In the foreword to his book \u201cAdrian: The City that Worked,\u201d probably the most comprehensive volume that has ever been written about the the Maple City, local historian Charles Lindquist described being asked an unusual question by a visitor to Adrian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why, the visitor asked, is this city here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason for the question was this: Very often, a city\u2019s success is a direct function of its geography. Cities grow up around port cities, and Adrian has no port. They cluster around navigable rivers, which the River Raisin is not. They thrive where there are abundant natural resources, and the area has few of those (aside from the soil \u2014 and with the swamps that dominated Lenawee County two centuries ago, even farming was not without its problems).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By all rights, Adrian should not have what it has today \u2014 its institutions of higher education, its active artistic and cultural scene that many larger communities cannot match, its numerous foundations that are able to support worthy local projects in perpetuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So why is Adrian the city that it is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lindquist\u2019s answer was this: Since they couldn\u2019t rely on external factors like geography to make their city thrive, Adrian\u2019s founders knew that they would simply have to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though every place is made up of many different people, cities also tend to develop personalities of their own. Adrian\u2019s personality \u2014 when we are at our best \u2014 is defined by an obstinate refusal to take \u201cno\u201d for an answer or accept that something just can\u2019t be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adrian\u2019s story is full of people who refused to give up. People like Laura Haviland, who fought an uphill battle against slavery. People like Charlie Hickman and Al Goldsmith, who started Brazeway when they had an idea for something that their employer thought was impossible. People like the first Mexican-American residents of Sunnyside, who \u2014 when denied the ability to buy homes inside the city limits \u2014 basically made a city of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Adrian marks its 200th birthday, let\u2019s continue to work hard, be stubborn, and refuse to give up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s how we got here. And it\u2019s how we will create our future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the foreword to his book \u201cAdrian: The City that Worked,\u201d probably the most comprehensive volume that has ever been written about the the Maple City, local historian Charles Lindquist described being asked an unusual question by a visitor to Adrian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"community":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perspectives"],"yoast_head":"\n