History
Ann Arbor's city parks sit on the ancestral and traditional homelands of several indigenous Native peoples. Read a
land acknowledgement from the city and learn more about the early history of the land
here.
Dicken Park, and Dicken Elementary School, are named after Carrie L. Dicken, a teacher in Ann Arbor Public Schools for 40 years and a leader in the Ann Arbor community. She began her career at Bach School in Ann Arbor in 1894. Carrie worked with a building committee to get Perry School on Packard constructed in 1902. In 1913, she established a night school to assist newly arrived immigrants. She became the principal of Bach School and remained in that role until she retired in 1934. Her program supporting immigrants was widely copied, and Carrie received an award from the American Legion for this work. She studied at Columbia University and the University of Michigan before beginning her teaching and leadership in Ann Arbor. She lived at 1109 Wells in the Burns Park neighborhood.
