The Agricultural Works and Lower Town

The Agricultural Works and Lower Town. . In 1866 Lewis Moore and his son Eli began building an agricultural implement factory on the north bank of the river on the site of an old paper mill. By 1896 the Ann Arbor Agricultural Works, seen above in a fanciful drawing, covered three acres. It was one of the largest employers in town with a machine shop, warehouse, lumberyard, and its own railroad spur. The machinery was powered by water from the millrace, later supplemented by steam. The headrace ran under Broadway and the tailrace flowed out next to the foundry (lower right)., Sixty-five men manufactured a line of horse-drawn agricultural implements including “the Advance Hay Tedder, Advance Iron Mower, the Advance Sulky Rake, the Columbia Hay Press, the Advance Chilled Plow, and the Improved Cummings and Clipper Feed Cutter.” The company claimed a reputation for “first class goods in this line.” Eli Moore was the plant’s supervisor until 1903, when the business became the Ann Arbor Machine Company, manufacturing many of the same products. Edison acquired the property and built a warehouse on the site in 1928., The Agricultural Works can be seen in this photograph of Lower Town, taken from across the river on State Street around 1900. Down Wall Street to the right is the Fifth Ward School, built in 1855. It was replaced in 1909 by the Donovan School, named for Lower Town grocer Patrick Donovan. It was demolished in 1984 to make way for the UM Kellogg Eye Center.