Site of the fatal 1935 shooting of Ann Arbor police officer Clifford Stang · Former home of Arbor Brewing Company's original downtown Ann Arbor brewpub (1995-2020)
Officer Clifford "Sid" Stang of the Ann Arbor police was shot and killed inside the Conlin and Wetherbee clothing store on the afternoon of March 21, 1935. Stang had stopped in to buy a tie clasp and found two armed men already robbing the store; he fought with them, and one of them shot him. He died in the store, according to an Ann Arbor District Library account of the case, and more than 2,000 people attended his funeral. The library's account places the clothing store at 118 East Washington and identifies the site as the later Arbor Brewing Company brewpub, whose address was 114 East Washington; before the brewpub, the space was a restaurant called the Washington Street Station.
Arbor Brewing Company opened its original brewpub in the building in 1995 and operated there for 25 years, one of downtown Ann Arbor's early craft breweries. The company closed the location on June 7, 2020, citing operating challenges that predated the pandemic and a lease that was ending; staff were offered positions at Arbor Brewing's Ypsilanti and Plymouth locations while the owners looked for a new Ann Arbor site.
Footprints, a shoe store that had sold footwear on South Main Street since 1997, moved into a newly renovated section of the building around June 2023 and continues to operate there. Footprints has no connection to the earlier tenant or to any of the reports associated with it.
Sources
- https://aadl.org/aapd/truecrimes/3
- https://www.clickondetroit.com/all-about-ann-arbor/2020/05/27/arbor-brewing-company-relocating-original-brewpub-after-25-years-downtown/
- https://annarborobserver.com/footprints-moves-around-the-corner/
A man's figure passing the game-room windows after hoursObjects moving without explanationDoors closing on their ownPans falling from ceiling hooksA door opening and voices heard in the basement restroom with no one present
Arbor Brewing Company employees connected some of what they experienced in the building to Officer Stang's death. Kevin Schmid, who worked there, told the Ann Arbor District Library that he and coworkers believed the building had a ghost because of strange occurrences: things moved without explanation and doors closed on their own, he said, adding that he had not connected any of it to the 1935 shooting until he was told about it during an interview.
Other staff described similar activity to the Crazy Wisdom Community Journal in 2019. Employee Hannah Zwolensky, then 20, said she once heard the basement bathroom door open and women's voices laughing, then found no one in the stalls when she checked. Coworkers described pans falling from ceiling hooks after closing, which staff said was caught on a security camera, and said a man's figure had been seen passing the windows of the game room after hours, which they associated with Stang.
Arbor Brewing Company closed this location in 2020. Footprints, the shoe store now inside the building, has reported none of this activity and has no connection to it.
Media Appearances
- Crazy Wisdom Community Journal: "Local Haunts for a Scary Good Time" (print/online, 2019)
- Ann Arbor District Library: True Crimes series (online, n.d.)
