Four Wayne County buildings earn spot on National Register of Historic Places

An elementary school and a boarding home for Black women laborers are among four Wayne County sites that were added to the National Register of Historic Places this summer.

The Samuel D. Holcomb School on the northwest side of Detroit, the Frances Harper Inn in Detroit's north end and the First Congregational Church of Wyandotte were added to the register in July. The Immaculata High School and Convent on the westside of Detroit was added Aug. 1.

Samuel D. Holcomb School opened in 1926. It was named after Dr. Samuel Drayton Holcomb, who was one of the first doctors to practice in Redford Township. The school was a single-story, 13-room building that featured a library and kindergarten while offering vocational and "domestic arts" courses to the community. Though it was constructed by the Redford Union Schools district, Holcomb became part of the Detroit Public Schools system shortly after it opened in 1926. It served as an elementary school for more than 80 years, but as Detroit residents began to move out the city, Holcomb began losing students, and DPS closed the school in 2010.

Nearly a decade after it closed, in 2018, a $6 million renovation project was announced that envisioned transforming the school into a 32-unit senior cooperative housing community. Construction was slated to begin in the summer of 2019, but the project never became a reality.

Now, a new redevelopment project is planned for Holcomb School. Flint-based developer Communities First Inc. plans to redevelop the vacant school into 23 units of senior housing, with an early childcare development center slated to occupy approximately 20,000 square feet of the building. Communities First Inc. has completed several reuse developments in Flint, where it is based, and established a Detroit office about five to six years ago as a home base for the redevelopment project. It is Communities First first redevelopment project in Detroit.

Glenn Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Communities First, said the Holcomb project is in the beginning stages.

"Right now, we are going through the process of approval, and we are applying for some additional funding," said Wilson. "We are just working on the capital stack right now, so nothing is a 100% definite but we are working to see what we can do to get there."

The Frances Harper Inn's journey to the National Register of Historic Places started from a master's degree project.

"When I retired, I went to grad school and got a master's degree in public history from Wayne State, and this was my masters project," said Karren Yurgalite.

The inn opened in 1915 and was operated by the Christian Industrial Club, a Detroit Black women's club. The club wanted to create a safe and clean place to stay for young Black women who came to Detroit for work during the Great Migration. Named after Black abolitionist and educator Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the Inn housed about 10 women working in domestic and service industry jobs in a two-and-a-half story, Queen Anne-style structure built in 1893 as a single-family home. Over time, fewer residents stayed in the home as a result of the Great Depression and as the influence of women's clubs waned. The home was sold in 1963.

Karren Yurgalite said the Frances Harper Inn has a lot of significance to Detroit and Black women's club history.

"The Frances Harper Inn was the first rooming house for Black women in Detroit that we can find," she said. "The house represents an important milestone in Black women's club movement in Detroit. It's a testament to the to the Black women's clubs and their tenacity and willingness to help each other out."

The First Congregational Church of Wyandotte was organized on June 2, 1892, with 29 charter members. The creation of the church began with a meeting held at the residence of Sylvester Pray Tuesday to discuss what it would take to organize a Congregational Church in the city. The church is built of brick with a tile roof, a tower on the east side and a lobby entrance on the west side. The church continues to have worship and Sunday school on Sundays at 10:30 a.m.

Immaculata High School and Convent was an all-girls Catholic high school. The school opened in 1941 and was run by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The three-story school building was designed in a vernacular modern style with Art Deco influences and clad in sand-colored brick with some stone detailing. The convent is also a three-story building in the same style as the high school. Immaculata closed in 1983.

The high school building is now the elementary school of the School at Marygrove. Marygrove officials say the building now represents leading national practices in student and family-centered building design while still honoring the historic legacy of the 1940s building that once housed Immaculata High School and the Bates Academy. It had been vacant for more than a decade before its renovation.

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of places worthy of preservation. Earning a spot on the list doesn't protect a building from demolition, but it makes some redevelopment projects eligible for federal historic tax credits. To be considered for listing in the National Register, a property must generally be at least 50 years old and also be significant when evaluated in relationship to major historical events or trends in the history of the community, state or nation.