Things to Do in Ypsilanti

In Ypsilanti, the day you pick decides the trip.

Both of the city’s museums open Thursday through Sunday and close at four in the afternoon. The farmers market is Saturday only, and this year it is not where most guides still say it is. The parks run 6am to 10pm every day of the week, which makes them the reliable answer when everything else is dark.

So this guide is sorted by when things are actually open rather than by category. Hours below were checked on 24 September 2026.

Both museums keep the same four days

The Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum sits at 100 East Cross Street in the old Miller Motors Hudson dealership, which is the point: this is the last Hudson dealership building standing, and the collection runs from the Hudson years through Kaiser-Frazer and the Tucker story. Five dollars gets you in. Kids twelve and under are free with an adult.

Worth knowing: aggregator listings widely show this museum open Tuesday through Sunday. The museum’s own site says Thursday through Sunday, 1pm to 4pm. Go with the museum.

Regular hours: Thu-Sun 1pm-4pm, per ypsiautoheritage.org. Admission $5 adults. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

The Michigan Firehouse Museum at 110 West Cross Street is the other one, in a working 1898 firehouse a short walk from Depot Town. Thursday through Sunday, noon to 4pm, and it is the pricier ticket at $15 for adults thirteen and up, $5 for kids three to twelve, free under three, with discounts for seniors, college students, military and public safety. It does not have a listing on this site yet, so there is no link to give you, but it is a genuine stop and the hours match the auto museum exactly.

Two museums, four shared days. If you are coming Monday through Wednesday, skip to the parks.

Saturday morning: the market moved

The Ypsilanti Farmers Market runs Saturdays 9am to 1pm, from mid-May through 31 October, at 16 South Washington Street by MarketPlace Hall downtown. That is the correction most lists have not made: the market is downtown now, not in Depot Town. The Tuesday evening market has ended for the season.

Which leaves the Ypsilanti Freighthouse at 100 Market Place as an events building rather than a drop-in one. It is the old depot freight house next to Frog Island, it hosts concerts, community meetings and private rentals, and it is worth checking what is booked before you plan around it. There are no regular public hours. The city takes rental requests through its event portal, 734-482-9825.

Freighthouse: no regular public hours, open for booked events only. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

If you land here on a Sunday or a Wednesday and want the same kind of shopping, the Ypsilanti Food Co-op at 312 North River Street is open 9am to 8pm every day, with the River Street Bakery bread coming out of the same building. It is the most dependable set of hours in this guide.

Regular hours: daily 9am-8pm at 312 N River St. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Depot Town works on any day but Monday

Hyperion Coffee Co roasts at 306 North River Street and pours in the same room, 7am to 6pm seven days a week. Order the pour-over if you have ten minutes.

Regular hours: daily 7am-6pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Vertex Coffee Roasters is a block away at 307 North River Street, 7am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 6pm on weekends. Two serious roasters within sight of each other is not a normal thing for a city this size.

Regular hours: Mon-Fri 7am-6pm, Sat-Sun 8am-6pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Sidetrack Bar and Grill at 56 East Cross is the Depot Town anchor and the one closure to plan around: it is closed Mondays. Tuesday through Thursday 11am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday to midnight, Sunday to 10pm.

Regular hours: closed Mon; Tue-Thu 11am-11pm; Fri-Sat 11am-midnight; Sun 11am-10pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

734 Brewing Company at 15 East Cross was started by three people who grew up here, and it runs karaoke, open mics and live music in the taproom. Weekend hours are the safe bet: Saturday and Sunday from noon, Friday from 4pm, closing at midnight. Weekday listings disagree with each other, so call 734-340-3468 before building a Monday or Tuesday plan around it.

Regular hours: Fri from 4pm, Sat-Sun from noon, to midnight. Weekday hours vary by source, so phone first. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

For the full block, including the shops and the rest of the food, the Depot Town guide goes street by street.

The river parks are open 6am to 10pm, every day

This is the part of Ypsilanti that does not care what day it is.

Frog Island Park at 699 Rice Street is five acres in the Huron River, with an amphitheater at the south end, a running track, soccer field and community garden in the middle, and river access all along it. Daily 6am to 10pm.

Regular hours: daily 6am-10pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Riverside Park at 5 East Cross Street is directly across the water, same hours, with the Liz Dahl MacGregor Playground, picnic pavilion, fishing spots and a bike path. Two details from the city that matter in October: unlit areas close at dusk, and the lot off Cross Street just west of the river runs 7am to 8pm.

Regular hours: daily 6am-10pm; unlit areas close at dusk. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Prospect Park at 550 North Prospect is the quiet one and the oldest park in the city system, 9.5 acres on the northeast side with mature trees, walking paths, tennis and basketball courts, a playground and Luna Lake, the little fountain pond that was the center of the whole thing when the park opened. Same 6am to 10pm.

Regular hours: daily 6am-10pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

The quiet hour

Highland Cemetery at 943 North River Street is 100 acres of 1864 landscape design and the best late-afternoon walk in Ypsilanti. The Starkweather Memorial Chapel, finished in 1889 in Richardsonian Romanesque stone with Tiffany Glass Company windows, is the reason to go up the hill. Open 8am to 9pm daily, free.

Regular hours: daily 8am-9pm, no admission charge. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

Evenings

Arbor Brewing Company’s Corner Brewery at 720 Norris Street is the big room with the beer garden, and the useful fact is the gap between the bar and the kitchen: the bar runs Monday through Saturday noon to 11pm and Sunday noon to 10pm, but the kitchen shuts an hour before that both times. Happy hour is Monday through Thursday, 3pm to 5pm.

Regular hours: bar Mon-Sat noon-11pm, Sun noon-10pm; kitchen closes 10pm and 9pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

The Ypsi, the Ypsilanti Performance Space at 218 North Adams, is a restored medieval-style church running as a 250-seat concert hall. It opens for what is booked and nothing else, so the calendar at ypsi.org is the whole story. The one on the books as of this writing is the Halloween Festival on 24 October, 1pm to 9pm, with vendors, food trucks and a magic show at 3pm, and the Riverjack Ramblers playing bluegrass at 7pm with doors at 6:30.

Opens for ticketed events only, so check the calendar. Halloween Festival 24 Oct 2026, 1pm-9pm. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

The Riverside Arts Center at 76 North Huron downtown holds one of the largest gallery rooms in the county plus a 120-seat theater, and it runs six to eight exhibitions a year. Treat it the same way: the building is open Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm by appointment, and open to everyone for public events. Do not drive over on spec.

Regular hours: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm by appointment; open for all public events. Verified 24 Sep 2026.

The tower, and the campus under it

The Ypsilanti Water Tower stands at Cross and Summit on the high ground in town: 147 feet of Joliet limestone finished in 1890, and the most photographed object in Washtenaw County that is not a stadium. You cannot go inside. You look at it, and then you walk down the hill.

That hill is Eastern Michigan University, and the campus below the tower is an easy add to a Depot Town morning. The walk from the tower down West Cross past the Firehouse Museum and on into Depot Town is about a mile and takes in most of what makes the city look the way it does.

Coming Monday or Tuesday? Here is what is open

Both museums are closed. The market is days away. The Ypsi is dark unless something is booked. What is open: all three parks, 6am to 10pm. Highland Cemetery, 8am to 9pm. The Food Co-op, 9am to 8pm. Hyperion and Vertex from 7am. Corner Brewery from noon, with happy hour at 3pm. Sidetrack on Tuesday, not Monday.

That is still a full day. It is just a different one.

Everything here was verified on 24 September 2026, and the two dates to watch are 31 October, when the Saturday market closes for the year, and 24 October at The Ypsi. Hungry rather than curious? Start with the best restaurants in Ypsilanti. Staying on the west side of the county instead? Things to do in Ann Arbor covers the same ground over there.