abandoned due to financial constraints resulting from the Panic of 1837. In 1841, Mason Hall, the first campus building, was completed, followed by the construction of South College, an identical building to the south, in 1849, leaving a gap for a future grand centerpiece.
Asa Gray was appointed the first professor following the university's move to Ann Arbor in 1837, alongside early faculty members Douglass Houghton and Andrew Ten Brook. The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and a sophomore taught by two professors, Joseph Whiting and George Palmer Williams. In the first commencement of 1845, eleven graduates, including Judson Dwight Collins, were awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. In subsequent years, the regents established branches across the state as preparatory schools for the university, starting with Pontiac and followed by Kalamazoo, Detroit, Niles, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, and Romeo. However, they struggled to enroll students and some merged with local colleges. Kalamazoo …
