During his Sabbatical Leave, fall 1983, Dr. Harris planned, promoted, and executed an extensive series of programs entitled "Windows to the Past: A Public Program for the Towner House Children's Museum" , funded by the Michigan Council for the Humanities and co-sponsored by Eastern Michigan University. This project included monthly public meetings, with especial emphasis upon a day-long series of meetings involving many state and local figures, including many specialists from Eastern Michigan University as speakers, with an audience of teachers, educators, and parents interested in teaching children to appreciate the past, especially in history, architecture, and literature.
Click here to read Jack's announcement of the Towner House museum project in the Heritage News, September 1983.
As Dr. Harris explains further, "The series ended with a celebration at the Towner House, entitled, "Christmas at the Mayor's House", for which I had involved four high school dramatics students in a living history experience. They played the four members of the Towner family, based upon scripts I had prepared for them, meeting children and adults, and explaining their contributions to the community and what life was like for them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Ypsilanti. Bradley Brookshire was at the Harpsichord and The Ypsilanti High School Chamber Singers participated. This was a two-day celebration of Ypsilanti's historic past."
Note: Unfortunately, tapes of the students dramatizing the Towner family was not found. Also, the 40-year-old cassette tape of the Towner House music concert was warped, so it took a great deal of editing to make it listenable. However, in spite the performance not being pristine, listening to it is still enjoyable.
Click on the controls below to listen to Jack Harris's celebration of the Towner House, the Towner Family, and Ypsilanti, Michigan's heritage with music and song, on December 17 and 18, 1983.
Read Jack Harris' argument to the Ypsilanti YHDC requesting them to deny demolition of the historic Towner House. This page starts with a poem by Dr. William Edmunds.