Detroit Observatory, built in 1854 on the University of Michigan campus, was the university’s first scientific research facility and one of the oldest observatories of its kind in the United States. Funded largely by Detroit citizens after Henry Philip Tappan urged modern research facilities, it gained distinction through powerful instruments and especially through the work of Franz Brünnow and James Craig Watson. Brünnow established a rigorous astronomy program and an early academic journal, while Watson’s discoveries of asteroids and other research enhanced its standing. Though later eclipsed by newer observatories and briefly neglected, the site was preserved, restored, and reopened for teaching and public use.