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Week of Thursday, May 23, 2002

By DAVE MELCHIOR
Courier Staff

Jack Harris, one of Ypsilanti’s best-known historic preservation activists, will receive recognition from the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation next week.

Harris will receive a special recognition award from the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation during the organization’s annual marker banquet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, in the Ladies’ Literary Club, 218 N. Washington Ave.

"It’s really a deserving award," said Bill Nickels, a member of the marker committee and member of the Heritage Foundation Board. "There’s so many buildings in town that Jack’s had an influence on."

The Foundation also will recognize three structures with plaques during the dinner.

Those buildings are:

· 213 Oakwood, a circa 1890 Queen Anne style home owned by Susan Kelly.

· The Flour Mill building, an 1888 structure owned and restored by Phoenix Contractors Inc.

· 318 W. Forest, a circa 1864 Italianate home owned by Ave Maria College.

The criteria for receiving a historic market include the structure’s architectural significance and the care and maintenance of the property.

The Heritage Foundation has been awarding the markers for more than 20 years.

The Foundation announced the markers and the special award to Harris in its May newsletter.

That newsletter states, "The community of Ypsilanti has benefited immensely from Jack’s passionate and energetic support of historic preservation. Jack has changed our world. We remain grateful for his continuing presence in our city."

Harris, an Eastern Michigan University professor, moved to Ypsilanti in 1974 and joined the Heritage Foundation, and he was a charter member of the Historic District Commission in 1978.

He served as president of the Heritage Foundation from 1982 to 1990.

In 1977, Harris won a grant to promote the preservation of several historically significant buildings.

All of the buildings included in that grant now are owned by preservation-minded people, and the last of them, the Glover House on South Washington, is being restored, Nickels said.

Harris also has been influential in preservation efforts on the EMU campus.

Nickels said the award to Harris is not for any one accomplishment but for his lifetime commitment to history and historic preservation.

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