Even with football back on a lot of our favorite places in Ann Arbor are hurting. Hoping to soften the blow a bit, we're partnering this fall with Underground Printing to do a t-shirt a week for the places we love. All proceeds go to the restaurant/bar/whatever.
Previously: Good Time Charley's, the Brown Jug, the Blind Pig the State and Michigan Theaters, Mr. Spots, Literati, Dominick's, and Ashley's.
This week: The Pretzel Bell
I want to use this space to talk a little history.
The reason Division Street is called such is because it's the line that divides the campus of the University of Michigan from the town. But much of the city's history it was the line between Dry and Wet Ann Arbor. A "student riot" at Hangsterfer's Hall, the favorite watering hole of the town's first century, caused city officials to ban alcohol east of the street, first with a handshake agreement in 1856, and 48 years later with a law. In 1918 (in large part thanks to their rival party's mishandling of a deadly pandemic), Republicans swept into office and enacted a statewide Prohibition. The Michigan law was soon superseded by the national one.
[After THE JUMP: History]
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