National Register of Historic Places

**Detroit Stylin** · October-12-09, 11:19 AM

How does one get a building on this list? I would REALLY like to get Central HS on this particular list especially after being priviledged to pass through the halls of my alma matter for the first time in twenty years today....

Anyone have any idea?

**Eastside** · October-12-09, 12:02 PM

Take a look at this site, it may help.

http://www.preservationnation.org/

**Sandhouse** · October-12-09, 12:10 PM

Anyone may nominate a site or structure to the National Register. Applications are made through the State Historic Preservation Officer [[SHPO) in each state. This was, at least up until last week, in the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries, but by now it may be back in the Secretary of State. Either way, the form should be available at the State of Michigan web site.

There are two main parts to the application. The first is to explain why the site is significant at the local, state, or national level. Unless something momentous happened there, or the structure is a rare survivor of some class of sites, a high school would be significant only at the local level.

The second part is to research the history of the site, accurately and in detail, so that it's significance can be documented.

Copying the style of an approved application is a good way to figure out how to fill out the form.

Once the SHPO approves the nomination, it forwards it to the National Park Service for entry on the Register.

The Register doesn't actually do anything, it is just a list of places or structures that historians have agreed are important at some level. The only protection it offers an old building is that it discourages public agencies from using federal money to demolish it - unless there's no alternative. [[And this protection exists even if the site is elegible for the Register, but has never been nominated. So the City would have had a hard time using federal stimulus aid to flatten Michigan Central Depot without proving that it was necessary for some reason.) You do not need the owner's permission to nominate a site, but it's a wise gesture to seek it, as sometimes landowners demolish historic buildings as a pre-emptive strike against their designation as a "landmark" which they imagine will restrict their rights in it.

**SaintMe** · October-12-09, 12:33 PM

I just looked up Central on Bing Maps, and wow what a building. It looks just as big as the Seminary down the street. What is/was the school to the south of Central on LaSalle @ Collingwood?

**Neilr** · October-12-09, 01:40 PM

Central HS, Durfee MS, and Roosevelt Elementary School opened in the early 1920's as an educational park for students K-12. It was designed by the firm of Malcomson and Higginbotham who did many of the grand schools in Detroit during that period. The large campus plan seemed not to have worked out as hoped and that style complex was not repeated elsewhere in the city. Roosevelt was torn down a number of years ago and Durfee then became a K-8 school.

DPS's policy was to not segregate students based on family status/income/religion. So, for example, rather than assign all students from Boston-Edison to the same set of schools using long east-west boundaries, attendance areas were drawn having long north-south boundaries. This meant that those children were split between Doty, Crosman, and Roosevelt Elementary Schools. And then between Northern and Central HS.

**Fnemecek** · October-12-09, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Detroit Stylin

How does one get a building on this list? I would REALLY like to get Central HS on this particular list especially after being privileged to pass through the halls of my alma matter for the first time in twenty years today....

An application to put many of the Detroit public schools onto the National Register is already completed and submitted to the SHPO. I believe Central HS is one of them. My understanding is that it will be on the agenda for the January 2010 meeting for the State Historic Designation Advisory Board.

**Detroit Stylin** · October-12-09, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Neilr

Central HS, Durfee MS, and Roosevelt Elementary School opened in the early 1920's as an educational park for students K-12. It was designed by the firm of Malcomson and Higginbotham who did many of the grand schools in Detroit during that period. The large campus plan seemed not to have worked out as hoped and that style complex was not repeated elsewhere in the city. Roosevelt was torn down a number of years ago and Durfee then became a K-8 school.

DPS's policy was to not segregate students based on family status/income/religion. So, for example, rather than assign all students from Boston-Edison to the same set of schools using long east-west boundaries, attendance areas were drawn having long north-south boundaries. This meant that those children were split between Doty, Crosman, and Roosevelt Elementary Schools. And then between Northern and Central HS.

Not to mention that it is the oldest HS in the Midwest. Though this is its third site in its existence Central still held its 150th yr anniversary last year.

**kathy2trips** · October-12-09, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by Neilr

DPS's policy was to not segregate students based on family status/income/religion. So, for example, rather than assign all students from Boston-Edison to the same set of schools using long east-west boundaries, attendance areas were drawn having long north-south boundaries. This meant that those children were split between Doty, Crosman, and Roosevelt Elementary Schools. And then between Northern and Central HS.

All in the same neighborhood~! A horrible misstep; a terrible shame. I'd expect more foresight from a bunch of high-falutin' Ph.D.s. And people wonder why there's no "sense of community" in cities anymore.

Wouldn't you agree that this school assignment policy was a giant disaster? I can imagine childhood friends living blocks from each other on an east-west axis going to different schools. Neighbors not knowing each other....that's one of the main ways to know your neighbor is your kids attending the same schools. Buses driving every which way unnecessarily, diesel fumes in the air. Kids standing on street corners, instead of exercising [[walking).

All the "isms" aside, having kids from the same area attending their own neighborhood school lends a sense of cohesiveness and community to a neighborhood school. This sounds like another case of forced socialization by the state hurting people, and in this case, children. I'd rather have a ethnically homogeneous school of happy, focused, identity-centered kids whose parents aregeographically close by and have a sense of community. Leave "diversity" and state-enforced social engineering to college. By then, kids are mature enough to look past race/religion/ethnic differences and seek our friends with similar interests and values.

This building concept would have worked, it seems, if they had left the logical geographical boundaries dictate the make up of the school. Things tend not to work when they are forced.

**lalynch** · October-12-09, 06:14 PM

Gettting a property on the National Register of Historic Places isn't all that easy. Its best to hire a consultant. I've done two nominations myself, of which, the properties are now on the National Register of Historic Places; Lincoln Park Post Office and Mellus Newspapers Building. I have a friend who does this for a living that reviews my nominations. I've learned a lot along the way but I'm no expert at it yet. I have found that it is far tougher than writing a college thesis. The National Register Coordinator in Lansing is a tough critic. Typically it takes me start-to-finish including research a year to get a property listed. I will send in my nomination to the NR Coordinator and he'll mark it up in red and send it back to me to correct. We'll do this 3 or 4 times before he feels its ready for the review meeting. The review meetings are 3 times a year. And the nomination has to be perfect 10 weeks before the meeting. The National Register of Historic Places has free publications that are helpful. And they are online as well. Here's a sample nomination for a Detroit property: http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/s...GardenBowl.pdf
You do need permission of the owner for a privately owned property. For a publically owned property you do not need anyones permission. Before you submit a nomination you need to submit the preliminary questionaire on the property to the National Register Coordinator:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/ha...m_192569_7.pdf
This is what determines if the property is eligible so you may proceed with the nomination.
I am now working on the North Fort Street Historic District for the northwest portion of North Fort Street in Lincoln Park which is from Southfield Road to Euclid including the Park Theatre and National City Bank Building. However, it is taking me more than a year because I have to research more than one building.

Lorax · October-13-09, 07:01 AM

An article in today's NYT dovetails with this thread pretty well, I think-

It has to do with the historic tax credit for rehabbing schools to modern standards, and the selling of said schools to the private sector with lease back arrangements to the school districts, which in this economy would be a win/win for schools, kids, education.

Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/op..._r=1&th&emc=th

PQZ · October-13-09, 07:42 AM

Originally Posted by kathy2trips

All in the same neighborhood~! A horrible misstep; a terrible shame. I'd expect more foresight from a bunch of high-falutin' Ph.D.s. And people wonder why there's no "sense of community" in cities anymore.

Wouldn't you agree that this school assignment policy was a giant disaster? I can imagine childhood friends living blocks from each other on an east-west axis going to different schools.

I couldn't agree more! It would be much much preferable to have childhood friends living blocks from each other on a north - south axis going to different schools instead.