Brown and Fuller's Addition—1832

Brown and Fuller's Addition—1832. . In 1832 Anson Brown, his brother-in-law Edward L. Fuller, and Dwight Kellogg were partners in presenting their ambitious plans to incorporate and develop the area north of the Huron River as the first addition to the Village of Ann Arbor. Streets and lots were carefully laid out and named., An earlier mill race and sawmill south of the river (1) were challenged by their plans to improve the dam (2), create a new 40-foot wide "Mill Canal" (3) use water power to operate a new sawmill (4) and flour mill (5) just beyond the wooden bridge where "Detroit Street" (6), now Broadway, led toward open land suitable for farming and grazing on the way to Pontiac, Plymouth, and Detroit. Speculating on land development and lot sales, the partners hoped this would be the future center of Ann Arbor., Anson Brown was no stranger to commercial enterprise. He arrived in Ann Arbor in 1827 at the urging of his older brother Daniel. Both young men had worked with their father, a contractor on the Erie Canal before it opened in 1825. Anson brought with him the first large assortment of goods trans- ported for sale in Washtenaw County., Only three years after the town was founded in 1824, Anson joined Daniel in operating a wood frame Main Street store that imported groceries and general merchandise from east. Furs, cranberries, and wild honey from Native Americans were bartered for goods and shipped to New York City. Anson-ambitious, bright, and energetic-soon developed bigger plans, and they were not for Main Street.