In the Beginning

• Ypsilanti was established in 1823, it is the second oldest city in the State of Michigan.
• The City of Ypsilanti actually had its beginnings as a French settlement - Godfrey's Trading Post - founded in 1809. Fourteen years later the settlement of Woodruff's Grove was founded two miles southeast of the trading post. In 1825, when the original Chicago Road was laid out from Detroit, the Village perished and the land was purchased and platted for the Village of Ypsilanti.
• General Demetrius Ypsilanti, a hero in the Greek war for independence, inspired our City's name. In 1997, Ypsilanti adopted a sister city, Naphalia Greece. Naphalia is the final resting place of General Demetrius Ypsilanti.