Grosse Pointe Historical Society moves into permanent new home

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — The Grosse Pointe Historical Society has a new home, just in time for the holidays.

The nonprofit started moving into its new office building at 375 Kercheval Ave. in Grosse Pointe Farms in November, about a year after ground was broken on the site. The building is located across the street from the Provencal-Weir House, a historical site maintained by the GPHS that had been temporarily also serving as its office and headquarters.

The 5,000-square-foot structure at 375 Kercheval has temperature-controlled storage for its archives — including blueprints for many Grosse Pointe structures — as well as space on the first floor for offices and small GPHS meetings and programs. The square footage is roughly divided between the main floor and the basement.

“We’d like to be a center point where genealogical people come to gather,” GPHS Vice President of Development Stuart Grigg said.

It’s much larger than the cramped 900 square feet the GPHS occupied before in a rented space across the street, which didn’t allow for community use or adequate archival storage. The GPHS will now be able to host small rotating exhibitions featuring materials or reproductions from its collection, and people will be able to do research about their homes or relatives on the premises — something that wasn’t possible before. Grigg said they have almost 5,000 blueprints for homes in the Pointes, and they hope to eventually be able to purchase a blueprint scanner for them.

Anyone looking for a unique holiday gift can do their shopping online or in person this Saturday by appointment at the GPHS store. In conjunction with Letter Writing Day and Christmas Card Day, the GPHS is hosting a make-and-take card-making craft from 10 a.m. to noon Dec. 10 at the Provencal-Weir House at 376 Kercheval Ave. They’ll be serving hot chocolate and treats during this program. Anyone interested in stopping by the shop on Saturday can contact the GPHS to make an appointment by emailing ask@gphistorical.org or calling (313) 884-7010. Available gifts include Eric Stroh photographs, stuffed animals, Grosse Pointe-themed ornaments and books, mugs, and more. Those who prefer to shop online can visit www.cafepress.com/gpgoods.

The Louisa St. Clair Society chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution — which provided a keystone gift of $50,000 toward the building project last year — got a first glimpse of the building when members toured it Oct. 20.

“I’m pleased with how this fits right in with the community,” said Louisa St. Clair chapter member Paula Sarvis, of Grosse Pointe Woods.

The GPHS is digitizing the albums, paper records and photos of the Louisa St. Clair chapter, which date back to 1893. Digitizing will preserve those documents — many of which are crumbling — and make them accessible for future generations. Digitizing the records of local organizations is one of the projects the GPHS hopes to continue now that it has the space to undertake this work.

“We were at risk of losing this treasure trove to the ravages of time,” said Peggy King Scully, financial secretary of the Louisa St. Clair chapter of NSDAR and a past chapter regent. King Scully said their archives had formerly been kept in the attic at Kerby Elementary School, where they weren’t secure or in a temperature-controlled environment.

“I am blown away,” Kay Burt-Willson, of Grosse Pointe City, said of the new building. She is a past regent of the Louisa St. Clair Chapter of NSDAR. “It’s beyond (my) expectations.”

Because the structure is in the middle of a residential area, Grosse Pointe Farms officials mandated that it had to resemble a home, complete with a circular driveway instead of a parking lot. It could be easily converted into a home in the future, if the GPHS ever decided to relocate later.

“It looks like a house — it had to because of the Farms — but I think it turned out very well,” Grigg said.

So many of the auto barons and other significant business leaders have lived in or had other ties to the Pointes.

“Our focus, always, is on the stories of Grosse Pointe,” Grigg said. “And it’s also an extension of Detroit history.”

Grigg praised the work of the many GPHS volunteers and donors who made this project possible, giving particular kudos to project managers Mason Ferry and Dr. Patricia O’Brien. Ferry was the chair of the capital campaign, and O’Brien is the former president of the GPHS Board.

“They have done yeoman duty,” Grigg said. “It was more fraught than it would have been for an ordinary building project.”

Still, like a fairytale, all worked out in the end.

“It came in on time and on budget,” Grigg said.

For more information, visit www.gphistorical.org.