Detroit Observatory, Ann Arbor

Detroit Observatory is located in northeast downtown Ann Arbor at the intersection of East Ann and Observatory Streets. This Greek Revival building is a two-story hip roof rectangular frame structure. Built in 1854, it was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and one of the oldest observatories of its type in the nation. Detroit Observatory was registered as a Historic Building in 1973.

Henry Philip Tappan was inaugurated as the president of the University of Michigan in December 1852, and in his inaugural speech he appealed to the citizens of Michigan to support research and laboratory space at the University. Immediately afterward, Tappan was approached by Detroit businessman (and former Michigan Attorney General) Henry N. Walker, who offered assistance. Tappan suggested raising funds for an observatory, and Walker agreed to spearhead a fundraising drive. Walker raised a total of $18,760 from the citizens of Detroit over the next few years.

In 1853, a piece of land in Ann Arbor was obtained for the building site. To design the building, Tappan turned to Richard Harrison Bull, a New York University civil engineering professor, amateur astronomer, and former student of Tappan's. Construction was completed in 1854, and the building was named the Detroit Observatory to recognize the benefactors who funded its construction. The building housed a 12⅝-inch (32 cm) Henry Fitz Jr. refracting telescope in the dome. The Fitz was the third largest refracting telescope in the world when it was installed in 1857.

The faculty of the Detroit Observatory made significant contributions to the development of American astronomy in the second half of the 19th century. By one estimate, about a quarter of the leading astronomers and meteorologists in the United States during that time period had been trained at the Detroit Observatory.