A Western Michigan University history professor has concerns about the university’s plan to sell and move, or possibly knock down a historic building on East Campus.
Kalamazooans are criticizing the plan on social media, and local historians are noting the value they see in the house.
And while Western says it should not 'throw good money after bad' on the building, it doesn't seem to know how much money would actually be involved.
Historical value
Luis Peña is the city’s historic preservation coordinator. He said the building, known as the State Hospital Gatehouse, was built in 1877. He said at one time it housed privileged female patients. Peña adds, the property provides a window into how the area once looked.
“We're taking history off the page and we're being able to interact with it in a physical way. Whether that's being able to go inside or whether that's being able to see it in space, right? In its original setting and understand while the landscape has changed around it, we can still see a tangible manifestation of history.”
Evan Kutzler is an associate professor of history at WMU, teaching a class on historic preservation.
He said the State Hospital Gatehouse is one of the last examples of the Gothic style at the psychiatric hospital, which once owned the property.
"Go back in time to the 1860s and you're walking up what is, I think it's called Asylum Road at that point. The entire building had a much more kind of Gothic look to it. The whole complex did," Kutzler said.
"This is one of the last kind of remnants of that architectural layer of the campus— or the Asylum."
Kutzler added that while the building is in the National Registry of Historic Places, moving the house may jeopardize that.
“When you move it, you lose historic integrity. And so, while it is on the National Register of Historic Places now, it may lose its eligibility if it's moved.”
Quiet conversations
In addition to this issue, Kutzler said WMU’s decision to sell, or possibly demolish, the building was, to his knowledge, made with little public discussion.
“I have had a knee-jerk response that this building is important and should be safe, but also where's the conversation about its value to Western or to the community, to the city, to the state?”
In an email exchange with WMUK, university spokesperson Paula Davis said the university did reach out to members of the community after a longtime lease on the building ended in May. She denied that WMU has sought to keep the discussion of the building's future under wraps.
"It was not a secret. We’ve had access to the building for less than a month. Once we learned that the state was ending the lease, the University began with outreach to the preservation community because they are the people most likely to know of credible parties interested in acquiring and relocating such a structure," Davis said.
"That outreach has generated additional interest, including outside those who were contacted," she added.
"Good money to bad"
In a previous interview about the building, WMU Associate Vice President for Facilities Management Pete Strazdas suggested that the university needs to eventually "shut off the valve of expenses" on the Gatehouse.
"We are a good fiduciary of our physical assets, and one thinks that old buildings doesn't take any money. Well, it does take money to at least keep a status quo or to repair things," Strazdas said.
"Our first option is to find someone who is interested in the Gatehouse, but how long do we or you as an owner spend money, good money to bad?" he asked.
But what would it cost to maintain the Gatehouse? Western doesn't seem to know.
"The University does not currently have a formal estimate of the annual cost to maintain the house after the state’s lease ends," Davis told WMUK by email.
"Determining a reliable figure would require an assessment of the building’s condition (including of the major and costly building components that are beyond their useful life)," she added.
Davis said that Western "has no identified academic, administrative or operational need for the house."
"Continuing to hold and maintain the building indefinitely as a WMU property without an identified institutional use would also require the University to dedicate resources to a surplus property rather than to its educational mission," she said.
