The Washtenaw County Heritage Tourism Map Project offers four distinct themed driving routes to guide visitors and locals through the County’s cities, villages, and rural areas. The project serves to celebrate the region’s rich heritage and highlights a variety of historic and cultural resources.
On the German Heritage Tour, tourists may venture onto the back roads of Freedom, Lodi, and Scio townships to witness a landscape dotted with traditional farmsteads associated with the State’s largest and first German settlement. They may follow the Historic Barns Tour through Bridgewater, Manchester, and Sharon townships to see examples of nineteenth and twentieth century structures associated with one of the region’s strongest industries: agriculture. Those interested in Greek Revival Architecture may choose from the North Tour, South Tour, or selected stops in western Washtenaw County to view the style as expressed through a range of building materials (from fired and adobe brick to wood siding to cobblestone) and a variety of forms typical from the early settlement through the post-Civil War periods. Finally, those interested in the local history of northeastern Washtenaw County may enjoy the Esek Pray Trail along Ann Arbor-Plymouth Road as it travels through Superior Township. This tour features a variety of exceptional nineteenth century residences, one-room schoolhouses, and other resources all tied to the family of Esek Pray, a founding leader of the State of Michigan, and his contemporaries.
The Heritage Tourism Map Project is funded in part by a Certified Local Government grant from the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office and supported by several local partners, including the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ypsilanti Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Saline Chamber of Commerce, Saline Area Historical Society, Washtenaw County Historical Consortium, and the Genealogical Society of Washtenaw County. For more information, please contact Melissa Milton-Pung, Washtenaw County Senior Preservation Planner, at miltonpungm@ewashtenaw.org or (734) 222-6878.
