“Bringing Stories to Light” Theme Statement:

Michiganders involved in historic preservation are used to hearing variations of “you want to do what with that old place?” or “that eyesore is too far gone to be saved.”  Fortunately, we have decades of successes that prove otherwise.  Interested individuals are now joined by trained practitioners in the field – historians and preservationists, architects and engineers, anthropologists and archaeologists.  Craftspeople and tradespeople with traditional skills make the work possible.  Adjacent expertise has grown up among attorneys, accountants, realtors, and others.  There’s hardly a community in Michigan that doesn’t have a preservation success story to support what we know is true – that preservation is a powerful revitalization engine that simultaneously highlights what’s unique about Michigan.   

But is it enough to restore and preserve the historic fabric of culturally significant properties? To assure what we reclaim has a future, that future can be safeguarded if people understand why we made the effort in the first place. You may be an archaeologist finding a shard during a dig, an owner working with an architect to bring an historic theater back to life, a developer adaptively reusing a long-abandoned factory for housing, or a homeowner taking paint and wallpaper samples before you begin work.  No matter what the specifics, there is a story being brought to light that has been hidden. As our placemaking efforts return the physical evidence of what makes our communities distinctive, we have the responsibility to find out and talk about the importance of what’s been preserved. 

You’ve got a story. Tell it!