Arborweb, March 2009

Author: Grace Shackman

A gift from the past at the Law School

Last summer, Deb Adamic was cleaning the ceiling of the U-M Law Library’s reading room when she spotted a cubby­hole where the ceiling beams meet the wall. Reaching in, Adamic felt something loose and pulled out a grimy tube. Inside was a rolled-up piece of canvas bearing the inscription “Herman Bock—Feb. 5, 1931—Ann Arbor, Mich.—Decorator.”

“It was like a gift from the past,” says Adamic’s boss, Ron Koenig. “He put his name up fifty feet off the ground where no one could see it, with the thought that someday someone would see his name.”

Many people know that Law School alum William Cook (class of 1882) gave the money for the beautiful Law Quadrangle. Historians are well aware that York and Sawyer, well-respected East Coast architects, designed the buildings. But until Adamic discovered Bock’s note, the artisans who decorated the building had remained uncredited.

A city directory of the time shows a Herman R. Bock and his wife, Elizabeth, living at 435 South First Street. His occupation is listed as “painter.”

“Decorative painters were the unsung heroes” of historic buildings, Koenig says. “They traveled from project to project and kept a low profile.” Although they’re rare, Koenig had previously run across a couple of other examples of artisans who have left their names to posterity. In the early 1990s, when he was working at the state capitol in Lansing, he found the name Frank Baumgras written on the top of a door frame. The door was poplar and pine, treated to look like walnut. Koenig did some research and discovered that Baumgras was only peripherally involved in the decoration—his brothers and nephews did most of it—so it’s possible he signed his work because he was unused to anonymity. The name was left intact, with a piece of Plexiglas to protect it.

Working at Wisconsin’s capitol in 1996, Koenig was cleaning and replicating painted surfaces when he found five or six signatures entwined in a floral design high on a wall. He realized they were all women’s names and thought, “Wow—what a great thing.” When the wing where he was working was built, from 1910 to 1913, it would have been unusual for women to be involved in such a project.

It is easy to imagine why Herman Bock would have wanted credit for his work on the Law School’s reading room. The coffered ceiling, made of plaster hand painted to look like wood, is gorgeous. The recessed square panels are painted in a fleur-de-lis pattern in blue and ivory. The beams that run across the ceiling are richly decorated in bright colors and have winged shields at their midpoints. Figures of griffins—mythical winged lions—hold more shields at the points where the beams meet the walls.

The four Law Quad buildings were erected between 1923 and 1933. The library was the third completed, in 1931. It looks and feels like a Tudor Gothic cathedral, except that the entrance is on the low, long north side rather than the high, peaked east or west end. There’s even stained glass in the windows—though instead of depicting saints, these feature the seals of other universities with law schools.

Except for routine maintenance and repair, no work had been done on the reading room since it opened. Small lights lit the desks, and light streamed in from the stained-glass windows higher up, but the area between was gloomy. The painted ceiling had darkened with age.

In June 2007 the Law School received a $3 million gift from Charles Munger, a Warren Buffett associate who attended the U-M as an undergrad but didn’t finish (interrupted by World War II, he never got a bachelor’s degree—but did graduate from Harvard Law School). The school raised matching funds for what it called the “lighting project,” since the focus was on making the reading room brighter (it also included safety improvements in the library and neighboring Hutchins Hall).

“The reading room is such a gem,” says Lois Harden, the Law School’s facilities manager. “We wanted to do updates as needed while enhancing the iconic areas and have it all work together, not pull apart.” For instance, exit signs were required but would have looked out of place on the walls. Instead, they were installed on historic-looking metal poles.

Ron Koenig was delighted to win the bid to renovate the ceiling. He had lived in the Law Quad in 1971 when he was a grad student studying English and had fallen in love with the Law Library. Even then, he had noticed that the ceiling needed cleaning.

The ceiling job presented two major challenges: how to work safely fifty feet above the floor, and how to clean and restore the paint without doing any damage. The first challenge was solved with rolling towers. The second was made easier when Koenig discovered that the paint was oil based, not water based, and therefore wouldn’t dissolve in water-based cleaner.

Still, the job was huge. “We cleaned a ceiling the size of a football field with balls of cotton,” says Koenig. He also recast medallions damaged when lights were installed, cleaned parts of the limestone walls that had suffered water damage, and treated metal light units to look like stone.

While work on the ceiling proceeded, Harden sent the reading desks, also untouched since the library opened, out to be refinished. When the ceiling work was done, she also had the original cork floors replaced. They had worn remarkably well and did an excellent job of keeping the noise down, but they were dirty and scuffed. Most of the work was finished by the time the Law School opened last fall. The last job, rehanging the restored chandeliers, was done over Christmas break.

Herman Bock’s signature hasn’t been forgotten. Koenig had the canvas framed on acid-free matting, with glass on each side so that both the front and the back are visible. He will give it to the Law School to display in the building.

The Law School’s enrollment has doubled since the Law Quad opened. Its next challenge is to create more room without harming the beauty of the original buildings.

Two attempts to expand the complex have been made in the past, one more successful than the other. The ­modern-style metal addition to the library stacks facing Monroe Street is widely disliked, while the clever underground library addition is widely applauded. The Law School is now raising money for a three-pronged project: to replace the stacks’ metal cladding with a stone facade; to create a student commons by filling in a courtyard between the library and Hutchins Hall; and constructing an entirely new building in place of the parking lot across Monroe Street, next to Weill Hall.

Published In:
Ypsilanti Gleanings, Spring 2009,
Spring 2009

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Original Images:

Author: James Mann

Everyone should have a hobby, it is said, and no doubt Ypsilanti architect Ralph Gerganoff had his pastimes. One of these may have been turning old homes into apartment buildings. He did this at least twice - turning old mansions into what he may have considered modern structures. The two stand on each side of North Washington Street between Washtenaw and Cross Streets, incongruous among the 19th century houses around them. Still, the original houses are still there amid the additions, visible to those who look closely.

A native of Bulgaria, Gerganoff came to America and attended the University of Michigan, College of Architecture in 1917. He moved to Ypsilanti in 1927, and established his office at 206 North Washington, an address that had never before existed. His office was an addition built onto the house at 210 North Washington. This house had been the home of Don Carlos Batchelder.

210 North Washington Street: Don Carlos Batchelder was born at Stratford, Orange County, Vermont, on July 13, 1834. He moved to Ypsilanti in 1852, and worked as an apprentice in the marble cutting business with his brother Hiram on South Washington Street. He became proficient as a letterer and carver and, in 1855, moved to Janesville Wisconsin, where he went into business for himself. He returned to Michigan in 1859 and settled in Ann Arbor. In the fall of 1862 he entered the army as a Second-Lieutenant of Company F, 6th Michigan Cavalry. He saw no action during the Civil War, but resigned his commission because of ill health in 1863.

Batchelder returned to Ypsilanti and may have rejoined his brother Hiram in the marble and granite trade. In 1879 Hiram became one of the organizers of the Ypsilanti Carriage Co., and assumed the management of the business. In September of 1867 Don Carlos married Maria E. Morton. They are listed in the City Directory for 1873-74 as living on River Street between North and Cross Street. Maria Batchelder died at the age of 35 in September of 1876, within a few days of their anniversary.

The next available directory is for 1878-79 which lists Batchelder as living on the east side of Washington Street. At this time there was no street numbering system in Ypsilanti, when the houses were numbered, the one where Batchelder lived became 210 North Washington Street. Don Carolos Batchelder married for the second time on November 5, 1879 to Emma K Dolson, who was some twenty years younger than her husband (Photo A).

At this time in 1879, Don Carlos joined with Robert Hemphill Sr. to form the private banking firm of Hemphill, Batchelder & Co. which later became the Ypsilanti Savings Bank. In 1888 the bank moved into a new building, long known as the Ypsilanti Savings Bank Building, which is the present day City Hall. He also had an interest in mining in Missouri, and was a partner in a feed and grain business with Oliver Ainsworth. Their mill was at on Michigan Avenue, space now occupied by The Bank of Ann Arbor and Salon West Eleven.

Don Carlos Batchelder died at 9:30 a.m. on December 30, 1915, at the home of his daughter Florence in Evanston, Illinois at the age of 81. Emma Batchelder returned to her home on North Washington Street, when she lived until her death in 1924. After her death, the house stood vacant until 1928 when it was turned into apartments by Ralph Gerganoff.

Gerganoff began his remolding of the house by adding, at ground level, a single-floor office space with basement, to the north side of the house toward the rear. He used this space as his office. Although this is attached to the original house, with the address of 210 North Washington, the office has the address of 206 North Washington (Photo B).

Then he bricked over the original house and added a third floor. He would also add a modern brick façade to the house. Later, perhaps in the 1950's, Gerganoff added additional space to the ground floor section at the front of the part he used as his office. The original house is lost from sight, but traces can still be seen, when one looks closely (Photo C & D).

As Gerganoff worked on the house at 210 North Washington, he must have stopped to gaze across the street, at 211 North Washington and wondered what he could do with that structure. In time, he would change that house as well.

211 North Washington Street: This house was the home of William Hamilton Deubel and his wife Mary. William H. Deubel was the son of William and Sally Deubel, who arrived in Ypsilanti 1875 when he purchased the Ypsilanti City Mills which stood on the east side of the Huron River, facing Cross Street. He would operate this mill in partnership with his son Frank. The family also purchased The Huron Flouring Mill which was located on the Huron River, off Water Street, just north of Michigan Avenue Bridge. This mill was operated by the Deubel brothers, including the younger William (Photo E).

William Deubel is first listed as living on North Washington Street in the 1888-1889 City Directory. There are no copies of the city directory for the years between 1879 and 1888. William Deubel died on July, 15, 1907. His family is listed in the city directories as living at 211 North Washington until 1924.

The city directories list a George W. Voorhees as living in the house until 1934. He may have been a brother of Mary Deubel, as Voorhees was her maiden name. Ralph Gerganoff purchased the house in 1935, and later recalled it was an old run down mansion with weeds around it growing three feet high. He turned the house into a six- unit apartment house, and then expanded the building three times, until it held 32 apartments (Photo F & G).

In 1962 Gerganoff sold the building to Theodore G. Tangalakis, owner of the Campus Drug Store. Gerganoff said taxes on the structure in 1935 were $25, and in 1962 were $3,000 a year, reported The Ypsilanti Press of August 31, 1962. Gerganoff continued to use the space across the street as his office (Photo H).

Gerganoff most likely saw his actions as a business investment and gave little regard for the appearance of the buildings on a residential street. The buildings add little to the historic nature to the houses on the street and appear out of place. Still, over time, these unique residences have become part of the local landscape (Photo I).

(James Mann is a prominent local historian, a volunteer in the YHS Archives, and a regular contributor to the Gleanings.)

(Editor’s Note: A future article will discuss the architectural legacy of Gerganoff including several notable examples of apartment buildings, some in the Art Deco style. Interestingly, Ann Arbor preservationists have been active in preventing the demolition of 801 Kingsley as a historically significant building.)

Photo Captions

Photo A: Batchelder’s house in its original configuration.
Photo B: Gerganoff added a wing for his office.
Photo C: A third floor and a new brick front façade made the old house look newer.
Photo D: Another office wing served to disguise the original structure even more.
Photo E: Deubel’s house in its original configuration.
Photo F: The Deubel house after Voorhees’ alterations.
Photo G: The old house designs are completely hidden, but the third floor addition is still pronounced.
Photo H: A new front façade cloaks the building’s elegant history quite effectively.
Photo I: Today’s apartment house stands as a monument to the concept of “re-muddeling.”

Published In:
Ypsilanti Gleanings, Spring 2009,
Spring 2009

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Original Images:

Author: Michelle Woods

To the outside world Ypsilanti, Michigan is probably best known as home to Eastern Michigan University. To current and former residents, it is probably the city’s historical buildings and landmarks that come to mind. When I think of Ypsilanti, it immediately brings to mind a home located at 227 N. Grove. It was the summer of 1982 the first time I saw the Gilbert Mansion.

As a child I spent my summers at the Huron Valley Boys and Girls Club. I was no more than five years old the first time I saw the Gilbert Mansion, but I remember it like yesterday. The Gilbert Mansion was built 1861, making it well over one hundred years old when I was a kid. I guess that’s part of what made it so fascinating.

Throughout a good portion of the 1980s, the mansion was vacant and in complete disrepair. As I recall, all of the doors and windows on the lower level were boarded up. The paint was peeling and dirty, and the landscape hadn’t been touched in years. The residence looked as though it were a haunted house from a movie scene, appearing almost menacing on a stormy day. Yet on the contrary, it held some sort of whimsical charm on a bright summer day. I was completely enamored with the home and its ominous presence. I could spend hours staring at the place in awe, almost in a hypnotic state. The place was so grand that I used it as a landmark. I always knew we were almost home when returning from field trips, because you could see the highest peak of the house just above the trees while driving up Park Street.

Given the house was right next to the club grounds, my friends and I would find ways to slip away so we could snoop around, even though we knew good and well we weren’t supposed to be there. Although only a few steps away from the club, hanging out around the mansion was like being in a completely different world. Gone was the hustle and bustle of the club, only to be replaced by the hissing of cicadas and the cooing of pigeons who had taken over the rooftop. As a game we would dare each other to walk up to the front porch, and the first one to run away was chicken. Amusingly, I remember pretending to be Nancy Drew, always trying to solve “The Gilbert House Mystery.” To this day, I can’t tell you when the so-called mystery was. I guess that is something only a child can figure out.

Each summer was the same until around 1985. That fall my family relocated out east. Gone were summers spent at the Boys and Girls Club and Gilbert Mansion. It would be nearly fifteen years before I would return.

As an adult, the places I once knew as a child seem quite small. I was now in my early twenties; I hadn’t been back to Ypsi in years. It was merely coincidental that I happened to be back in the area, so I decided to take a drive through the old neighborhood. The first stop on my list was my old elementary school on Ecorse Road. Then I decided to cruise past my old stomping grounds on South Prospect. Last but not least, the Boys and Girls Club crossed my mind and Gilbert Mansion of course. Given its prior condition before I left, I honestly wasn’t expecting the house to still be there. Curiosity got the best of me though so I hung a left on Michigan Avenue and started toward Park Street. Just a few moments after making a right onto Park, there it was the highest peak of the house just above the trees and you know what, it looked exactly the same way it did when I was a kid. As I got closer I realized something was very different. Gone were the boarded up windows, unkempt landscape and peeling paint from the 1980s. Gilbert Mansion had been restored to its former glory. There are no words that can express the way I felt.

While both my childhood and the 1980s have come and gone, I can still recall the eerie nostalgia of the Gilbert Mansion as though it were yesterday. When I think of Gilbert Mansion, it takes me to a completely different time and place. Today I can drive up Park Street and see the highest peak of the house above the trees, just as it was over twenty years ago. As our today turns into yesterday and future generations come and go, the only existence that will never fade are the footprints of time. Even when I’m gone, I suspect the marks they leave will still remain. They may change but I know they will never fade.

(Michelle Woods grew up in Ypsilanti and still recalls many childhood memories about the places and people in her neighborhood.)

Gilbert House 1: Michelle Woods at about age 5
Gilbert House 2: An old photo of the Gilbert Mansion at 227 N. Grove before its restoration.
Gilbert House 3: The Gilbert Mansion at 227 N. Grove as it stands today.

Published In:
Ypsilanti Gleanings, Winter 2008,
Winter 2008

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Original Images:

Author: Jeff Davis

The historic house at 113 Buffalo Street in Ypsilanti now has a “For Sale” sign in the front yard. The house was built in 1892 by Frank W. Glanfield, a local contractor and builder who occupied the house until around 1900. By 1901 William and Mary Campbell had moved into the house, and their daughter Sarah continued in the house until 1965. William Campbell is listed in the 1903 Ypsilanti Business Directory as a farmer.

Local newspapers indicate that the house was taken over by the Buffalo Street Commune in 1973. Thirteen members of the commune occupied the house and six others in the community also claimed permanent membership. According to the commune founder, Gary Sawatski, its purpose was to “…create a situation in which we can dispose with the physical necessities of life as quickly as possible, and then spend the majority of our lives developing our human capabilities.” Members of the commune included teachers, waiters, an electronics technician, a custodian and a motorcycle mechanic. In order to join the commune an individual had to be sponsored by a permanent member and following a six-week probation period, had to be approved by 75% of the members.

By 1978, the commune had vacated the Buffalo Street property, and it was converted back to private ownership. In June of 1978, fire broke out in a storage room in the house, causing smoke damage to the upper floors.

The house had a series of private owners from the 1980s through to 2007 and currently stands vacant. Information from the Internet indicates the house is currently listed to sell for $119,900.

(Jeff Davis is a regular volunteer in the Archives and resides in Depot Town.)

Photo Captions:

Photo 1: The house at 113 Buffalo Street in the winter of 1899.
Photo 2: An early interior view of the house - note the active gas lighting.
Photo 3: The Campbell Family on the front porch (L to R) Katherine, Sarah, William, Mary R., Mrs. Andrew and Mr. McHitt.

Published In:
Ypsilanti Gleanings, Summer 2008,
Summer 2008

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Original Images:

Author: Alvin Rudisill

The stone water tower located at the highest point of elevation of the city on Summit Street has long been a symbol of our fair city. The tower was designed by William R. Coats as part of a city waterworks project and construction on the tower was completed in 1890. The tower has an 85-foot base made of Joliet limestone, is 147 feet tall, holds 250,000 gallons of water, and cost $21,435.63 to build.

In 1988 the stone tower became a Registered Michigan Historic Site listed with the Bureau of History, Michigan Department of State. A large historic marker at the base of the tower reads:

Side One: “Day laborers constructed this water tower which was completed in 1890 at a cost of $21,435.63. The tower and the city waterworks supplied 471 customers the first year. An ordinance passed on April 14, 1898, established a yearly rate schedule. Rates were based on the number of faucets in use, the type of business that customers operated and the livestock they owned. A residence with one tap was charged $5.00; a private bathtub cost an additional $2.00. Saloon keepers paid $7.00 for one faucet, $3.00 for each additional faucet and $1.00 for each billiard table. Each cow a person owned cost $1.00. People who failed to pay their bill were subject to a $50.00 fine and ninety days in the county jail. Until 1956 this structure was the only water tower in the Ypsilanti water system.

Side 2: “The Ypsilanti Water Tower was designed by William R. Coats and constructed as part of an elaborate city waterworks project that began in 1899. Located on the highest point in Ypsilanti, the tower was completed in 1890. It is 147 feet high and has an 85-foot base constructed of Joliet limestone. The substructure walls taper from a thickness of forty inches at the bottom to 24 inches at the top. The reservoir holds a 250,000-gallon steel tank. To protect themselves from injury, the builders made three stone crosses; one is visible over the west door. The Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority has operated and maintained the structure since 1974. In 1975 this tower was designated by the American Water Works Association as an American Water Landmark. It was restored in 1976.”

As a landmark and attractive physical feature, the Ypsilanti Water Tower continues to be a symbol of the city of Ypsilanti. A bust of Demetrius Ypsilanti is located at the base of the tower between Greek and U.S. flags along with the Michigan Bureau of History marker.

However, the shape of the tower and plaque indicating the year it was “erected” has also been a source of humor for comedians and others over the years. In 2003 Cabinet Magazine conducted a world-wide contest to identify “The World’s Most Phallic Building” and the Ypsilanti Water Tower was declared the winner.

As early as 1913 alternate proposals were made to change the shape of the “ill-proportioned wooden dome.” One proposal presented on December 31, 1913 by the Olmsted Brothers suggested altering the form of the roof to make a “…much more agreeable object of this prominent and dominating structure.” Their specific proposal was as follows:

“The water tower in Ypsilanti is an imposing shaft of stone but is now surmounted by an ill-proportioned wooden dome. It would be somewhat difficult to make this a well proportioned feature, as at best the column must be too short for so tall a top structure; but it would be possible, by removing the extra platform beneath the drum by corbelling out under the drum, and by altering the form of the roof, to make a much more agreeable object of this prominent and dominating structure. The accompanying sketch suggests one possible treatment, but is intended as a suggestion only, for this is a matter worthy of careful study by an architect of the best artistic judgment.”

(Alvin Rudisill is the President of the Ypsilanti Historical Society)

References

“Report Upon Proposed Improvements - Ypsilanti, Michigan,” Olmsted Brother, Landscape Architects, Brookline, Mass., page 89, December 31, 1913.

“The Most Phallic Building in the World,” (http:www.cabinetmagazine.org/phallic/winner.php).

“The YCUA Stone Tower,” (http: ycua.org/stonetower.htm).

“The Ypsilanti Water Tower,” (http: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypsilanti_Water_Tower).

“Ypsilanti Water Tower,” (http://www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=L1591.htm).

Photo Captions:

Photo 1: Construction on the Ypsilanti Water Tower was completed in 1890.
Photo 2: Historic Marker at the Base of the Tower.
Photo 3: Bust of Demetrius Ypsilanti located at the Base of the Tower.
Photo 4: Proposed Change in the Roof Design Submitted by the Olmsted Brothers in 1913.