The house with the onion-shaped dome will be the focus of a Tuesday meeting on the restoration of historic buildings in Ypsilanti.
The house, called the Becker-Stacklewitz House at 601 W. Forest Ave., is a deteriorating, privately owned building which the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation fears may succumb to a parking lot.
Tuesday's meeting, organized by Jack Harris, an Eastern Michigan University associate professor of English, is the second of five public meetings on restoring local historical buildings. It starts at 8 p.m. in the basement of the Holy Trinity Chapel, 511 W. Forest Ave. According to Harris, the house is the only building in Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor with a Byzantine or onion-shaped dome.
"The house has a lot of features popular in the late 19th century, including a sunburst design in the gables. It is basically a Queen Anne style of architecture," Harris says.
He adds that he knows of only one other building in the area that had an onion-shaped dome and that one, a house in Ann Arbor, was removed during a "cheap remodeling project to turn the house into apartments."
Harris, coordinator of the meetings, received a $11,751 grant to conduct a study of and host public meetings about the future of five city landmarks. Matching funds have come from Eastern Michigan University.
"This indicates, I think, that EMU is interested in community development," Harris says. Purpose of the project is to foster a dialogue between academia and the public about alternative uses of historic buildings.
Harris, who himself moved to Ypsilanti from Ann Arbor, says he would like for others to see that "Ypsilanti isn't a bad place to live. The tension is off here," he says. "Around 1910, EMU was the center of the community," he says. "The faculty lived here and (campus) was an important part of the community."
Other buildings to be featured in future meetings will be the historic Ypsilanti City Hall, 304 N. Huron St., the Ypsilanti Girls' Club building, 227 N. Grove St., and the Child and Family Service building, 118 S. Washington St. The first meeting was about the Artrain Building in Depot Town. All are located in different sections of the city.
Harris chose the Stacklewitz house because it represents a "problem building on the west side and because it is in the path of a projected development plan for the university," he said.
The house is directly across the Forest Avenue from the EMU president's house. Its present appearance is a problem to the university because it detracts from the university's image, Harris has been told.
The EMU Board of Regents recently set aside $171,000 for the purchase of four parcels at the corner of Perrin Street and Forest Avenue "when the properties become available." Harris says the Stacklewitz house is one of the parcels, and he has been told it would be demolished to clear the way for a mound that would conceal an existing parking lot from the president's view.
"It's going to be up to the public to decide if the house is worth saving. It probably would take between $30,000 and $50,000 to fix it up. This is a question we want to present at the meeting," Harris says.
"I personally don't see this building as being structurally unsound. It has some obvious structural damage, some holes in the roof that has resulted in water damage inside," Harris says.
Meeting participants also will be asked to discuss alternative uses of the building, and some that already have been suggested to Harris include an art gallery, a faculty club or a conversion into a duplex.
Featured speaker at Tuesday's meeting will be Richard Bilaitis, professor of art at Wayne State University, who was instrumental in getting preservation projects under way in that university neighborhood. Now, Wayne State is offering courses in preservation. Bilaitis also will discuss possible sources of financing.
Among discussion leaders will be Janet Kreger, a state historic preservation coordinator. She recently received a master's degree in historic preservation from Columbia University.