GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Rosa Parks has been gone for nearly 20 years. Her legacy lives on, and now the City of Detroit wants to ensure her longtime home will live on, as well.
The Detroit News reports city officials are pushing to have the house designated as a historic property, protecting it from major changes by future owners.
The reason Rosa Parks stands in downtown Grand Rapids
Rosa Parks lived in the two-story home at the corner of Virginia Park Street and Wildemere Street for 27 years, moving in in 1961. It is currently owned by David McGraw. He inherited the home from his grandmother, and it has been in the family since 1948.
McGraw told The Detroit News that his family was close with the Parks and actually knew them before they moved to Detroit. He knows the historic significance of the home, but he wants to ensure that future owners do, as well.
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Not only was it a home to one of the country’s most well-known civil rights leaders, but it was also a crucial part of the city’s story. In the report done for the proposal, researchers detailed the civil rights fight within the city and said the home was “geographically at the heart of the growing radical black movement in Detroit.”
The local designation would require any future owners to get approval from the city’s Historic District Commission before making any major exterior alterations. The Detroit News reports the city’s planning and economic development committee is expected to discuss the proposal at their meeting next week.
The home, which is currently vacant, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021 but has no other protections. Several of Parks’ other homes have been memorialized. The housing complex she lived in in Alabama is now named after her and offers tours discussing its place in history. It is registered with the state and federal government as a historic building…