John Allen and Elisha Rumsey founded Ann Arbor in 1824 on 640 acres bought from the federal government, naming it for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of bur oak on the land. It became the Washtenaw County seat in 1827. A local land company then failed to win the state capitol but succeeded in landing the University of Michigan, which arrived in 1837 and has shaped the city ever since. The Michigan Central Railroad reached town in 1839.

The city sits on the Huron River with I-94, US-23 and M-14 looping around it. Main Street, State Street and Kerrytown form a connected downtown at the northwest edge of the central campus. Briarwood Mall, the Arborland area on Washtenaw Avenue and the Westgate and West Stadium areas serve as retail districts outside that core.

Research has its own address on Plymouth Road, where the university bought Pfizer's former 174-acre campus in 2009 and turned it into the North Campus Research Complex. The university's medical center is the main health care presence, and Google has kept an office in town. Voters approved a greenbelt program in 2003 to buy development rights on surrounding farmland, and several large employers sit beyond the city limits. Washtenaw County is one of the five markets we serve.