Michigan Historic Preservation Network

📢 The 27th MHPN HRC Directory is now available online!

Explore this valuable resource and discover the professionals who can support your next preservation project:
https://www.mhpn.org/resource-directory/

This annual resource is designed to connect developers, property owners, municipalities, and preservation professionals with trusted preservation-related services.

The directory features a wide range of experts, including archaeologists, architects, engineers, contractors, consultants, developers, and preservation organizations.

A listing in the directory does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by HRC or MHPN; members are not evaluated by the HRC or MHPN. Users of the directory are encouraged to check references, review previous projects, and interview prospective
service providers to determine if their qualifications match your needs.

Register Today at https://www.mhpn.org/workshops/
AIA: 1 LU; AICP: CM 1

Speaker:
Lindsey J. Dotson
Historic Preservationist / Owner-Operator
Belle Tower of Petoskey / GD Placemaking

Belle Tower of Petoskey is the adaptive reuse of a historic 1891 former Seventh-Day Adventist church at 224 Michigan Street in downtown Petoskey, Michigan. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the former Seventh Day Adventist Church, the building is a distinctive two-story frame Queen Anne structure known for its front-gable form, decorative wood detailing, prominent window treatment, and entrance tower with an onion-like dome.
This session will use Belle Tower as a case study in practical, community-centered historic preservation. The presentation will explore the building’s architectural and religious history, its connection to the broader story of Seventh-day Adventists in Michigan, and the challenges of bringing a long-underused historic property back into active public life. Michigan played a central role in Seventh-day Adventist history: Battle Creek became an important center of the Adventist movement in the 1850s, and the denomination was formally organized there in 1863. The project also connects Northern Michigan’s Adventist history, and one of America’s most significant historical figures thanks to a case of malaria.
Participants will learn how the Belle Tower project balances preservation standards, building code realities, public use goals, local approvals, financing tools, and phased rehabilitation. The session will also discuss storytelling as a preservation tool: how historic research, community partnerships, fundraising, and programming can help reintroduce a building to the public before restoration is complete. Belle Tower offers a real-world example of how preservation can move beyond saving a structure to restore civic purpose, local identity, and long-term community value.

2026 Tax Credit Award — Piquette Flats, Detroit

Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood is home to a compelling example of historic tax credits at work. The former Studebaker Service Building at 411 Piquette Avenue, a 1920 Albert Kahn design that spent years sitting quiet, has been transformed into 161 residential units, with roughly 40 percent priced below 80 percent of the area median income.

The rehabilitation restored the building's brick and concrete façade, replaced glass block infill with replicas of the historic factory windows, and preserved Kahn's distinctive concrete columns throughout. Financing combined federal historic tax credits, brownfield credits, a city tax abatement, and a state loan.

Piquette Flats shows what historic preservation and affordable housing can look like when they work together. Congratulations!

Project Team:
411 Piquette LLC
Kraemer Design Group
PCI-Dailey Company
Grunwell-Cashero
Graham Windows

[As we prepare to gather in Metro Detroit for the MHPN Annual Conference, we’re publishing a series of posts highlighting our 2026 MHPN Awards Program honorees. The ceremony will be held Friday evening, May 8, at the Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores. Registration is now closed, but learn more about MHPN and the conference, visit the conference webpage at https://www.mhpn.org/conference/.]