1Jenny Adkins
22509
A grassroots organization in the city of Lincoln Park may spare the historic Mellus Newspaper Building from the wrecking ball. The building, located in Lincoln Park’s downtown at 1661 Fort St., was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, but it has been vacant since 1986. It was built in the 1940s and served as the home of The Lincoln Parker and other community newspapers for decades. The building was named for its original owner, William Mellus. In its heyday, the paper’s name hung proudly over the entranceway. After more than 20 years of vacancy, the building’s address dwindled into a faded yellowishwhite. The white enamel covering its storefront sits marred by years of neglect. The name that set the Mellus Building apart from a swathe of other vacant buildings is gone as well. Until the emergence of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance in 2000, the building and its history faced death by obscurity and demolition. Now, the organization may be bestknown for its effort to spare and reuse the building. The group’s efforts began nine years ago when LeslieLynchWilson, a resident of Lincoln Park since 1997, realized how drawn she was to the downtown area. When she learned of the Downtown Development Authority’s plans to demolish several vacant Fort Street buildings in 1999, she chose to fight back. As president of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance, LynchWilson hosts several fundraisers to earn money money which will eventually be used to acquire and
repair noteworthy buildings in the city. “Downtown’s sort of like a diamond in the rough,” said LynchWilson. The city of Lincoln Park acquired the Mellus Building from its previous owner in 2004, and the city council made a bid for demolition in December 2004. The Downtown Development Authority hopes to construct new buildings that will include mixeduse retail establishments on the land, but LynchWilson disagrees with the plans. Part of the dissension is because the Downtown Development Authority has stated in the past that it intends to preserve parts of the city’s history whenever possible. “You have to have some new and old stuff, because the old stuff could be the draw,” said LynchWilson. She pointed out nearby cities like Wyandotte, which have turned historic buildings into downtown lures. “We don't have foot traffic downtown,” said LynchWilson. “So tearing it down would be a bad idea.” LynchWilson hopes to see a future in which the Mellus building becomes the house of a coffee shop or bakery, with space set aside to honor the building's journalism history. But city officials disagree. Though Lincoln Park is a relatively sleepy town with no industry within its borders, rising home foreclosures, and more than 100 vacant business buildings, preserving buildings has been an attentiongrabbing point of contention in the media. “The people of Lincoln Park have waited, frankly way too long, for the demolition of that building. It’s way past the point of trying to save it now,” said Mayor Frank Vaslo
in a November 2008 interview with The NewsHerald. Vaslo argued in 2004 that the Mellus building was overrun with mold, but Lynch Wilson, who entered the building for the first time in 2005, said that the arguments against the building are not true. “There really isn’t any mold in the building,” she said. “And even if there is mold, mold can be taken care of.” LynchWilson turned to her alma mater at the Lawrence Technological University for support in her battle. Architecture Professor James Stevens took his graduate class to the building to see if LynchWilson's preservation ideas were possible. According to Stevens, the Mellus building should live on. “He said, ‘it’s a great building,’” said LynchWilson. Stevens also suggested that the city’s plans to offer more parking space by demolishing buildings such as the Mellus are illogical. He said that there is already excessive parking available to patrons of any present and future businesses. “They had some really interesting comments,” said LynchWilson of the architecture class. “I’d like them to make a presentation to the DDA.” She hopes that evidence from the architecture course will prove to the Downtown Development Authority that the $150,000 that it will take to acquire the Mellus Building and its adjoining office space, as well as the $300,000 to $500,000 to restore the building, is better spent than the money required to demolish the building. LynchWilson began a campaign of fundraising events in November. The latest was a Valentine’s Day tea party at a hall nextdoor to the Mellus building. The event
raised nearly $400 for the organization’s preservation efforts. But several other historic buildings in Lincoln Park face demolition, and Lynch Wilson has mournfully resigned herself to the fact that she cannot save them all. The Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance has only 20 members, which pales in comparison to other downriver communities' organizations. “I don't want to see anything torn down,” she said. “But this is the strangest city. In other cities, a group like this would have lots of members.” The city has yet to make a date for the Mellus building demolition.