Community members are continuing to ask the city of Lansing to pause plans to demolish the old Eastern High School building.
University of Michigan Health-Sparrow plans to build a psychiatric hospital on the site and filed a demolition permit for the former school earlier this week.
Rebecca Stimson helped organize a picket Thursday outside City Hall. She says the group wants city officials to preserve the western wing and auditorium of the nearly 100-year-old building.
“When this building is refurbished, it will attract people from other communities, visitors to the city. It will be a jewel in our crown,” Stimson said. “If they allow it to be demolished, it will just be one more death knell to the attractiveness of the city.”
University of Michigan Health-Sparrow said in a statement that “years of deterioration, including extensive water damage, mold and asbestos, have left it beyond repair and unsuitable for safe, effective clinical care.”
It said the building will be “thoughtfully removed” to make way for a modern facility “designed specifically to meet the community’s behavioral health needs.”
But Stimson said demolishing the building, which was designed by the same architectural firm as the student unions at Michigan State University and University of Michigan, would be a mistake.
“Sometimes I just have to be the elder who rolls their eyes and says, ‘Well, one day you’ll understand,” Stimson said. “I’m just hoping one day isn’t too late.”
She said parts of the building could serve as a home for the Lansing Symphony, as well as rooms for music therapy or housing for traveling workers and patients.
“Yes, it does need some repairs, but it’s still very functional and it’s beautiful inside,” Stimson said.
Linda Peckham is a former president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing.
She said that even if the building is in poor condition, its historic value makes it worth repairing.
“If they’re dilapidated, they can be restored,” Peckham said. “And you will never have the workmanship again that exists in those buildings because it simply isn’t done now.”
The group plans to attend Lansing City Council and University of Michigan Board of Regents meetings next month, as well as holding community conversations meant to engage alumni and neighbors.
“One of our organizers said to me yesterday, ‘My daughter says it’s a done deal.’ And I said, ‘Stop. Stop right now. You can’t entertain that,’” Stimson said.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.