Structure of 1837 Torn Down

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Wednesday, November 27, 1912. The “Ark”, which has furnished refuge for many a business and trade in its long existence on the streets of Ypsilanti, has been demolished by order of the state fire commission. It has been in existence as long as Michigan has been in the Union as a state, having been built in 1837. It was erected in that year by A. H. Ballard on the east side of the river in the vicinity of the Huron Milling company on Water Street. It was designed for a tannery but was not finished. Later it was taken down and re-erected at the corner of Pearl and Washington Streets, where it has since stood. The Ark is the only building which survived the fire of 1851. It is said by an old Ypsilanti resident that the rest of the business section was totally wiped out at the time. A contemporary of the Ark is the old building now back of Cleary College (then on what is now Michigan Ave.), built for a Presbyterian church and now used as a monument shop.