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Preserving the Legacy of Historic Boston-Edison

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

By Lori Ella Miller, Detroit LISC Scribe

A neighborhood is more than the houses that line city streets and boulevards.  It is an intricate tapestry woven together by history, memories and the hopes and dreams of its residents.  Nowhere in Detroit is this more evident than in the community of Historic Boston-Edison.

Located in the heart of Detroit just off the Lodge Freeway and Chicago Boulevard,  Boston-Edison is the largest historic neighborhood in the country, encompassing 36 blocks of beautiful tree-lined streets with 930 elegant homes and stately mansions – most of which were built between 1905 and 1925. 

Some of the nation’s and Detroit’s most famous sons and daughters once called Boston-Edison home, including such luminaries as auto pioneer Henry Ford, SS Kresge department store founder Sebastion Kresge, former Mayor and US Senator James Couzens, former Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs, Mark Twain’s daughter Clara Clemens, boxing great Joe Louis, opera singer Celeste Cole and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.

Today, the fabric of the neighborhood is beginning to unravel due to the current housing crisis.  Historic Boston-Edison has been hard hit by foreclosures and will experience a steady decline without immediate intervention.  Currently, some 100 homes stand vacant in Boston-Edison, signaling a community in distress.

Preservation is paramount.  Several local community organizations, including Detroit LISC, have united for a common cause: to stabilize Boston-Edison and restore it to its former glory. Central Detroit Christian CDC, a community development organization with extensive experience in housing and beautification, and the Boston-Edison Association have joined forces to spearhead the Boston-Edison Housing Preservation Initiative.  This initiative will foster recovery by strategically acquiring, rehabilitating and returning area houses to “home ownership.”  The preservation plan also provides for improvements to the physical landscape to help attract potential buyers.

With significant investment from Detroit LISC, Central Detroit Christian CDC has been empowered to lead this effort for the Central Woodward North End Collaborative. 

“We are targeting home buyers who want to be a part of a neighborhood.  We want to keep these homes out of the hands of investors and speculators,” said Lisa E. Johanon, Executive Director of Central Detroit Christian CDC. 

According to Antoinette Gray, the CDC’s Housing Director, “We have already bought six foreclosed homes, and the goal is to buy, refurbish and sell 50 homes per year over the next three years.”

Gray, who is a licensed realtor, also points out that the CDC will offer home buyer education, as well as counseling services by the organization’s four MSHDA (Michigan State Housing Development Authority) certified home-buyer consultants.  The CDC is also reaching out to nearby businesses, such as Henry Ford Hospital, to advertise to employees who could buy and move into a turn-key home for $80,000 to $100,000.

In addition, the CDC is collaborating with experts and contractors who specialize in historic homes to help maintain and protect the superior craftsmanship and historic architecture. 

The Boston-Edison Association, which was founded in 1921, will play a key role in this important initiative.  The association’s website (www.historicbostonedison.org) offers a wealth of resources and tools, such as walking tours and maps, background and history, a database of approved contractors and an interactive link to Realtor.com that lists all of the available homes for sale in Boston-Edison.

“The only solution for a vacant home is a homeowner….and we are attracting new residents,” said James Hamilton, former president of the Boston-Edison Association, who has lived in his home on Longfellow for 31 years.  “The good news is that this is still a safe, charming and desirable neighborhood.  We offer an opportunity to live in and be a part of a real community.”

Hamilton, who is still an Association board member, also stated that the Association actively maintains the character of the neighborhood; keeps the neighborhood clean; works as an advocate for city services; offers a subscription to a private security patrol and sponsors numerous annual events, such as the Spring Home Preservation Fair and the Holiday Home Tour.  Check their website for more information.

There are many unique benefits to living in a historic district; one is the ability to draw on the expertise of other residents.  Ava Tinsley, lifelong Boston-Edison resident, lives in the three-story brick house that has been in her family for three generations.  “Boston-Edison is an historic jewel.  My mission is to return it to its former grandeur, like it was when I was a child,” says Tinsley.

As chair of the Boston-Edison Association finance committee, she points out that Historic Boston-Edison is a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone, which affords new home owners a tax abatement incentive for 15 years, as long as it is the homeowner’s primary residence.

Today, Boston-Edison is an eclectic, multi-racial neighborhood filled with people who are bound together by a grand legacy, as well as a common love and appreciation of their historic homes.