learning and have their own strengths and interests. We seek to support the individual and provide guidance, stimulation, and support. Ann Arbor Open strives to be a leading educational force in open education.
As an open school, Ann Arbor Open promotes social and emotional development. Children learn to share knowledge and feelings, to solve interpersonal problems, to develop common goals, and to respect each other's values. The emphasis is on challenging students individually based on cooperation rather than competition. Freedom, responsibility, self-discipline, and consideration of others are learned by daily practice. When combined with the richness of the school's diverse population and a daily commitment to multicultural education, these various components challenge the barriers of sexism, racism, and classism.
Pittsfield Neighborhood
Pittsfield Elementary School | 2543 Pittsfield Boulevard | Ann Arbor, MI 48104
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The two established, modest neighborhoods that make up the Pittsfield School area are surrounded by commercial strips lined with superstores, party stores, and fast-food chains. Small starter homes line the streets around the school. Anchoring the neighborhood is the 422-unit Village Cooperative Homes; laid out in 1943, it has winding streets and sweeping, parklike yards. The many children in the area enjoy a neighborhood pool and swim club.
To the southeast, kids are bused from the shady streets of the 1960s-era neighborhood off Golfside between Woodside and Ellsworth. The Silverleaf subdivision near Golfside and Ellsworth is composed mostly of two-story homes. The newer University Palisades subdivision off Ellsworth closer to Carpenter offers ranches, colonials, and split-colonials. Pittsfield students attend Scarlett Middle School and Huron High.
Thurston Neighborhood
Thurston Elementary School | 2300 Prairie Street | Ann Arbor, MI 48105
The area north of Plymouth and east of Nixon is a well-manicured mixture of subdivisions, condominiums, townhouses, and apartment complexes. Business professionals, U-M faculty and staff, children, and retirees all mix in this diverse area. The single-family subdivisions west of Green were first known as Ford Motor Company neighborhoods, for their high commuter population.
Young families are very much in evidence. The neighborhoods are fairly stable, with an extremely high rate of home ownership. Many children live within walking distance of school, and shopping at Traver Village and Plymouth Road Mall is just a stone’s throw away.
The Northbury / Chapel Hill townhouse condos, east of Green, have a fairly high turnover, as U-M graduate students, staff, and foreign visitors come and go. The unincorporated hamlet of Dixboro, along Plymouth Rd. at the western edge of Superior Township, has a small core of historic homes.
The Thurston area continues deep into Superior Township, where exclusive subdivisions are mixed in with old and new country homes on huge lots with views of the remaining farms. Some homes in the Glennborough sub off Gale cost more than $1 million. Thurston also serves some students bused from the Arrowwood Cooperative (see Northside, above). All grads go on to Clague Middle School and Huron High.
Wines Neighborhood
Wines Elementary School | 1701 Newport Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
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As Newport Road climbs north to the Wines Elementary area, just south of M-14 on the city's northwest side, broad and rambling roads offer some of the best views in the city and a wide range of housing styles, encompassing everything from modest subdivisions in Ann Arbor to secluded luxury homes in Barton Hills and rural residential hideaways in the townships of Ann Arbor, Scio, and Webster. A mix of retired and young families live among lofty hills in houses ranging from Cape Cods and colonials near Hunt Park to dramatic contemporaries on Orkney. They're not far from downtown and have easy access to both Bird Hills Nature Area and Bluffs Park. The city calls this Sunset neighborhood, but a spectacularly successful neighborhood music festival has popularized a new name: Water Hill.
West of Newport, young parents mix with grandparents on quiet streets of single-family ranches and Cape Cods tucked behind the sports fields of Forsythe Middle School, which shares a large, open campus with Wines.
M-14 divides the middle-class city neighborhoods to its south from some of the most exclusive terrain in the Ann Arbor area. As Newport moves north from the freeway, it passes through late-20th-century subdivisions filled with family-minded professionals and business executives-Walnut Ridge, Newport Hills, and Newport Creek. Farther north, modern dream houses perch on the wooded slopes and stare out across the Huron River at the mansions of Barton Hills in a duel of extravagance. Barton Hills, one of Michigan's wealthiest communities, is legally a village, but its streets and shared facilities are owned by the home owners' private association, which limits access to residents and their guests. Most of the village's first homes, often of English Tudor or cottage style, were constructed during the 1930s. Architect-designed trophy houses followed in the 1950s and 1960s. Recently, many homes have been extensively renovated-or torn down and replaced with larger and showier structures.
The Wines district continues west along Miller almost to Zeeb and far north into Webster Township, where country homes sit on large lots. Multiple-family housing is represented by Newport West Condominiums, whose 103 units are carefully designed to maximize privacy and views of neighboring Bird Hills Nature Area.
Wines grads go on to Forsythe Middle School and Skyline High.
