Lincoln Park preservation group goes viral with video to save buildings

metromode, 12/18/2008

The Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance is going beyond meetings, petitions and fliers to save buildings in its downriver downtown. The group has launched a video on YouTube to call attention to historic buildings in need of redevelopment. (video below)

Martin Roberts of Eye of Ra Productions created the video highlighting historic structures along downtown's Fort Street corridor in danger of being swept into history's dustbin.

Among the featured buildings is the Park Theatre, designed and built in 1925 by C. Howard Crane of Fox Theatre fame. Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency plans to raze it and replace it with a mixed-use development.

Other historic structures include the Mellus Newspapers Building, the northwest block of Fort Street from Southfield Road to Arlington and the National City Bank Building. The alliance is working to preserve all of these historic buildings but local officials or developers have other ideas for that land that mostly means bulldozing the historic structures.

For information on these preservation efforts, contact Leslie Lynch-Wilson at lalynch@wideopenwest.com or (313) 598-3137.

Source: Leslie Lynch-Wilson, president of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance
Writer: Jon Zemke

Downtown Living , Historic Sites , Wayne County