Have you ever walked around downtown Ann Arbor and wondered how it all began? What used to be there and what the earlier businesses, churches, and schools looked like? Who lived in historic Ann Arbor, and what was their life back then? Our Elderwise walk this spring will be led and narrated by local historian Patti Smith. She will trace for us Ann Arbor’s decades of development from a small settlement in 1824, to becoming a county seat, a home to the University of Michigan, a transportation hub, a chartered city, a center of liberal politics, a victim of urban sprawl, a leader in urban environmental sustainability, and so much more. Participants in this tour should gather at the State Theater on South State Street, and be prepared to walk approximately 1.5 miles.