Ypsilanti District Library
library system in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA
The Ypsilanti District Library (YDL) is a public library system in Washtenaw County, Michigan, serving Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, and Superior Township. The library was founded in 1868 as a subscription library, and became a public library in 1899. As of 2025, the YDL system serves over 300,000 patron visits per year through three branches and a bookmobile service.
History
Early history
In 1868, a small group of women started a reading group that created a library, which originally included 175 volumes. They housed the library on the second floor of the Arcade Building on North Huron Street, and charged $1 per year (equivalent to $24.19 in 2025) for access to the library. In 1886, the Arcade Building became inadequate for the purpose and the library moved to the second floor on the Union Block on Michigan Avenue. In 1890, Mary Ann Starkweather donated her home to the 'Ladies' Library' on Huron Street as well as new furniture and a large stained glass window.
The city of Ypsilanti began funding the library in 1899, making it free for all patrons. The city took over the Ladies' Library in 1949, changing the name to the Ypsilanti Public Library. In 1963, the library moved into a 1915 Beaux-Arts building that had previously housed the Ypsilanti post office at 229 West Michigan Avenue.
“Ypsilanti District Library” enters the record as library system in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ypsilanti, District and Library can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ypsilanti District Library” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ypsilanti, District and Library provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8059461. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1899, 2025 and 1886.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Ypsilanti District Library” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.