Researching old house

[lalynch]

I've been trying to research 1132 Lafayette, Lincoln Park but no time to get to the Register of Deeds office. My county commissioners office checked and they only found deeds going back to 1993. A friend who has worked for title companies tells me that the Register of Deeds office has plat / tract books that go way back, of which, the home could be listed in.

Wondering if there is anyone on this forum who often goes to the Register of Deeds office that could look up this home for me in these plat / tract books.

You'd get reimbursed for any out of pocket costs at the county.

If so, send me a message.

[PSewick]

I would strongly urge you to send in the request by mail. I used to always go to the office in person to make my requests, but when I tried it by mail for the first time recently, I actually got better results [[e.g., fewer gaps) because I think the supervisor handled the request personally.

You will need the legal description of the property, which for that address is:

CE70 71 LOTS 70 AND 71 ALSO ELY 1/2 ADJ VAC ALLEY PENNSYLVANIA GARDENS SUB PC 50 L48 P12 WCR

This means that the property consists of lots 70 and 71, plus half of the now-vacated alley behind the property in the Pennsylvania Gardens subdivision, part of Private Claim #50 as recorded in Liber/Book 48, Page 12 of plats, as recorded by the Wayne County Register of Deeds.

The initial search costs $15, so you will also need a money order in that amount made out to Wayne County Register of Deeds. Write a letter to that name at 400 Monroe Street, 7th Floor, Detroit MI 48226, attach the money order, and state that you are making a search and copy request for the address you mentioned, and include the legal description above. Tell them you want just the first page of each deed going back to the platting of the property. And of course, include your phone number. It has taken as long as three weeks for the search to be completed, but when it is done, you will know exactly who owned the property throughout its existence.

I've never asked them for copies of platting maps, but there is another way you can see them. You can find them on a website run by the state of Michigan, as long as you know the subdivision name:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps/sr_subs.asp

The property you are looking for is part of this subdivision:

http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps...SUBINDEX=19564

Just as the legal description notes, that house is on lots 70 and 71. They were probably combined at some point. If you can find out which one the house was originally built on, note that in your request so that you don't get the whole history of the vacant lot next to it [[unless you really want it).

It looks like that land was platted in 1923, so your request shouldn't take too long. When your documents are ready, you will have to pick them up in person and pay for the rest of the pages. The $15 search fee includes the first five pages of documents, but you will have to pay $1 per page after that. For a property that only goes back to 1923, I can't imagine it would be any more than $10 pages, and probably a lot fewer.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[lalynch]

Thanks PSewick for the terrific information. One problem is that we do not know where this house came from. Despite the city records listing the home as being built in 1923, one of the historic architects at the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office has dated the home as having been built between 1880 and 1900. It appears that it was moved to the current location.

The house does not show up in the Lincoln Park city directories until 1947. The Lincoln Park Historical Society as well as the Lincoln Park Historical Commission cares squat about this house with their director saying it must of been moved to Lincoln Park from Detroit. Evidently there are some houses in the neighborhood that came from Detroit.

Any idea how to figure out where the home might have come from? Would anything at the Register of Deeds Office in reference to the current site link up to the previous site? My county commissioner says that the county treasurers office wasn't even aware that a house was at this site. It is listed as vacant land.

[PSewick]

I'm still learning about house research, and I haven't had to deal with moved houses yet. Although I don't think any past deed would have to record the moving of a house, I would definitely still request copies of them all. Get all of the information you can. If the lot is sold a few times for a low price and described as a vacant lot, and then one year is sold at a much higher price and mentions the house, then obviously that will narrow down the time when it was put there, and you'll know who owned the land at the time. From there you could look up that person's previous address--maybe it was their own residence that they wanted to take with them.

When you write to the register of deeds, mention that the house was moved before 1947. If they see any other documents that has information on that, but isn't a property deed, they'll include a copy.

All I can think of is to try the Lincoln Park city government. Surely the taxes on the property went up when a house was put there. And they must have needed a permit to move the house, even in 1947. I have to believe that such a permit would mention its original location, but I've never had to ask a city clerk to look up such a permit before. If the city does not have any record like that, your next best course of action is narrowing down when the move happened and who owned it at that moment.

P.S. Did you have the State Historic Preservation Office send you a copy of the survey card? There is a tiny chance that it would have some information, or at least a photo from the 70s or 80s that you might find interesting.

[lalynch]

The Lincoln Park Building Department only has in its file a copy of a permit for a new roof from the 1970's. City of Lincoln Park is really bad at keeping info pertaining to buildings and homes. The info was typically kept in the basement that floods, then pitched.

I have copies of the survey cards from a survey that was done in Lincoln Park about 1979. I forget if the home is listed there or not. If so, there is little info

I submitted the National Register questionnaire into the SHPO in hopes that the home would be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places but the National Register Coordinator feels it is not eligible because although the house is unique to Lincoln Park it isn't all that unique in terms of Metro Detroit unless I can find more info! And that is the tricky part!!