Preservation Detroit

In 1701, Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac and fifty-one other brave souls landed on the shores of the strait of Lake Erie. As a tip of hat to Louis XIV’s Minister of Marine, they named their new settlement Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit.

313 years have transpired; that’s a lot of history, a lot stuff built and occurred in a unique pocket of the planet along a shore of the largest freshwater inland sea in the world. It would be hard enough to keep track of all of that and hold tight to the important stuff but the current state of affairs makes it even harder to even catalog what we have and prioritize what can and should be preserved.

Luckily, in 1975 two Wayne State University (WSU) students formed a student organization, named Preservation Wayne, to fight the demolition of historic WSU buildings. Eventually Preservation Wayne evolved into Preservation Detroit and is headquartered in its first successful saved building, the David Mackenzie house.

The mission of Preservation Detroit is preserve and revitalize Detroit’s rich architectural and cultural heritage. Through education and advocacy, research and awareness, Preservation Detroit seeks to preserve the architectural elements and neighborhoods. This includes the redevelopment of Detroit through the restoration and re-use of the irreplaceable buildings and historic neighborhoods that serve as anchors for stability of residential areas and catalysts for economic investment.

“Detroit is one of the most architecturally rich cities in America, and historic preservation has been a huge part of the story of Detroit’s recent resurgence,” says Amy Elliott Bragg, president of Preservation Detroit’s board of directors. “People want to live in cities that have character, places that have stories to tell. Our job in Detroit is to protect that character and those stories.”

In the US, we don’t always have enough appreciation for the history we have here. In Europe, they still live in homes built during the reign of Louis XIV, here we too often are willing to sacrifice what was built by those who came before in deference to the new and shiny. Luckily, we have groups like Preservation Detroit that are willing to look out for those treasures and teach us their value.

To learn more about Preservation Detroit, visit their web site at perservationdetroit.org.