 | CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH The first recorded Methodist meeting in Lansing was held in 1845 when the Reverend Lewis Coburn preached in the log cabin of Joab Page of North Lansing. In 1850 a Methodist class (congregation) was formed in what is now central Lansing. Its first leader was Reverend Resin Sapp, chaplain of the Michigan legislature. Services were held at Representative Hall in the old state capitol. The same year, the state deeded land at the corner of Washington Avenue and Ottawa Street to the First Methodist Episcopal Church under Public Act No. 231 of 1848. That land was subsequently turned over to the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, which built its first building in 1863. The present Romanesque-style edifice was erected in 1888-89 and is perhaps the only church designed by Elijah E. Myers, architect of the State Capitol.
215 North Capitol Avenue Central Methodist Episcopal Church (Central United Methodist Church); L790A; March 19, 1980; 1981 |
| CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION On June 15, 1922, the Most Reverend Michael J. Gallagher, bishop of Detroit, sent Father John A. Gabriels to Lansing to establish a Catholic parish east of the Pere Marquette railroad tracks that would include East Lansing, Okemos, and Haslett. Father Gabriels named the parish Resurrection, because he believed this was the most important event in Christ’s life and the cornerstone of Christianity. He celebrated the first Mass on Christmas morning 1922 in the basement church, which would become a school. In 1926 two stories were added with classrooms for eight grades. Five Dominican sisters were the first teachers. Parishioners worshipped in the basement church until the present church was built in 1952 |
| MONSIGNOR JOHN A. GABRIELS In 1906 John A. Gabriels (1881-1960) was ordained a Catholic priest. In 1922 he came from Detroit to establish a new parish and become chaplain of the Boys Vocational School. He became a highly respected citizen of Lansing. He was chaplain of the Michigan State Police, a member of the Knights of Columbus, Chamber of Commerce, a popular Old Newsboy, and established Father John’s Fund for Needy Children. In 1934 he delivered Lansing’s first radio-broadcasted mass. The programs became weekly in 1937. Father Gabriels was bestowed the title Right Reverend Monsignor in 1944. In 1956 he was honored at a testimonial banquet by many civic leaders including the governor of Michigan. Father John loved and served all people. He was well-known as a leader, story teller, radio preacher, and convert maker.
1529 East Michigan Avenue Church of the Resurrection and School (Church of the Resurrection School); L1632A; March 16, 1989; 1991 |
| FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH This church, Lansing’s first congregation to affiliate nationally (with the Marshall Presbytery), was founded on December 17, 1847. It was organized by the Reverend Calvin Clark, an agent for the American Home Missionary Society. There were four members. The first pastor, the Reverend W. W. Atterbury, served from 1848 until May 1854. The congregation held its early services in a school, the legislative chambers of Lansing’s first capitol, an inn and a storage building called “God’s Barn”. It built its first permanent home, Lansing’s first church edifice, in 1852. SIDE TWO The congregation’s first church, at the intersection of Genesee Street and Washington Avenue, housed the first bell in Lansing in its fifty-five-foot tower. The bell was purchased with money raised by church women and was installed in 1856. For years it awakened Lansing, announced noon hour and curfew, and alerted firemen. The congregation’s second church, at the intersection of Capitol Avenue and Allegan Street, was built in 1889. The church on this site, begun in 1947, was completed in 1953. The Molly Grove Chapel was added in 1984.
211 North Chestnut Street at Ottawa Street First Presbyterian Church; L1471C; October 23, 1987; 1987 |
 | GEORGE E. PALMER George E. Palmer (1862-1944) served Lansing as a truant officer, police officer, and superintendent of buildings for the Lansing Public Schools. Beginning in 1900 as a truant officer Palmer worked with students who were not attending school. He determined that absenteeism was often caused not from disinterest, but because children lacked proper footwear. Around 1910 Palmer founded a charity with his own salary; the next donation was a fifty dollar gift from Metta Olds, wife of automobile entrepreneur Ransom Olds. Mrs. Olds later became the president of the Palmer Shoe Fund. Schoolchildren also contributed nickels and dimes to purchase shoes for their needy schoolmates. Shoes were distributed to children upon the recommendation of teachers. |
 | OLD NEWSBOYS The Lansing tradition of raising money to provide shoes and boots for needy schoolchildren began around 1910 when truant officer George E. Palmer established the Palmer Shoe Fund. In 1924 the Old Newsboys Association, led by its first president R. Guy Brownson, was organized to assist in the efforts begun by Palmer. The Old Newsboys cooperated with the State Journal and the Lansing Capital News to publish and sell a spoof newspaper during a one-day fund-raising drive. Clergy, educators, businessmen, politicians and other citizens joined the effort. Since 1932 The State Journal has printed the humorous tabloid annually hawked by Old Newsboys on area streets. During the 1990s the paper’s one-day circulation reached over one hundred thousand copies. The Old Newsboys’ mission remains to provide shoes and boots for needy schoolchildren.
NE corner of Washington and Michigan Avenues Palmer, George E./Old Newsboys Commemorative Designation; L1908C; February 17, 1994; 1994 |
| GRAND TRUNK DEPOT Constructed in 1902, this castle-like building with its square tower was the Lansing station for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad until 1971. For decades passengers streamed through its doors. Here servicemen left for and returned from military duty. Children and adults alike associated this depot with the excitement of travel and vacations. The city’s joys and sorrows were reflected in this rail station; greetings and goodbyes were its most vital ingredients. But gradually rail travel ebbed. Renovated as a restaurant in 1972, the building’s exterior remains unchanged. Gerald R. Ford from Michigan, the thirty-eighth President of the United States, dined here during a “whistle stop” campaign tour on May 15, 1976.
1203 South Washington Avenue (displayed inside building), south of Main Street Grand Trunk Western Rail Station, Lansing Depot; L521A; April 11, 1977; 1978 |
| JOHN T. HERRMANN HOUSE This English Tudor house was built in 1893 for John T. Herrmann, a Lansing tailor. Herrmann immigrated to Lansing from Bernsberg, Germany, in 1872 with his wife, Katharine, and two children, Henry and Christian. In 1878 John Herrmann opened the Herrmann Merchant Tailor Shop. After Herrmann’s death in 1898, his sons took over the business. Designed by Lansing architect J. Arthur Bailey, this house remained in the Herrmann family until Lansing Community College purchased it in 1966 and renamed it the Herrmann Conference Center.
520 North Capitol Avenue, campus of Lansing Community College Herrmann, John T., House (Herrmann Conference Center); L1430A; July 23, 1987; 1987 |
| THE KERNS HOTEL FIRE At 5:30 A.M. on December 11, 1934, the fire alarm outside the Kerns Hotel sounded. The 211-room, four-story brick hotel that stood on this site had 215 registered guests. Before the last embers of the fire were extinguished, thirty-two people were known dead and forty-four, including fourteen firemen, had been injured. Two of the injured people died later. Among the dead were seven Michigan legislators and five unidentified people. Many guests escaped by descending four fire ladders, and eight people jumped into life nets. However, the fire spread through the hotel’s wooden interior so rapidly that many people were trapped in their rooms. Seventy-two members of the ninety-seven-man Lansing fire force fought the fire using eight of the force’s eleven pieces of fire apparatus. |
| THE BOX 23 CLUB The firemen who fought the Kerns Hotel fire were aided by the Lansing and Michigan State Police, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, and citizen volunteers, who brought the firemen hot drinks and dry gloves. Some of those volunteers later decided to form a club to support the work of the Lansing Fire Department. The club took its name from Fire Alarm Box 23, at Ottawa and Grand, from which the first alarm for the Kerns Hotel fire was sounded. The Box 23 Club was formally organized on December 11, 1937, the third anniversary of the fire. Its membership, which is limited to twenty-three people, pledges to support the Lansing Fire Department and to provide aid at fires when requested to do so by the fire department officer in charge of the fire.
East side of Grand Avenue between Michigan Avenue and Ottawa Street Hotel Kerns Informational Site; L1468C; October 23, 1987; 1987 |
| LANSING BECOMES THE CAPITAL CITY The territorial courthouse that served as Michigan’s first state capitol was completed in Detroit in 1828. However, Michigan’s first constitution made Detroit a temporary capital and said that a permanent site should be chosen by 1847. As the deadline approached, nearly every town in Michigan was proposed. James Seymour, a land speculator with a mill in what is now North Lansing, campaigned for Lansing Township, pointing out its location equidistant from Detroit, Monroe, Mount Clemens and the mouths of the Grand and Kalamazoo Rivers. The house voted on thirteen sites before selecting Lansing; and the senate voted fifty-one times before it accepted the house’s recommendation that the wilderness township with less than one hundred people become the new state capital. |
| LANSING’S FIRST CAPITOL BUILDING Early in 1847 three commissioners were appointed to select an appropriate site for the capitol in Lansing. The contract for construction was awarded on June 3, 1847. Building materials were shipped by boat on the Grand River, or by rail from Detroit to Jackson and by wagon on cut trails through the woods to Lansing. Gradually, the capitol rose on this site. It was described as “a churchlike little structure of wood, painted white.” The building measured sixty feet by one hundred feet, was two stories high and had a cupola. A white picket fence set it off from the surrounding forest. It contained legislative and supreme court chambers, an office for the governor, a few other offices and a library. Completed in late 1847, it was used until the present capitol was completed in 1879.
South Washington Square, on the boulevard between Allegan and Washtenaw Streets First Capitol in Lansing Informational Site; S587C; March 19, 1987; 1987 |
| LANSING CITY MARKET Dancing and fiddling heralded the opening of the Lansing City Market on August 25, 1938. Built by the Granger Construction Company, and partly financed by the Works Progress Administration and the Public Works Administration, the market typifies depression-era municipal projects. The first city-sponsored market opened at North Grand Avenue and East Shiawassee Street in 1909 after the North Side Commercial Club blocked off Turner Street twice a week and showed the city council that a farmers’ market could succeed.
333 North Cedar Street inside the west entrance Lansing Municipal Market (Lansing City Market); L1517A; May 19, 1988; 1988 |
| LANSING COMMUNITY COLLEGE Lansing Community College was established on April 8, 1957, by the Lansing Public Schools. It opened that fall with 425 students and sixteen faculty members. It offered civil, mechanical and electronic technologies, as well as practical nursing and apprenticeship programs. In 1961 the college began year-round operation. The Lansing Community College District was formed by a vote of area citizens in 1964. The Board of Trustees was organized and six members were elected at that time. The first off-campus learning center was established in 1971. In its thirtieth year of operation, the college provided lifelong education and training in more than two hundred academic programs to a student body numbering over forty-three thousand.
419 North Capitol Avenue Lansing Community College (Lansing Community College); L1449C; August 21, 1987; 1987 |
| LANSING FIRE STATION NO. 8 Lansing architects Bowd-Munson Company designed Fire Station No. 8, which opened in June 1931. The firehall was built by the H. G. Christman Company. Firefighters lived in the upper two floors, and the community used a large room in the basement for weddings, meetings and voting. In 1977 the city sold the building to the Lansing Civic Players Guild. The troupe renovated the structure that year, in time for its forty-ninth season.
2300 East Michigan Avenue, SE corner of Hayford Street Lansing Fire Station No. 8 (Lansing Civic Players Headquarters); L864; January 8, 1981; 1997 |
| MALCOLM X HOMESITE Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, lived on this site in the 1930s. His early life was marked by the violent death of his father, the Reverend Earl Little, on the Michigan Avenue streetcar tracks. Under severe economic stress, the family was separated, and in 1937, Malcolm was sent to Mason. After a public school teacher discouraged his ambition of becoming a lawyer, Malcolm at fifteen, left for Boston and New York. He became involved in street crime and was arrested in Massachusetts. In prison he was converted to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and read widely in history and philosophy. He also developed an understanding of black self-hatred and came to see his years in Lansing as common to black experience. Released in 1952, he joined his family in Detroit, and began his new life as a Muslim. When his talent for SIDE TWO preaching was recognized, he moved to New York to head Temple Eleven. He founded the Nation of Islam’s weekly newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, and traveled the country organizing new temples among its followers. In 1959 a television program brought him to public attention as the principal minister of the Nation. Preaching black pride and autonomy, he openly articulated the extent of racial discontent in our society. He broke with the Nation in 1964 and founded Muslim Mosque, Incorporated. A trip to Africa in the same year helped him enlarge his thinking on international problems. By 1965 when he was assassinated, he had become an eloquent spokesman for the oppressed everywhere. His influence continues through his recorded speeches and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a landmark of twentieth century social thought.
4705 South Martin Luther King Boulevard, SE corner of Vincent Court in front of Regency Townhomes Malcolm X Home Informational Site; S455; February 21, 1975; 1975 |
| MICHIGAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION The Michigan Dental Association was organized on January 8, 1856, by fourteen dentists who met in Detroit at the office of Hiram Benedict and Lorain Christopher Whiting. According to the American Dental Association, it was the first state dental society in the country. At this meeting the dentists established bylaws and membership qualifications. “One must be twenty-one, a practicing member of the profession, possess `a good English education,’ and have unexceptionable moral character.” In the 1860s and 1870s the association advocated a dental school in the state. At this time few dentists received formal training. In 1875, after almost twenty years of effort, the state legislature appropriated money to establish a dental school at the University of Michigan.
230 North Washington Square Michigan State Dental Association Informational Designation; L1640C; March 16, 1989; 1989 |
| MICHIGAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION BUILDING When completed in 1928, this building marked the Michigan Education Association’s seventy-fifth anniversary. The Lansing architectural firm of Warren Holmes-Powers Company designed the Neo-Georgian structure. The symmetry, limestone quoining, projecting entrance, and the broken pediment topping the center second-story window typify the style. The Michigan Education Association (MEA) was organized in 1847 in Ann Arbor. By the 1960s operations expanded and a larger facility was needed. In 1964 the organization moved to new offices. The MEA Building has housed many different enterprises. In 1988 it became the headquarters of the Michigan Association of Counties. |
| MICHIGAN ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES On February 1, 1898, township and city officials met in the capitol and founded the Michigan State Association of Supervisors (MSAS). The group served as a liaison between the legislature and county government, and worked for statewide rather than parochial interests. In the 1950s a director was hired and an office opened in a Quonset hut at Michigan State University in East Lansing. In 1957 the Institute for Local Government merged with the MSAS. That year offices were relocated to Lenawee Street in Lansing. In December 1969 the group adopted the name Michigan Association of Counties. The association acquired this building in 1988.
935 North Washington Avenue Michigan Education Association Building (Lindsey Centre); S626A; October 27, 1983; Michigan Association of Counties, S625C; 1991 |
| MICHIGAN LICENSED BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION After the repeal of prohibition in 1933, some Michigan tavern owners and liquor dealers organized trade associations including the Progressive Liquor Alliance and the Royal Ark No. 2. In 1939 these two organizations agreed to merge. The following year the Michigan Table Top Congress was organized. The group headquartered in Detroit until it moved to Lansing in 1946. In 1947 the Association of Michigan Tavern Owners and Operators joined the Table Top Congress. The organization became a lobbyist on behalf of the hospitality industry. It soon led the campaign to repeal a law that prohibited women from tending bar in cities of fifty thousand or more residents unless they were the bar owner’s daughter or wife. In 1963 the organization was renamed the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association.
534 South Walnut Street Michigan Licensed Beverage Association Informational Designation; L1676C; July 20, 1989; 1989 |
| MICHIGAN MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION Since its 1902 founding, the Michigan Manufacturers Association has dealt with many important business issues. Beginning in 1908 the MMA organized employers to establish a system for compensating injured workers. In 1912 based on a proposal authored by the MMA, Michigan’s first Workers Compensation Act became law. In 1943 the Michigan Manufacturers Association became the first such association in the nation to offer group insurance programs to its members. SIDE TWO In 1902 the Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA) held its first meeting in the chamber of the Michigan House of Representatives. The MMA is a voluntary, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the welfare of Michigan industry and providing information to manufacturers about such ongoing concerns as taxation, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. In 1952 the MMA established an office in Lansing so that constant contact with the legislative process could be maintained.
124 East Kalamazoo Street, east of Washington Avenue Michigan Manufacturers Association Informational Designation; L1459C; September 26, 1987; 1987 |
| MICHIGAN PHARMACISTS ASSOCIATION On November 14, 1883, seventy-seven druggists met in the state capitol to organize the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association. Jacob Jesson of Muskegon led the effort to establish a professional association to participate in national professional organizations and secure legislation to regulate drug distribution and pharmacist licensure. By 1886 the association boasted 971 members. It changed its name to the Michigan Pharmacists Association in 1973.
815 North Washington Avenue, between Oakland and Saginaw Streets Michigan Pharmacists Association Informational Designation; L1194C; September 24, 1984; 1986 |
| MICHIGAN RETAIL HARDWARE ASSOCIATION With the philosophy, “in union there is strength,” twenty Michigan hardware retailers convened in Detroit on July 9, 1895, and organized the Michigan Retail Hardware Association. Frank S. Carlton of Calumet was elected the first president. The group worked toward the enactment of state and national legislation on behalf of the retail, wholesale and manufacturing trades. The first success was the passage in 1897 of a state mechanics lien law. SIDE TWO Hardware retailers in attendance at the association’s organizational meeting in 1895 were: R. B. Bloodgood, C. F. Bock, L. B. Brockett, F. S. Carlton, Thomas Harvey, George W. Hubbard, T. Frank Ireland, H. C. Minnie, J. H. Moyes, John Popp, J. B. Sperry, N. B. Wattles, Henry C. Weber, S. L. Boyce and Son, Casper Gnau and Company, Edwards and Chamberlin, Foster, Stevens Company, John W. Jochim Company, McDonnell Hardware, and Scott Brothers and Delisle.
4414 South Pennsylvania Avenue at Cavanaugh Street Michigan Retail Hardware Association Informational Designation; S628C; February 21, 1991; 1991 |
| MICHIGAN SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND Michigan began educating the blind in 1859 at Flint’s Michigan Asylum. In 1879 the legislature established the Michigan School for the Blind, which opened here on September 29, 1880, with thirty-five students. The next year, five students were its first graduates. At first, students learned by lecture/demonstration, but in 1884-85 the school introduced braille reading and writing. The first deaf/blind student was enrolled in 1887. By the 1950s the school boasted its largest enrollment, three hundred children in kindergarten through grade twelve. Student activities have included music, drama, and track. In 1961 and 1963 student wrestlers won class B state championships. |
| ADMINISTRATION BUILDING In 1880 the Michigan School for the Blind moved from Flint to this site, the former home of the Michigan Female College and the Institute for Oddfellows. This structure, often called Old Main, has served as the focal point of the forty-acre campus of the Michigan School for the Blind. The monumental, three-story Neo-Classical Revival-style building was designed by Edwyn A. Bowd (1865-1940) of Lansing. It originally housed the entire student body and school offices. Enlarged and remodeled several times, the E-shaped brick and limestone structure retains its architectural beauty.
715 West Willow Avenue, intersection of Grand River Avenue and Pine Street Michigan School for the Blind; S575A; April 10, 1986; 1986 |
| MICHIGAN SHERIFFS’ ASSOCIATION In December 1877 twenty-four county sheriffs met in Lansing and formed the Michigan State Sheriffs Association--committed to devising “ways and means for assisting each other in the detention, arrest and conviction of criminals.” In 1893 the group joined other law enforcement officials and formed the Michigan Association of Police, Sheriffs and Prosecuting Attorneys. In 1931 the sheriffs incorporated independently as the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association.
515 North Capitol Avenue Michigan Sheriffs’ Association Informational Site; S620C; November 15, 1990; 1991 |
| MICHIGAN SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS On May 10, 1946, forty-five engineers from around the state met to organize the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers, which was incorporated on September 30, 1946. Michigan was the twenty-fourth state to organize such a society. The society promotes licensure of engineers as a safeguard to the public’s life, health, and property. It includes engineers in government, industry, private practice, construction, and education. In 1987 the society had 2,550 members.
215 North Walnut Street, one block west of Capitol Avenue Michigan Society of Professional Engineers Informational Designation; L1378C; January 22, 1987; 1987 |
| MORGAN B. HUNGERFORD HOUSE This Late Victorian house, designed by Darius B. Moon, was built by Morgan B. Hungerford in 1880. Hungerford (1830-1903) had arrived in the area in 1858. He farmed a large tract of land in what is now west Lansing and served one term as justice of the peace for Lansing Township. In 1958 Lansing realtor Marguerite Moore restored the house as a residence and office. It became an administrative office building of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan in 1984.
602 West Ionia Street, corner of Pine Street, between Sycamore and Chestnut Streets Hungerford, Morgan B., House; L1185A; August 24, 1984; 1987 |
| NORTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH On October 19, 1863, fourteen members of Lansing’s First Presbyterian Church signed the Articles of Association creating the Franklin Street Church Society. The society acquired a lot for a church from James Turner, a merchant and leading Methodist, with the proviso that the Presbyterians would supply Lower Town (now North Lansing) with gospel preaching. The first Franklin Street Presbyterian Church was dedicated on this site on October 3, 1865. SIDE TWO Built in 1915-1916 on the site of the congregation’s first church, the Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church was constructed to accommodate North Lansing’s growing population. Edwyn Bowd, Lansing’s leading architect of public buildings in the early twentieth century, designed the church and manse. The extensive Arts and Crafts detailing is unusual among Michigan churches of this period. The congregation changed its name when Franklin Avenue became Grand River Avenue in 1934.
108 West Grand River Avenue Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church (North Presbyterian Church); L1353A; December 5, 1986; 1988 |
| OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION The state’s professional optometry organization was founded as the Michigan Optical Society in Muskegon in 1896. Benson W. Hardy, Jay W. Gould, Ernest Eimer, Nelson K. Standart and Emil H. Arnold were its first directors. In 1904 the group was incorporated as the Michigan Society of Optometrists. It became the Michigan Optometric Association in 1945. The group moved its headquarters to Detroit in 1944 and to Lansing in 1956. Ninety years after its founding, the association included 670 practitioners of optometry.
530 West Ionia Street, corner of Pine Street Michigan Society of Optometrists Informational Designation ; L1408C; April 28, 1987; 1987 |
| RANSOM ELI OLDS Born in Geneva, Ohio, Ransom E. Olds came to Lansing in 1880. He worked in his father’s machine and repair shop, where he experimented with small steam engines. In 1887 Olds drove, for a distance of one block, Lansing’s first automobile, an experimental steam vehicle. He continued to work with steam, gasoline and electric power. Eventually, he produced a gasoline-powered vehicle that seated four persons and could do eighteen miles per hour on level ground. On August 21, 1897, Olds, Edward W. Sparrow, Eugene F. Cooley, Arthur C. Stebbins, Samuel L. Smith, Frank G. Clark, Fred M. Seibly, and Alfred Beamer formed the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, the forerunner of the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors. As general manager, Olds was authorized to “build one carriage in as nearly perfect a manner as possible.” Four vehicles were produced that first year. |
| CURVED DASH OLDSMOBILE On a site southwest of here, production of the Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabout began on December 16, 1901. The model was first produced in Detroit in 1900, but much of the assembly was shifted to Lansing after a fire destroyed the Detroit plant. The Curved Dash, built from 1900 to 1904, was the first car to carry the name Oldsmobile. With a sixty-six-inch wheelbase, it weighed about 650 pounds; it was powered by a one-cylinder, seven-horsepower engine and cost $650. It was the first car built using a progressive assembly system. The company produced 425 vehicles in 1901, 2,500 in 1902, 4,000 in 1903 and 5,508 in 1904. For a time the Runabout was the best-selling model in the United States. In 1905 it inspired Gus Edwards to write the song “In My Merry Oldsmobile.”
920 Townsend Street at the corner of William Street Birthplace of Oldsmobile Division; S590C; May 15, 1987; 1987 |
| REO MOTOR CAR COMPANY In 1904 Ransom Eli Olds founded the REO Motor Car Company and built a factory on this site. In 1897 Olds had organized the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, the forerunner of Oldsmobile. REO soon became a leading automobile producer. The REO Motor Truck Company was formed in 1910, and production of the popular Speed Wagon soon began. REO offered the first practical automatic transmission in 1933; however, the depression-era economy brought an end to car production in 1936. The company focused instead on commercial and military vehicles under the name REO Motors. Diamond T Trucks merged with REO in 1967, resulting in Diamond REO Trucks, Inc. The maker of “The World’s Toughest Truck” closed in 1975. Despite its designation as a National Historic Landmark, the plant was razed in 1979 to make way for new industry. |
| REO CLUBHOUSE Built in 1917, the REO Clubhouse was the cultural and recreational hub of Lansing, hosting free movies, wedding receptions, basketball games, dress balls, and patriotic gatherings during the First and Second World Wars. It was also the home of Lansing’s first radio station, WREO, which went on the air in 1921. Known as the “Temple of Leisure,” the building comprised a two thousand-person capacity dining room, an auditorium, a library, four bowling alleys, a fireproof movie booth, and smoking, lounging and billiard rooms. Use of the clubhouse by employees was one of the policies implemented by REO to cultivate the loyalty of its workers. Years after the Diamond REO plant closed in 1975, former employees recalled the sense of family fostered by the company. The clubhouse was razed in 1979.
2100 South Washington Avenue REO Motor Car Company Commemorative Designation (Diamond REO Trucks, Inc. Plant Site); S652; February 29, 1996; 1996 |
| ROSWELL EVERETT HOUSE Roswell Everett, a native of New York State, came to Michigan in 1834. In 1841 he moved to Ingham County and soon after built this Greek Revival house. Everett (1790-1871) is credited with naming Delhi Township, which he helped organize in 1842. Everett held many public offices, serving as the first township treasurer and assessor, and later as justice of the peace and township supervisor. In 1846 the organizational meeting for school district no. 2, which became known as the Everett district, was held here. Classes were held in a shanty located on the farm. Lansing’s Everett High School is named for Roswell Everett’s family. SIDE TWO Roswell Everett built this house in 1841-44. Like many other people who migrated to Michigan from New York State, Everett built his house in the Greek Revival style, which was popular there. Everett hosted official meetings in his home including those of the Delhi District No. 2 School Board. For forty years children met in a schoolhouse located on the property. Lansing's Everett High School is named for the Roswell Everett family.
131 West Miller Road Everett, Roswell, House (Elmwood Farms Homestead); L1990; August 29, 1996; 1997 |
| ROGERS-CARRIER HOUSE Lansing architect Darius B. Moon built this Queen Anne style house in 1891 for realtor H. M. Rogers. Purchased by Lansing merchant M. R. Carrier in 1905, the house was occupied by the Carrier family until 1964. In 1966 Lansing Community College bought the structure. Students of the architectural studies center began restoring it in 1982. The restoration included redesigning and reconstructing the turret that previously had been removed.
528 North Capitol Avenue on the Lansing Community College campus Rogers, Herbert M., House (Rogers‑Carrier House); L1140A; January 20, 1984; 1987 |
| SAINT PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH In 1848, soon after the Michigan legislature relocated the state capital to Lansing Township, an Episcopal society met in the new capitol, located at Washington Avenue and Allegan Street. The society, which became a parish in 1856, erected its first church at the corner of North Washington Avenue and Ionia Street in 1859. A second, much larger church opened at the present location on October 20, 1873, three weeks after the cornerstone of the present capitol had been laid. SIDE TWO This Neo-Gothic-inspired church was erected in 1914. Although plans for a church had been supplied by local architect Samuel D. Butterworth, revised plans of the Reverend Henry J. Simpson, rector, were used when the A. R. Cole Company built the church. The church complex includes a 1942 chapel, a 1952 parish house, and a 1967 education annex. The building is distinguished by its stained glass windows, installed in the 1940s-1960s, and wood carvings, crafted by German artisan Alois Lang.
218 West Ottawa Street Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church; L1689; November 16, 1989; 1991 |
| STATE BAR OF MICHIGAN The State Bar of Michigan was established by the legislature in 1939 as an organization dedicated to improving the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services. Every lawyer licensed to practice in Michigan is required to be a member. The organization is under the supervision of the Michigan Supreme Court. Before 1935 lawyers could join the Michigan State Bar Association, which was organized in 1890. The State Bar made this building its headquarters in 1950. A four-story addition was completed in 1979. The State Bar of Michigan’s guiding principle, expressed by its first president, Roberts P. Hudson, is “No organization of lawyers can long survive which has not for its primary object the protection of the public.”
306 Townsend Street The State Bar of Michigan Informational Designation; S588C; April 28, 1987; 1987 |
| STATE CAPITOL This edifice, the center of government since 1879, is Michigan’s third capitol. It replaced the frame building that was erected nearby in 1847 when the capital was removed to Lansing from Detroit. Construction began in 1872 on the new building, designed by Elijah Myers. It cost $1,510,130 to build, and was dedicated January 1, 1879, at a meeting addressed by six of Michigan’s governors.
The state capitol of Michigan, rededicated in its centennial, 1979, is the third structure to serve as the symbolic and functional center of state government. In 1837, when statehood was attained, the old Michigan Territorial Courthouse in Detroit became the first capitol. Twelve years later, the legislature voted to move Michigan’s seat of government to Lansing where a new capitol was erected. That frame building was soon found inadequate. Then in 1871, Governor Henry P. Baldwin recommended the construction of a new capitol and the legislature concurred. It was completed at a cost of nearly $1,500,000. SIDE TWO Michigan’s present state capitol building was first dedicated in 1879 at the inaugural ceremony of Governor Charles M. Croswell. This classically styled structure, designed by Elijah E. Myers, has a 267-foot spired dome. It represents over six years of planning and construction. Michigan’s resources are exhibited in the copper, slate and white pine used throughout the structure. Built to house the governor’s office, the legislature, supreme court and other state functions, the building has been substantially renovated over the years to meet changing needs.
Intersection of Capitol and Michigan Avenues Michigan State Capitol (State Capitol); HB1; February 18, 1956; 1980
Original capitol marker, erected in 1956, replaced 1980. Original marker exhibited in the Michigan Magazine Museum, Comins. |
| THE STRAND On April 21, 1921, this building opened as the Strand Theater and Arcade. The two thousand-seat theater boasted one of the largest vaudeville stages in the state and a screen for viewing motion pictures. The building was the pride of theater mogul Walter J. Butterfield and one of three hundred theaters created by Chicago architect John Eberson, who designed the interior in a French theme with a blue sky and filmy clouds painted on the ceiling. The arcade’s office suites, bowling alleys, ballroom and fourteen stores, including the Cinderella Tea Shop and the Palace of Sweets Candy Shop, made the arcade one of Lansing’s most distinctive commercial spaces. In 1941 the theater was renovated and renamed the Michigan. It closed in 1980. |
| THEATER DISTRICT As early as the 1870s Washington Avenue was the center of Lansing’s theater district. In 1921 the marquee lights glowed for the first time here at the Strand, which joined the Bijou, the Colonial, the Empress, the Garden, the Orpheum, the Vaudette, the Plaza and the Gladmer in featuring vaudeville and motion pictures. In 1927 the first “talkie,” The Jazz Singer, opened at the Capitol Theater (formerly the Empress) heralding the end of vaudeville. Owners rushed to equip their theaters for sound. During the 1970s multiplexes drew audiences away from downtown theaters. The Strand, renamed the Michigan in 1941, closed in 1980. The theater was demolished and the arcade renovated for office space, but the ornate facade remains as a reminder of the city’s once glittering theater district.
211-219 Washington Avenue The Strand Theater and Arcade (The Michigan Theater and Arcade); L1114A; September 21, 1983; 2001 |
| TOWN OF MICHIGAN In 1847, required by Michigan’s 1835 constitution to choose a permanent capital site within the first decade of statehood, the legislature voted to move the capital from Detroit. Convinced that the governmental seat should be in the state’s interior, legislators voted to relocate in Ingham County’s unsettled Lansing Township. Citizens viewed the choice with skepticism—believing the decision was a joke that backfired. The capital commission platted the “Town of Michigan” in 1847 and chose a site bounded by Washington and Capitol Avenues and Allegan and Washtenaw Streets for a temporary capitol building. When the legislature met that year, many members were forced to lodge in private homes; others made their beds on the capitol floor. During that session, the legislature renamed the capital city Lansing. |
| 124 West Michigan Avenue The town of Michigan was platted in 1847 as the state capital. In April the state legislature considered renaming the capital Pewanogowink, Swedenborg, or El Dorado, but chose Lansing, after John Lansing, an American Revolution hero. At that time the capital was a wilderness fraught with wolves and a “brain fever” (spinal meningitis) epidemic. In 1859 Lansing was incorporated as a city. During the 1870s, Lansing’s lyceums and literary societies hosted author Mark Twain and actor Edwin Booth. The 1847 capitol, considered “an old rattle trap,” was replaced by the present building in 1879. Primarily an agricultural community, Lansing developed as a manufacturing center in the 1890s. In 1897 Ransom Eli Olds organized the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, Michigan’s first operating automobile company.
City Hall, 124 West Michigan Avenue, SE corner of Michigan and Capitol Avenues Lansing (Town of Michigan) Informational Designation; S629C; March 21, 1991; 1991 |
| TRINITY A.M.E. CHURCH Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church of Lansing is the oldest black church in the city. Its first services were held in a building on North Washington Avenue. The church, formally organized by the Reverend Mr. Henderson of the British Methodist Episcopal Church in 1866, was first called the Independent Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1875 it was reorganized as Bethel A.M.E. Church. In 1902, upon the death of the Reverend George R. Collins, the pastor for many years, the church was renamed the George R. Collins A.M.E. Church. It was incorporated in 1906. The church received its present name, Trinity A.M.E. Church, in 1964. SIDE TWO During the church’s first decade, the congregation purchased a small frame building and moved it to a site on the 100 block of North Pine Street. In 1877 a modest brick church was erected near the original site. It served the congregation for eighty-eight years. In 1965 the congregation was forced to relocate to make room for the State Capitol Complex building project. Selling its downtown property to the state, Ingham County’s oldest black congregation then moved to this ten-acre tract, where it built a church and a parsonage. Starting with twenty-one members, the church had over four hundred members by its one hundredth anniversary in 1966.
3500 West Holmes Road at the intersection of Waverly Road Collins Memorial A.M.E. Church (Trinity A.M.E. Church Congregation); L987B; January 13, 1982; 1983 |
| TURNER-DODGE HOUSE Gracefully situated high on the bank of the Grand River, this Classical Revival-style mansion, built in 1858, was the home of prominent Lansing merchant James Turner (1820-1869). In 1899 Turner’s son-in-law Frank L. Dodge (1853-1929) bought and enlarged it. The three-story building, designed by Lansing architect Darius Moon, features stately wooden Ionic columns and a decorative cornice. Its interior, with its large classical doorways and several fireplaces, is adorned with beveled and leaded French windows. After remaining in the family for a century, the property was purchased by the Great Lakes Bible College in 1958. In 1974 the city of Lansing acquired it for a park. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. SIDE TWO James Turner, a Lansing pioneer, originally owned this property. A native of New York, Turner came to Lansing in 1847 from nearby Mason, where he was a merchant. He immediately opened a general store in the Seymour House, the first hotel in north Lansing. He was appointed deputy state treasurer in 1860 and elected to the state senate in 1866. Interested in education, he helped found the Misses Rogers’ Seminary, later called the Michigan Female College (1855-1869). He was also active in the construction of plank roads and railroads in the Lansing area. Frank L. Dodge married Turner’s daughter Abby in 1888 and purchased this house from Turner’s widow in 1899. Dodge, a Democrat, was elected to the state legislature in 1883 and 1885. He was city alderman for twelve years and was active on several civic boards.
106 East North Street at James Street Dodge Mansion (Turner‑Dodge House); L238; May 17, 1973; 1980 |
| WOLVERINE BOYS’ STATE: THE AMERICAN LEGION On November 28, 1937, the board of directors of The American Legion established Wolverine Boys’ State. American Legion departments in other states, including Ohio and Indiana, had existing programs. The American Legion sought to teach citizenship and leadership to boys by training them in the fundamental principles of American government. Individual legion posts sponsored local boys who were “mentally alert, vigorous and enthusiastic and honest and thrifty.” The first Boys’ State was held at Michigan State College (present-day Michigan State University) in East Lansing. Posts sent eight hundred boys at a cost of $12.50 each for the ten-day event. In 1946 Boys’ Nation was organized. |
| WOLVERINE GIRLS’ STATE: AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY In 1941 the women of the American Legion Auxiliary established Wolverine Girls’ State. The organization’s original purpose was “to find and develop girls who show inherent tendencies toward leadership.” The first Girls’ State meeting was held in June 1941 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The eight-day program included sessions on entertaining, etiquette, drama, nursing, art and music appreciation, and citizenship. In 1952, to accommodate women’s changing roles, the auxiliary shifted the organization’s focus to inform girls about “the duties, privileges, rights and responsibilities of American citizenship and self-government.” Girls’ Nation was established in 1947.
212 North Verlinden, SE corner of Verlinden and Ottawa Streets Wolverine Boys’ State Inc., Wolverine Girls’ State ‑ American Legion Auxiliary (American Legion Headquarters); S618C; August 23, 1990; 1990 |
| WOODBERRY-KERNS HOUSE Darius Moon, prominent turn-of-the-century Lansing architect, designed this Queen Anne house in 1896 for Chester E. Woodberry, founder of the Lansing Capitol Savings and Loan Association. The structure’s last residential owner was William G. Kerns who owned the Kerns Hotel, which stood on North Grand Avenue. Kerns’s family sold the house to the Michigan State Medical Society in 1951. Extensively remodeled in 1951, the house is one of the few remaining structures designed by Moon. It became the state headquarters of the Michigan Democratic party in 1977.
606 Townsend Street, corner of Hillsdale Street Woodberry‑Kerns House (Hart‑Kennedy House); L766A; January 18, 1980; 1981 |
