Connecting the Past to the Future: The Treeline’s Origins in Allen Creek

written by Nia Spongberg and Greg L. Hughes

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The Founding 

In 1824 John Allen and Elisha Rumsey, the founders of Ann Arbor, came west from Detroit to prospect for land. They identified 640 acres on the west side of present-day downtown and secured the land, laying the foundation for a village that rapidly grew into a bustling town.

The land which Allen and Rumsey settled included a creek which they named Allen’s Creek.  The main branch of Allen’s Creek begins near present-day Pioneer High School and runs northward. Three tributaries (Eberwhite, Murray-Washington, and West Park-Miller) flow east into the main branch from the Old West Side before spilling into the Huron River just below Argo Dam.  

A Changing Landscape

By the 1850’s and 1960’s, an array of industrial businesses had sprung up along Allen’s Creek. The creek’s flow was not enough to provide significant power, but its waters were used in various industrial processes, at a grist mill, a saw mill, four tanneries, a foundry, and two breweries. Not only did it afford a supply of fresh water, the Creek also afforded businesses a way to transport away the waste.

In 1878, the developers of the Ann Arbor Railroad elected to lay their tracks along the banks of Allen Creek, running north-south through town and connecting Toledo to northern Michigan. The creek’s floodplain proved an ideal corridor for laying tracks because the ground was already flat and ran at a mild grade, and because it passed alongside industrial businesses which wished to move their goods by rail. 

In 1885 the Ann Arbor Water Works Company was established, bringing piped water indoors to homes and businesses across the city. This development drastically changed how residents interacted with Allen’s Creek, and by the early 1900’s the creek’s significance had declined. 

In 1926 as part of a massive public works project to mitigate impacts of the creek’s spring flooding and address public health concerns relating to industrial and sewage contamination from nearby outhouses, Allen’s Creek was channeled into a new large, underground pipe system and buried beneath the city. The pipes used to encapsulate the main section of the creek ranged from four feet in diameter at its headwaters to eleven feet in diameter where it spills into the Huron River. The three tributaries were also encapsulated in pipes ranging from eighteen inches to four feet in diameter. Allen Creek still flows through these pipes beneath Ann Arbor today, including under one of the Treeline’s Conservancy sites at 415 West Washington.

It’s been nearly a century since Allen’s Creek was undergrounded and  the subterranean piping infrastructure – known as the Allen Creek drain – has required maintenance and repair by the county and city most notably in 1947 and 1968, when much of the creek’s floodplain filled with four to six feet of water, causing damage to nearby property.  In 1983, voters approved a $1.1 million bond to repair deteriorated culverts, relocate other utility pipes that crossed the drain, and resurface areas that had eroded. To this day the creek continues to spill its waters into our human-built environment during high-water events, maintaining its presence as a natural floodplain corridor through the city and reminding us of its significant role in the past, present, and future urban development of Ann Arbor.

Building for the Future

In 2000, the Allen Creek floodplain inspired the formation of a volunteer organization, the Allen Creek Greenway Conservancy, to address the issue.

The Conservancy and a group of supportive downtown neighbors, Friends of the Allen Creek Greenway, captured the imagination of many Ann Arborites with their dream of replacing the now-blighted alignment of the buried historic creek with a beautiful and useful trail. Throughout the 2000s, the Allen Creek Greenway figured prominently in a dozen feasibility studies, student projects, and plans for transportation, recreational open space, and floodway management. Led by Ann Arbor builder Joe O’Neal, the group achieved 501(c)3 status in 2007. 

In 2011, the Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution in support of the Allen Creek Greenway, recognizing its potential importance as a non-motorized connection within the community and especially to the Huron River. The City Council included funding for a master plan for the project in the 2016 budget and identified it as a city priority. What was then known as the Treeline Master Plan was adopted as part of the overall city plan in 2017. Developed by SmithGroup, the plan was awarded the 2019 Planning Excellence Award for Transportation Planning from the Michigan Chapter of the American Planning Association.

As work continued on realizing the dream of a non-motorized connection through the city, the Allen Creek Greenway became the Treeline Urban Trail. The Treeline Conservancy, which stewards the development of the trail, continues to lead the way in building a private-public partnership to make the non-motorized path a reality. With input from the city, state, and community, the Conservancy developed a trail that would closely follow the historic Allen Creek and connect Ann Arbor’s northside to the University of Michigan stadium serving visitors, students, and residents alike. 

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Sources

Image 1) A map of Historic Allen Creek. (n.d.-a). City of Ann Arbor (official website). Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=fd15b447829449ef8fe1ecdc107083d8.

Image 2) A photo of Historic Allen Creek. (n.d.). City of Ann Arbor (official website). Retrieved October 24, 2024, from https://www.a2gov.org/departments/systems-planning/water-resources/stormwater/Pages/Historic-Allen-Creek.aspx. 

Image 3) The Treeline Conservancy. (n.d.). Treeline Urban Trail - Whole route.

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