Grex History Conference

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Grex History Item 19: Favorite A2 Historic Buildings
Entered by mta on Mon Dec 23 16:32:28 UTC 1991:


        A few of my favorite Ann Arbor historic builings:

1. The first Unitarian Church/Grace Bible Church
        100 North State         1882

2. Nichols Arcade
        326-330 South State     1915-1918

3. Newberry Hall
        434 South State         1888-1891

4. The old Fire House
        219 East Huron          1882

5. The John Haarer Building
        113 West Liberty        1888

6. The Ottmar Eberbach House
        402 South Fourth Avenue 1875

7. The Martin Haller house
        410 South Main          1890

7. The Jacob Laubengayer house
        416 South Main          mid 1880's

8. The Michigan Central Railroad Depot
        401 Depot               1886

10. The Henry Simmons Frieze house
        1547 Wastenaw           1860

11. Memorial Christian Church
        730 Tappan              1891

12. The Samuel G. Miller house
        1136 Prospect           1893

13.* The Christian Eberbach house
        1115 Woodlawn           1863

14. The Ticknor-Campbell house
        2781 Packard            1844

15. The Albert Mann house
        408 West Liberty        1891

16.The David F. Allmendinger house
        412 South First         1870

17. The Raab-Harlacher house
        632 South First         1885

18.* The John Lucas House
        502 Sixth               1882

19.* The John hagen house
        818 West Liberty        1888

20. The Jacob Beck house
        1444 West Liberty       1864

Oh, the *(asterisks) represent my especial favorites.  Please note
that I forgot to include one at the the Albert Mann house.  A grave
oversight.

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by remmers on Mon Dec 23 19:15:40 1991:

I'd maybe add the Michigan Theater to that list.

Ann Arbor once had a distinguished old county courthouse.  It was
demolished in the 1950's and replaced by a plastic monstrosity
known as the County Building.  Historic preservation forces were
not as strong then as they are now; in response to those who did
object to the demolition, the mayor at the time said:  "That
court house is over a hundred years old.  Need more be said?"

#2 of 6 by fes on Tue Jan 21 17:58:14 1992:

The 1950s and 1960s were a shitty time for historic buildings (as noted
above). Other victims were the mill in Dexter, most of the buildings in
downtown Ypsi (from the look of them), and god knows what else. Check out
a book called "A Field Guide to American Houses" for this aspect of historic
architecture. I'm looking for a comparable work dealing with commercial and
industrial buildings. And while we're on the subject, does anyone know of
any books on industrial archaeology?

#3 of 6 by mta on Fri May 22 01:09:11 1992:

Larry, would you consider guiding a tour of some of Ann Arbors greatest
archtiectural gems?  I'd love to know more about them and I think a 
grexpedition would be great fun!

#4 of 6 by polygon on Fri Jun 5 19:25:48 1992:

Hmmm ... that is a thought.  I may not be the most knowledgeable person
to do it, though.

(In East Lansing, sure, I could take you on a house-to-house tour of the
historic districts, tell you about every one ...)

In Ann Arbor, I'd mostly be limited to talking about the architecture
itself.

#5 of 6 by mta on Sat Jun 6 17:09:02 1992:

There are several good photo histories we could use to supplement your
knowledge...but the architectural stuff is "the meat" anyway--and the
influences of architectural fashion were probably much the same all
over Michigan much of the time...

#6 of 6 by polygon on Wed Jun 10 02:19:05 1992:

True.

Hmmm, it would be a real challenge to come up with a walking tour that
would cover the range of styles without wearing out people's feet ... :-)

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