What counts as a historic site?

In the past week I have been able to visit two official historic sites in the State on Michigan historic sites database. Ironically, both the Grand Trunk Western Rail Station and the Frank Cooley House are located off of Main Street and Washington Street, near I-496 in Ingham County.

I first visited the Frank Cooley House. This is a beautiful house that is located next to the highway and is in the middle of several businesses. It was build by Eugene Cooley, the vice-president of the Michigan Supply Company, for his son Frank in the early nineteen hundreds. Dr. Harry A. Haze who was a state representative and mayor of Lansing occupied the house until the mid nineteen forties. Governor Williams also lived in the house towards the late nineteen forties to the early fifties. The building has now been turned into the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Frame and a place for businesses to have meetings. I was unable to go inside the building since they are only opened from Wednesday to Saturday from noon to four. They do not make it easy for the working public to visit.

The building now publicizes the roles of hardworking Michigan women who might have been overlooked in the past. I feel that learning about powerful women in general is something that our middle and high school students need to learn about. With the pressure on females in high school now days, I feel that it’s very important for them to see independent women standing up for their rights and the rights of others. I do not know if I would take a class to this site, but I would definitely recommend it to all the students and maybe make it an extra credit project.

I was also able to visit the Grand Trunk Western Rail Station that was less than a minute away from the Frank Cooley House. The Grand Trunk railroad system began constructing this station in nineteen two to fulfill the demand for moving car parts for Ransom Olds. The station was closed in nineteen seventy two after sixty-eight years of service. It was then converted into a restaurant but the building is now vacant. The rail station is completely fenced in and boarded up. It is not nearly as kept up as the Frank Cooley House. The government website states that there is a marker indicating this historical site, however I did not see one. I can only imagine its beauty when it was in its prime. It’s a shame that it was not taken better care of by the government and the neighborhood.

I would not take my students to see this site alone; however I would like to combine the two historical sites since they are so close together and let the students compare the two. I would like the students to ask: how does the government decide what historical sites to keep up? What do they label as a historical site? Students might not know that historic sites like the Grand Trunk Western Rail Station are not being preserved. Personally, I feel that the rail station has more significance and more of a reason to mark as a historic site. I feel that by having the students’ visit both sites, a richer and more meaningful discussion about historical sites could be incorporated into the classroom, one that is definitely not typical.