The Saga of the Eberts House Continues
Last week we introduced the 133-year old Eberts House and made a case for its preservation. Let me thank my many readers who expressed interest and encouragement on this important subject.
This valuable historic resource received what amounts to a temporary “stay of execution” when the City Engineer in a letter on September 15 requested two additional weeks to consider the fate of the house, after which he would report to City Council, presumably at the Council meeting on Monday, October 3.
A building inspection was completed on August 25, revealing several issues that need to be resolved if the house is sold. I am one for public safety, for sanitation, and for healthful living conditions, but by applying building inspection criteria as rigidly as they were, risks making preservation of the resource impossible for financial reasons, but also threatens to diminish the historic character and integrity of the house in the process. There has to be a middle road here, where criteria are applied in a way that is sensitive to the house’s historic significance, and basic building inspection standards are met.
Public records reveal that the city’s vision for this property. In a session of the Wyandotte City Council on July 11, it was recommended that “a ranch house or a 4-5 unit condo unit” be built. Then the City Engineer was authorized to purchase the house for an amount not to exceed $130,000 – which was done.
Since the city purchased the house, a case has been made by local leaders involved in history and preservation for the city to sell the house to an owner who could undertake its preservation. And at present there are at least two parties interested in pursuing this option with the city.
The reasons for why this building needs to be protected have not been made as clear as they could be. So let me straighten the record.
John Eberts, Jr. was born on November 6, 1843, in a building that stood on the site of where the Old Wayne County Building is located today in downtown Detroit. After living in Detroit for a while, in 1852 he moved with his family to a farm running east from Fort Street to Ecorse Creek.
On August 26, 1870, John Eberts purchased lots No. 6 and 7 from Eber Ward and the Eureka Iron Company for $325. On February 7, 1872 Eberts married his wife Emma Lacey, who arrived to Wyandotte herself at the age of 5 by sailboat from Canada in 1855, one year after the Village of Wyandotte and the Eureka Iron Company were founded. The married couple proceeded to build their house during the summer of 1872 – a large two story frame structure, and only the second to have a bay window in Wyandotte – an indication of their status and wealth. The house was added to in 1893 when the bay to the east side of the building (pictured on last weeks cover) was located.
The Eberts House has been occupied by only two families in the 133 years of its existence – the Eberts family and the Lubaway family. John Eberts died peacefully on Thanksgiving Day in the house he built. His wife died just over a decade later in September 1941 at the age of 91 years.
Together the Eberts and only one other family have occupied this house in the 133 years of its existence. This has allowed the house to remain relatively intact and to be passed on to the current generation.
Now it is in the hands of this generation to decide what is to be done to one of the single most historic buildings in the City of Wyandotte. Will we turn our backs on the past and ignore the significance of this house, or will we strive to see that this valuable resource continues to be available for the benefit of the current and future generations?
This is a decision that will be left in the able hands of our local leaders who will pass their judgment in the days ahead.
As published in the Downriver Review.