East Lansing had their Throwbay Thursday post I found really cool:
Michigan Agriculatural College (later MSU) hosted an eight-week program during WWI to train auto mechanics. This photo is from 1918. I believe that is Agriculture Hall in the background, which still stands today. Though maybe it's Olds Hall, as they are in the same style and in the same area around the old center of campus.
Reading this article reminds me of the family and the neighborhood connection to our schools was very important, creating an identity a place of common cause and interest. I can relate to this feeling as my Dad went to Barnes Ave and Lansing Central and was a Big Red, his sons, and daughter all went Barnes Ave and to J.W. Sexton we were all Big Reds. I knew the feeling of walking the same hall as my big brothers and sister trying to live up to their accomplishments, both athletic and academic Ervin Johnson was in the Sexton district when they were based on neighborhoods but went to Everett as part of a racial desegregation plan that meant to balance the numbers of minorities in each school. Sexton had slightly more A.A. students than Everett so they bused kids who actually lived right next to Sexton over to Everett. I guess my point is that was when the neighborhood school started to be thought of as no longer relevant, there would be lots of other considerations with kids being bused all over the city. I often think of how much fuel is burned and pollution is created transporting these kids all over. It was good to read that Eastern still has some of the feelings of community and just a love of a place. I still see students that live in that neighborhood walking home from school! I hope they can transfer those traditions to the new building. I would think that keeping the Penn. Ave facade at least is in their plans, it really is beautiful and should be preserved, they just don't build them like that anymore. They should be banned from building more parking structures there.
LANSING – Another piece of Lansing history could be headed to the landfill.
An 1874-75 house designed and built by Darius B. Moon, an early, prominent Lansing architect, will be offered in a tax foreclosure auction July 30 by Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing. The house sits across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from the Michigan Hall of Justice.
The simple exterior of the two-story house at 108-119 S. MLK Jr. is still charming with original carved wood trim above the wide windows and large basement windows, now boarded, in the brick foundation.
It was designed and built by Moon, a self-taught architect, when he was in his mid-20s. The timbers were hauled in by horse from a family farm in Delta Township during the winters of 1874 and 1875.
It’s a double house for two families with identical entrances on each side. Moon lived in one side and leased out the other, according to his biographer, James MacLean, the outreach director for Capital Area District Library.
On the 2017 fire:
Last week Schertzing led a tour of historians, city officials and preservationists through the foreclosed house.
It's been boarded up since 2015. A fire damaged the interior in 2017. The 3,000-square-foot house was owned by E.L. Investment Properties but went into foreclosure after two years of unpaid taxes, according to online records. It’s assessed value is just $6,400, considered about half of market value.
Can the house be saved? It might take a miracle.
Rough estimates from the group to restore it to livable conditions ranged from $200,000 to $340,000. That’s a lot for a strip where property values are low, though they rise a few blocks over in the Westside Neighborhood.
I guess the good thing is that there are no imminent plans to tear it down, but given the neighborhood it's in, it will be headed there in the years to come unless the area comes up. It's funny, because this area on both sides of MLK has always struck me as the kind of perfect neighborhood for state workers to revive since it's so close to the Capitol Complex. It makes no sense to me an area so close to the Capitol is in such disrepair for so long.
It sure would make a lot of sense to renovate such a nice old home, I could see it being used perhaps as a Lansing History Museum, or even a Lansing/Michigan African American History Museum. For most of the 20th Century, this neighborhood was the center of the A.A. community in Lansing, which is why I think it has been neglected for so long. Old memories and prejudices die hard. Back in the day before 496 and M-99, it was not so great over there with a lot of old sub-standard housing in a densely populated area. If one did take a little tour of the neighborhood today you would find it mostly quite nice with most folks taking care of their homes and the surrounding area. The Capitol Complex is basically walled off from MLK and to the west so I would not be surprised to hear that most state workers have never visited that neighborhood. I have been looking at houses on the west side for a while now for the big day when I move out of this rental and there are some very nice homes reasonably priced lower as you got closer to MLK. The prices have been rising over there. I looked at 1515 W Allegan so nice! It sold quickly.
In the end, they ended up putting that space (and more) into the Capitol Complex. It's also funny reading the caption that even back then they were talking about putting the west lawn parking lot underground and we're still talking about it. lol
I was into "Lansing Development" stuff when I was a nerdy kid and I remember this plan. It actually seemed more attractive than the more drastic modern buildings that were to replace the building altogether. This plan would have covered up and loomed over the Capitol but at least the old building was still there. The pool over underground parking would have been cool. When considering that they could have built this or worse it is so great that today we are renovating and preserving the Capitol Building, it really looks better than ever these days.
Yeah, that wouldn't have been the worst thing that could have happened but I'm still glad they didn't do it. Having the original unobstructed building is by far the best option in my eyes.
Stumbled across an old video labeled as South Butler from 1966. It's a striking contrast to this stretch of street today. I'm not sure exactly where the video was shot, or the cross street where the gas station can be seen- but it's interesting nonetheless.
I look forward to when the west side of Buter, north of Kalamazoo is finally developed.
With as fast as the cars appear going by east-west, and knowing this is South Butler and that I-496 wasn't completed through downtown until 1970, it seems most likely it's Main/Malcom X or St. Joseph, but that's just a guess.
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East Lansing had their Throwbay Thursday post I found really cool:
Michigan Agriculatural College (later MSU) hosted an eight-week program during WWI to train auto mechanics. This photo is from 1918. I believe that is Agriculture Hall in the background, which still stands today. Though maybe it's Olds Hall, as they are in the same style and in the same area around the old center of campus.
Reading this article reminds me of the family and the neighborhood connection to our schools was very important, creating an identity a place of common cause and interest. I can relate to this feeling as my Dad went to Barnes Ave and Lansing Central and was a Big Red, his sons, and daughter all went Barnes Ave and to J.W. Sexton we were all Big Reds. I knew the feeling of walking the same hall as my big brothers and sister trying to live up to their accomplishments, both athletic and academic Ervin Johnson was in the Sexton district when they were based on neighborhoods but went to Everett as part of a racial desegregation plan that meant to balance the numbers of minorities in each school. Sexton had slightly more A.A. students than Everett so they bused kids who actually lived right next to Sexton over to Everett. I guess my point is that was when the neighborhood school started to be thought of as no longer relevant, there would be lots of other considerations with kids being bused all over the city. I often think of how much fuel is burned and pollution is created transporting these kids all over. It was good to read that Eastern still has some of the feelings of community and just a love of a place. I still see students that live in that neighborhood walking home from school! I hope they can transfer those traditions to the new building. I would think that keeping the Penn. Ave facade at least is in their plans, it really is beautiful and should be preserved, they just don't build them like that anymore. They should be banned from building more parking structures there.
This is sad. This house is quite visible, especially coming north up MLK. I had no idea it was a Darius Moon design.
Putnam: Historic Lansing house by Darius Moon faces 'demolition by neglect'
On the 2017 fire:
I guess the good thing is that there are no imminent plans to tear it down, but given the neighborhood it's in, it will be headed there in the years to come unless the area comes up. It's funny, because this area on both sides of MLK has always struck me as the kind of perfect neighborhood for state workers to revive since it's so close to the Capitol Complex. It makes no sense to me an area so close to the Capitol is in such disrepair for so long.
Read the whole article.
It sure would make a lot of sense to renovate such a nice old home, I could see it being used perhaps as a Lansing History Museum, or even a Lansing/Michigan African American History Museum. For most of the 20th Century, this neighborhood was the center of the A.A. community in Lansing, which is why I think it has been neglected for so long. Old memories and prejudices die hard. Back in the day before 496 and M-99, it was not so great over there with a lot of old sub-standard housing in a densely populated area. If one did take a little tour of the neighborhood today you would find it mostly quite nice with most folks taking care of their homes and the surrounding area. The Capitol Complex is basically walled off from MLK and to the west so I would not be surprised to hear that most state workers have never visited that neighborhood. I have been looking at houses on the west side for a while now for the big day when I move out of this rental and there are some very nice homes reasonably priced lower as you got closer to MLK. The prices have been rising over there. I looked at 1515 W Allegan so nice! It sold quickly.
Check out this concept in the 60's to add additional working space for the Capitol.
In the end, they ended up putting that space (and more) into the Capitol Complex. It's also funny reading the caption that even back then they were talking about putting the west lawn parking lot underground and we're still talking about it. lol
I was into "Lansing Development" stuff when I was a nerdy kid and I remember this plan. It actually seemed more attractive than the more drastic modern buildings that were to replace the building altogether. This plan would have covered up and loomed over the Capitol but at least the old building was still there. The pool over underground parking would have been cool. When considering that they could have built this or worse it is so great that today we are renovating and preserving the Capitol Building, it really looks better than ever these days.
Surprised how "highway"ish this part of the avenue looked back then. You can still see some of that history, today, but it's disappearing.
Stumbled across an old video labeled as South Butler from 1966. It's a striking contrast to this stretch of street today. I'm not sure exactly where the video was shot, or the cross street where the gas station can be seen- but it's interesting nonetheless.
I look forward to when the west side of Buter, north of Kalamazoo is finally developed.
With as fast as the cars appear going by east-west, and knowing this is South Butler and that I-496 wasn't completed through downtown until 1970, it seems most likely it's Main/Malcom X or St. Joseph, but that's just a guess.