How do efforts to preserve historic homes affect the communities where these homes are located?
Two upcoming lectures will attempt to answer this question from the perspective of someone who has worked for 45 years in the historic preservation field, and someone who has personally committed to preserving one historic home.
The lectures are part of the Canaday Center’s exhibit titled “House and Home: The Intersection of Domestic Architecture and Social History, 1870-1970,” which is on display through May 5.
Dr. Ted Ligibel, director of the Historic Preservation Program at Eastern Michigan University, will present a lecture titled “From Frontier to Mid-Century Modern: 45 Years of Historic Preservation in Northwest Ohio,” Wednesday, March 29, at 3:30 p.m. in the Canaday Center.
Ligibel’s career in historic preservation began in 1974 in Toledo as a grassroots preservationist. As an associate in UT’s Urban Affairs Center, he led students in efforts to inventory Toledo’s neighborhoods and prepare nominations for the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1991, Ligibel joined the EMU faculty, and he became director of its graduate Historic Preservation Program in 1999. He is the co-author of “Historic Preservation: An Introduction to its History, Principles, and Practice,” published in 2009, which has become the national best-selling textbook in the field.
Ligibel will discuss his long career in this field, and successful and unsuccessful efforts to save historic homes and communities in northwest Ohio.
Haimerl
Haimerl purchased her home — a 1914 Georgian Revival located in what was once one of Detroit’s premier neighborhoods — for $35,000. The home had no plumbing, no heat and no electricity. She and her husband believed it could be renovated for less than $100,000. Years later, after overcoming many roadblocks and weathering Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy, the couple has invested more than $300,000 in saving their home.
Her book is more than just a story of one couple’s effort to save a home. It is also a story of finding their place in a thriving community.
Haimerl is an adjunct professor of journalism at Michigan State University and a freelance journalist who writes on aspects of business and finance. Not only did she live through Detroit’s bankruptcy, but she helped to cover the story for Crain’s Detroit Business.
She will sign copies of her book at the lecture. Her talk is part of University Libraries’ celebration of National Library Week.
“House and Home: The Intersection of Domestic Architecture and Social History, 1870-1970,” is an exhibit on display in the Canaday Center through May 5.
For more information on the free, public exhibit or lectures, contact Barbara Floyd, director of the Canaday Center and interim director of University Libraries, at 419.530.2170.
