Yesterday, Ann-Arbor based historian Grace Shackman visited me at my home in Kerrytown. A week prior to this meeting, I was pulling my car into the driveway when I noticed seven individuals across the street, seeming to gawk and point at my house in unison. It felt like a fate type moment as I brought my bags inside my house to safety and dashed across the street, approaching the senior citizens who were obviously on some type of tour. I didn’t have a choice. The opportunity seemed too perfect. I begged Grace’s pardon of interrupting whatever she was saying and just started rambling to the group asking what they were doing and then began to tell them my story. I’m a student in the art school at U of M. I can’t believe I’m finding you guys right across the street from my house right now. I just got back from the Bentley Library- I’m creating a thesis project based off of Ann Arbor history. It will be a large book installation full of archival material and will be shown downtown at the Stamps Gallery.
The seniors looked at me wide-eyed but seemed to intently listen. I got some smiles. Two of the women began to tell me how lucky I was to have happened upon Grace in that moment—You found the right lady to help you. Grace knows everything about Ann Arbor. She’s a gifted historian. Do you know those moments in life when you feel like you’re in the exact right place at the perfect time? This was one of them.
I told Grace how lost I felt with my research. I had spent the entire day in the Bentley combing through a box of old letters and photographs about Ann Allen—wife of John Allen, or one of two first pioneers of Ann Arbor. I figured that was a logical place to start, but I still left a bit more confused then when I came. What was I supposed to do with this information now? Ann left her two young sons in Virginia with her husband’s brother after he died. She took off to Michigan with her new husband, John Allen, a man hungry for settling new land. I read letters about people who were attempting to conduct research about Ann in the 20’s, and letters sent back discouraging such research about a woman who leaves her own sons.
I asked Grace to please get coffee with me sometime soon, I need some direction. I don’t even know where to begin. So we did.
Grace is probably about 80. She’s been writing for the Ann Arbor Observer and The Old West Side News since the 1980s on virtually anything Ann Arbor. A collection of her stories are available at the AADL (need to go see that). She’s written three books about Ann Arbor- I had 2/3 of them on my kitchen table for her to reference during our meeting.
Grace stayed for an hour and a half. I gave her a tour of my house (its a landmark in Ann Arbor-built in the 1870s in the historic district Kerrytown). My house is the carriage house (old servants quarters) that sits next to a a massive house on North Division St. She told me about Love Root, the second wife of a Professor Palmer that owned the large house next door. Root came from money and married Palmer after his first wife died, and used her fortune to add the massive extension to the house that still sits today.
Grace told me that she lived at Vail, the co-op up the street during her time at Michigan. She also pointed past my front door, saying that her daughter used to live in the house to the right of mine with her boyfriend she had since high school. 4 boys and 4 girls lived in the house. The boys were in a band. As connected as she obviously was the happenings of the past, Grace began to talk about her daughter as if she were in college again, inviting a conversation about the modern day frenzy about Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh. I like thinking about bridging the past and present in the same conversation.
Grace and I spoke about a lot of things, but something two things definitely stuck out. Immigrants and Architecture. Grace told me how for a long time, Ann Arbor was divided by working class and the college educated. Germans, Greeks, Jews, Italians—they all had their neighborhoods on the side of town I live in. They worked manual labor jobs and built the city. They were seen as second-class citizens. I think this is something I can investigate as I try to find marginalized stories from Ann Arbor. The second point is Architecture. Grace says that architecture and history are inseparable. I think there is something interesting here.
What buildings still stand in Ann Arbor?
How did these types of architecture (from different cultures, parts of the world) arrive in Ann Arbor? What does it mean for them to be here? Who built them?
Power of place? Place-finding? A walking tour of architecture around Ann Arbor?
I plan to transcribe the audio from Grace’s visit with me for my research. Grace has emailed be since yesterday with three contacts (friends of hers) that said they would love to speak with me. They are Ilene Tyler (she actually lives across the street from me in the Greek Revival Home), Susan Weinberg (local historian), and Chris Crockett (also an historian).