2006 Promising Projects — Community Capital Projects

The Harbor Springs Area Historical Society (HSAHS) received a grant to transform a 120 year-old landmark that once served as the Harbor Springs City Hall, into a local history gallery that will provide space to display a priceless collection of historical artifacts and attract regional visitors to downtown Harbor Springs.

From modest quarters in Josephine Ford Park on Bay Street in Petoskey, HSAHS has worked to preserve and present the history of the Harbor Spring Area since 1990. Their new home will feature 5,000 square feet of permanent exhibition space for artifacts and other materials related to the area's history, 1,700 square feet of archival storage for documents and artifacts designed to meet Smithsonian standards, and a discovery gallery targeted to families and school children.

Project leaders collaborated with the broader community to ensure exhibitions are reflective of indigenous populations, including Odawa Indians and other families who have lived in the area for many generations. They also designed a facility that is respectful of the new museum's underlying structure and compatible with the surrounding buildings. Collaboration and context sensitive design are key elements that help make this community capital project ideal for Frey Foundation funding.

Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF), a 30 year-old non-profit housing development corporation, received support to acquire and renovate a vacant, deteriorated core-city property for re-use as the agency's headquarters.

The property, once known as the D.A. Blodgett Home for Children, was constructed in 1908 in a Classical Revival style. But additions to the front of the property in the 1950's and again in the 1970's hid many of the home's unique features and beauty. The external restoration will include rehabbing the original facade, and the restoration of the formal public gardens. Inside the structure, an interactive learning environment will be added along with a large auditorium and multiple conference rooms, a safe and constructive child-care center, and state-of-the-art sustainable materials and technology to model LEED guidelines. Transformed, the building will provide expanded education and training facilities for clients, and offer confidential consultation space for the more than 1,100 families served by ICCF annually.

In addition to strengthening an older neighborhood, this project is expected to leverage several million dollars in private sector investment on the property adjacent to the renovated facility, making it a prime candidate for Frey Foundation funding.