|
Preservation Case Study: Gwinn, Michigan The fact that the mascots for local sports teams are still called the “Model Towners” is one clue that residents of Gwinn, Michigan, are proud of their history. Built between 1906 and 1915, Gwinn started out as a “model town,” a planned community for employees of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company on the Marquette Iron Range of the Upper Peninsula. Cleveland-Cliffs president William Gwinn Mather (1857–1951) commissioned landscape architect and planner Warren H. Manning (1860–1938) to design Gwinn and parts of Ishpeming, another mining town in the Upper Peninsula. But according to landscape architect and historian Lance M. Neckar, Gwinn was the first anywhere to consider industrial housing in the context of environmental planning. (Another collaboration between Mather and Manning—the Gwinn estate in Cleveland, Ohio—is the topic of The Muses of Gwinn by Robin Karson. The other “muses” are Charles A. Platt and Ellen Biddle Shipman.) Manning located his model town on an island at the confluence of the East and Middle branches of the Escanaba River. He emphasized Gwinn’s connection to the surrounding forest by planting abundant trees and preserving existing ones. “Over 8 percent of the town’s budget was spent on open-space improvements,” Karson notes in her background on the company town. Today, older residents of Gwinn (population 2,700) recall the beauty of their tree-lined streets, especially the central boulevard called Pine Street, which was thickly planted with white and Norway pines as well as deciduous trees. The road later became part of state highway M-35. In the 1960s, road projects destroyed all the trees in the boulevard’s median strip, and though trees along Pine Street were spared at the time, many of them have since died or been removed. “It’s an eyesore compared to what it was,” says Rick Wills, museum director at the Forsyth Township Historical Society. Recently the citizens of Gwinn learned that Pine Street soon would have trees again. Wills is one of several local residents and officials who, with the backing of the state Department of Transportation, helped land a $1.9 million federal grant to “enhance the appearance and preserve the historic essence” of Pine Street. “It just shows that perseverance pays off,” says Bill Sanders, a landscape architect with Upper Peninsula Engineers and Architects, who was hired to draw up a new streetscape plan. “The residents of Gwinn have been trying to get their streetscape back for over thirty years.” The interest in reviving the town’s visual aesthetic began several years ago. Karen Anderson, then executive director of a regional organization formed to manage reuse of the decommissioned K. I. Sawyer Air Force base, called on the Small Town Design Initiative. This program, run by Michigan State University professor Warren Rauhe, sponsored community meetings to see what physical improvements residents wanted to make to their town. Rauhe’s students translated the feedback into computer-assisted drawings of the proposed changes. “One theme that people kept coming back to with great enthusiasm was how much they wanted to enhance the Gwinn section of the M-35 corridor, using its history as a focal point,” Wills recalls. Those sessions “put a spark in everybody’s eyes,” says Mike Jakubowski, a trustee of Forsyth Township, the unit of government that encompasses Gwinn and five other towns. “From there Karen Anderson applied for the streetscape enhancement grant.” Wills and Sanders researched the early streetscape from archival photographs. Sanders ordered a copy of The Muses of Gwinn from LALH and learned of the Warren H. Manning Research Project, to which he then contributed historical photographs of Gwinn. He obtained additional information from Arne Alanen, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin, who had prepared the nomination of Gwinn’s historic district to the National Register of Historic Places. (The district was listed in 2002.) The Gwinn team and LALH were able to exchange information that benefited both projects. Anderson solicited letters of support for the grant application, including one from LALH. Sanders’s streetscape plan replaces as many original elements as modern constraints allow. A mix of evergreen and deciduous trees and new curbing will help bring back the spirit of Manning’s design. According to Andy Sikkema, who manages the regional office of the Michigan Department of Transportation, design should be completed by fall 2006. Construction is slated to begin in spring 2007, so that it will be done in time for Gwinn’s centennial celebration in 2008. (The town celebrates 1908 as its official year of origin.) The rehabilitated streetscape will be part of a state heritage route that winds through the Upper Peninsula. Pine Street also forms the southwestern boundary of Nordeen Park, which Manning laid out as a town green, complete with a log-construction bandstand. Forsyth Township won a $425,000 grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to help rehabilitate the park and restore Manning’s original bandstand. “The bandstand is the only historical structure in the park, and it’s the focal point,” says Jakubowski, who championed the project. These projects appeal to those who want to attract more tourists to the area. Schools are now the biggest employers of Gwinn residents, followed by two Cleveland-Cliffs iron mines in Ishpeming, about thirty miles away. With fifty-two lakes dotting the surrounding landscape, Gwinn is also becoming a summer vacation spot, says Jeanette Maki, president of the Gwinn Sawyer Area Chamber of Commerce. Wills believes that historical preservation adds to the town’s tourist appeal. “Regardless of whether people appreciate history for its own sake,” he says, “there is a demonstrated economic advantage for places that preserve their past.” He points to cultural tourism, which has been a boon for many communities across the country. Chris Adams, Forsyth Township supervisor, sees something deeper emerging. “Projects that speak so clearly to our roots are the visible, tangible sources of community,” Adams says. “They’re part of the essence of who we are.” (See related article.) Photographs: |
