Archived News Release: June 1, 2017 - The 2017 Ann Arbor Historic District Commission 33rd Annual Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, June 5, at 7 p.m. at Larcom City Hall. The mayor will present each recipient with their award and thank them for their contributions to the beautification of Ann Arbor. There are 19 awards this year: one Bicentennial, two Centennial Awards, two Special Merit, three Preservation Awards, 10 Rehabilitation Awards and one Memoriam Award. Award-winning properties range in age from pre-Civil War to midcentury modern and include residential, institutional and commercial buildings. (Pictured right, Nickels Arcade.)
BICENTENNIAL AWARD
University of Michigan
Beginning with a small building in Detroit in 1817 and officially moving to Ann Arbor in 1837, the University of Michigan has grown beyond the wildest expectations of its original founders Father Gabriel Richard, Augustus Woodward and Rev. John Monteith. The university officially opened for class with two professors and six students in 1841, and the first class graduated in 1845. The campus then consisted of four "professor's houses" (one of which remains today as the President's House) and a classroom building. At first growing slowly, enrollments soon exploded after the Civil War and the subsequent wars of World War I and II. Today, the university encompasses 34 million square feet and occupies 584 buildings spread over Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. It is one of the finest public research universities in the United States and leads in research funding.
CENTENNIAL AWARDS are given to businesses and organizations that have existed in Ann Arbor for 100 years.
Beth Israel Congregation
Beth Israel, a conservative Jewish congregation, was first established in 1916 when Hannah and Osias Zwerdling, a local furrier, opened their home for services. Zwerdling was part of a great migration of East European Jews to America, and he met others in Ann Arbor. The Zwerdlings and seven other families formed the core of what would become Beth Israel. The congregation rented facilities at the Schwaben Halle downtown, at 538 N. Division, for 20 years, and shared quarters with Hillel on Hill Street for decades. With the growth of the university and changes in its policies to hire Jews, Beth Israel needed to expand and broke ground in 1977 for their current synagogue, designed by Hobbs and Black. Today, there are 470 households in the congregation, and it is a thriving community.
Nickels Arcade
The Nickels Arcade (pictured right) is one of Ann Arbor's architectural treasures, is 100 years old this year. Tom Nickels, owner of a State Street meat market, built the elegant European-inspired glass-roofed arcade, now owned by his three grandchildren. Local architect Herman Pipp designed the beaux-arts terra cotta building, which has been on the National Register since 1987. The arcade has been blessed through the years with many long-term tenants. A barber shop has been in the same spot from the beginning. Both Van Boven Men's Wear and the Caravan Shop date back to 1927. Today, new businesses such as Comet Coffee and Babo give the arcade a contemporary feel while at the same time reminding people of European arcades.
SPECIAL MERIT AWARDS are given to unusual, single-item changes to the historic character or other projects relating to local history.
Ann Arbor Muffler Sign — 2333 Jackson Road
Neon signs from the 20th century have been rapidly declining in number since their heyday in the 1950s. Invented by a Frenchman in 1910, these signs were most popular in the U.S. from 1920-1960. There is even a group called "Save the Signs" which is busy documenting and preserving these signs for posterity. The Ann Arbor Muffler sign, erected in 1957, is one of the last remaining signs of this type in the city. The owners of Ann Arbor Muffler are being applauded for their care in preserving this remnant of the past for all to admire as they drive down Jackson Road.
544 Detroit St. — for sensitive new construction in a historic district.
In 2012, Dan Williams of Maven Development submitted an application to the HDC to construct a new 4,000-square-foot building designed by local architect Marc Rueter. This "flatiron" building would replace a former Clark gas station that had been boarded up for more than 30 years. The gas station was an unwelcome entry point into the Old Fourth Ward Historic District, and the project gained approval from the HDC and most of the neighbors. In 2013, City Council approved a brownfield plan and planned project site plan. The current owners, Mark, Allison and Sydney Shotwell, acquired the upper two floors in 2016 and are now living there with gorgeous views of the Huron River valley. The Old Fourth Ward finally has a stylish and fitting entry at its northern border.
IN MEMORIUM
Kingsbury Marzolf
The HDC recognizes the life and legacy of Kingsbury Marzolf, professor of architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Design, who died in January of this year. He was a native of Chicago and never lost his love of all kinds of architecture as a result. He worked in Washington, D.C., and Copenhagen before joining the U-M in 1963 and retiring in 2000. During his time in Ann Arbor, he was involved in the efforts in the 1970s to preserve historic buildings, and was instrumental in saving the Old Fire Station (now the Hands-on Museum) and the Michigan Central RR Station (now the Gandy Dancer). He and Norm Tyler, a professor of planning at Eastern Michigan University, produced a series of films on local architecture that were shown on Ann Arbor's Community Television Network.
In the summer, he taught in the University of Michigan International Study Program in Florence, Italy, and his love of old buildings actually prevented him from completing his Ph.D.
REHABILITATION AWARDS are given to projects that have substantially returned a property to its historic condition.
435 S. First — Miller Building LLC
This small Greek revival house just south of William Street probably dates to the 1840s or 1850s, but the first record of it is in 1883, when it was the home of laborer Karl Joerndt. In 1903, Joerndt and wife, Sophia, moved to Whitmore Lake, and the Ernest Bock family moved in. From a room on the back of the house, Bock and his wife, Augusta, ran a knitting works that produced sweaters, skirts and jackets, according to one of their ads. Eventually, their home was given to their son, Herman. He had his 15 minutes of fame when a note he had written in 1931, while decorating the U-M law school library ceiling, was discovered during renovations in 2008. The note is framed and on display in the library.
The current owner, Bob Miller, restored the exterior of the house, replaced the metal front porch posts with wood columns and built an addition on the back. The renovation turned a former eyesore into a showpiece in the Old West Side Historic District.
301 S. Main — 301 SMS LLC
The building has a long and storied history, beginning its life as Binder's Orchestrion Hall in 1871 and serving as Baumgartner's Bakery and Grocery by 1878. Later, the first floor was used as the showroom for Allmendinger and Ann Arbor Organs and Pianos. The German-American Bank moved in in 1906, and in 1916 the Italianate building was remodeled to resemble a Roman façade. The next tenant was Hutzel's Ladies Apparel, until 1990. The building's third floor was the home of Ann Arbor's first radio station, WPAG 1050 AM, from 1945 to 1986. Selo/Sheval Gallery spent over 20 years on the corner, until the building sold to Detroit-area ophthalmologist Dr. Reza Rahmani in 2014. Rahmani has replaced the storefront display windows with new copper replicas and made a major investment in updating the building with high quality workmanship overseen by OX Studio, and interior finishes by Angelini & Associates. He lured the famous Shinola watch and bike company of Detroit to open here in 2015. Rahmani has given this Main Street icon a worthy early 150th birthday present.
1533 Broadway — Dolata Family Trust
This 1942 modern home was recently purchased by the Dolata family and completely renovated and brought back to a useful life. It is in the Broadway Historic District. Although not designed by a known architect, its long and low massing resembles many designed by contemporary architects of the time. The recessed door, flat roof with overhang and center chimney are standard design features of the mid-century modern. It was built by Guerdon Greenway, a physician, but within a few years, E. Stevens Rice, an assistant to the dean at U-M in 1947, was living here. Rice stayed until 1967. The Dolatas extensively rehabilitated the house and built an addition in the rear that compliments the historic character of the house.
PRESERVATION AWARDS are given to owners who have maintained the historic character of their property for at least 10 years.
1611 Broadway — Roberta Knox
This beautiful Tudor Revival house was built in 1931 by John B. Waterman, a city firefighter who lived here from 1932-1945 with his wife, Ida. She was on the City Board of Education and was active in University of Michigan alum groups and boards — to this day, the Margaret Waterman Alumnae Group holds a celebrity lecture series. The house features a steeply pitched roof, "crazy" brick, copper gutters and downspouts ,and leaded six over six windows throughout the house, gables and dormers. It has been maintained in pristine condition by the current owner. The house is in the Broadway Historic District.
1733 Jackson Ave. — Sherril Smith
This lovely Arts and Crafts house has been meticulously maintained by Sherril Smith for many decades. It was built in 1922 for Reuben Hoffstetter, the owner of the Walk-Over Shoe Shop on Main St. Hoffstetter lived here until his death in 1959. The house remained in the Hoffstetter family until 1969 when Maria Hoffstetter died. Smith purchased the house in the mid-1970s. The house features exposed rafters, battered chimney and porch foundations that are wider at the bottom, the original windows with original storms and a matching garage with original leaf-swing doors.
1410 Hill — Frank and Julie Casa
Frank and Julie Casa have lived in this fabulous 1898 house since 1972. It was designed by Pond and Pond, a renowned architecture firm from Chicago that designed the University of Michigan Union, the Michigan League and Student Publications buildings. The Pond brothers were natives of Ann Arbor. The house was designed for Professor Paul C. Freer, who taught chemistry at U-M. It is a rare example of the Shingle Style in Ann Arbor which is shown in the asymmetrical design, the intersecting tower between the two roof lines (one facing forward, the other to the side), the use of clapboard and shingle and windows in odd relationships to each other (some with diamond panes). In 1901, the Inlander magazine noted, "It is in quite a different style from colonial, and it's particularly pleasing in the air of solidity and competence to meet climatic conditions."
The Casas have been diligent about maintaining this home in its originality, down to keeping one of the oldest toilets in town complete with above-head tank and pull chain (labeled Hutzel Plumbing Oct 1897).
837 S. Main — Robert Droppleman and Julie Weatherbee
This Dutch Revival home on South Main was built in 1918 for carpenter Oscar Hildinger, and has been the home of second owners, Bob and Julie, since 1996. It is a cross-gable house with gambrel roofs on all four sides. The front roof slopes down to overhang a recessed porch. It is a transitional style — this was an era when porches were starting to disappear. Gardens surround the house in summer, and the charming garage with original sliding doors has also been meticulously cared for.
412 W. Jefferson — Ginny Hannon and John Koch
This typical Old West Side home, built around 1900, was part of a complex of homes started on Second Street in the 1870s by contractor John Christian Walz. Walz built his first house at 448 Second, then moved up a notch economically and built 454 Second at the corner. Then in the early 20th century, he built this home around the corner for his youngest daughter, Emma. Most of her life, she remained unmarried, however, and lived in her father's house. Ginny and John purchased the house in 1987 and have preserved the interior lincrusta wallpaper, pocket doors, an original bathtub and much interior woodwork and original hardware. Their house was featured on the Old West Side Homes Tour last year.
408 Awixa — Louisa and Albert Pieper
The Piepers are only the second owners of this home. It was built for Al Gallup (of Gallup Park fame) and his wife in 1926, and the Piepers have the original plans. Gallup, who was superintendent of parks from 1919 to 1961, is credited with establishing the city parks system we know and love today. The Gallups chose a Colonial Revival style designed by F.C. Odell and built it at a prominent corner on Geddes Road. It is a fairly authentic take on a New England shingle house complete with saltbox shape, central cross gable and the second floor protruding jetty's with pendils, or decorative carved posts, at each corner. The Piepers purchased the house in 1975. Louisa served as staff for the HDC for almost 30 years and is currently active with the Downtown Street Exhibit Program. She has been recognized by both Ann Arbor and the State of Michigan for her work in historic preservation. The Piepers have an immense backyard garden, despite adding a family room that blends seamlessly with the original.
109-119 E. Ann — Peter Bilakos
The Bilakos family has owned this group of buildings, known as the Hoban Block, since Mr. Bilakos' father ran a restaurant in one in the early 20th century. These commercial Italianate buildings, once graced by elaborate wooden cornices, were built ca. 1871 when a previous wooden building burned down. It was reported that Mrs. Hoban, the owner, "built a substantial business on Ann Street at a cost of several thousand dollars." The arched windows and brick corbelling are distinctive features of the Italianate commercial style.
By the early 20th century, businesses had moved to Main Street, and this became a place where immigrants could start a business as well as the usual German saloons, grocery stores and butcher shops. There was a Chinese laundry, a Jewish clothing merchant and a Greek (Christ Bilakos) restauranteur. Later, the area became the center of the African-American community with bars with live music, pool halls and barber shops while they were restricted to this part of town. The Bilakos family began restoring the buildings in the 1980s. Some of the original cast-iron storefronts remain and were restored. The buildings are in the Fourth and Ann Historic District.
448 Fifth St. — David and Barbara Hall
The Halls purchased the Dupper House (ca. 1902) in 1985 and have shared it with the community ever since. Their garden was on the Old West Side Homes Tour in 1987, and their home was on the tour in 1988, 1995 and 2016. They have made beautiful additions over time — many with the help of architect Marc Rueter. All have been approved by the HDC as this is in the Old West Side Historic District. The house is a classic brick colonial revival style with full porch on the first floor and cutout porch on the second. The house was built for Jacob and Anna Dupper, who owned the Buckeye Beer distributorship across the street on land that is now part of Bach School's playground. After the Duppers died, the house was divided up into apartments. The Halls only lived on one floor at a time while renovations were underway. Now they are empty nesters but are still expanding the house, adding a family room in the rear.
2935 Hickory Lane — Ed and Cynthia Yao
The Yaos purchased this mid-century modern house in 1991 and are only the second owners since it was built in 1962. It was designed by local legendary architect Robert Metcalf for the Moyer family who lived here for almost 30 years. The house is a simple design from the front with a long low profile and flat roof typical of the style but outlined in white with a curved bump over the red door — two features that hark to the Chinese ancestry of the Yaos. The Yaos have made additions to the house, also using Metcalf as their architect.
1055 Chestnut — Yuni and Richard Aaron
Robert Metcalf designed this house in 1958 for Dr. and Mrs. Edmund Botch. In 1975, it became the home of Jarvis Franzblau. The current owners purchased the house from him in 2006. The house was one of Metcalf's favorites. It was written up in the Ann Arbor News in March 1959 where it was described as a new contemporary bi-level home exhibiting modernity in its glass walls, brick and vertically placed, narrow-board siding. The kitchen, with its plastic ceiling and skylight, was also featured.
Current owners Yuni and Richard Aaron love the house for its past history, and share the space with their two children. Metcalf designed the house around certain pieces of furniture. Richard discovered that a Saarinen chair was just perfect for a certain spot — he saw it on the plans! Luckily, previous owners didn't make many changes, and the Aarons have carefully updated the house to preserve most of the original tile and Metcalf's integrity.
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