“It’s a neighborhood that was developed in response to racist redlining-type practices that happened in Grand Rapids and all over the country.”
Now, the Auburn Hills neighborhood has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jennifer Metz is a Historic Preservation Consultant for Past Perfect. She assisted with the application that put the Auburn Hills neighborhood on the registry. Metz explains the 1960’s practice of redlining, which limited minority home ownership opportunities to a city’s least desirable neighborhoods.
But some Grand Rapids families broke that trend, thanks to four Black investors who purchased a 20-acre plot of land on the city’s northeast side.
“Samuel Triplett, Dr. Julius Franks, Joseph Lee and JE Adams. They decided to purchase the land and develop the neighborhood themselves, open to all. It would be not just for Black Americans, but it would be free of discrimination.”
After months of backlash and a lawsuit from nearby white communities, the city approved the deal, and the Auburn Hills neighborhood was born.
Metz says the historical recognition for the neighborhood is long overdue.
“We did the research for a state historical marker which will hopefully be reviewed next month at the state of Michigan, and we’ll gather some funding for a state marker to be placed along Fuller.”
Twelve other Michigan properties were added to the national registry, including Muskegon’s C.W. Marsh Company Building.
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