Eastern Michigan University's revered historic preservation program is extending its reach now that it's taking over Michigan's Historical Marker program.

EMU is working with the Michigan History Foundation and the Michigan Historical Commission to run the program. This means every time you see one of those new historical markers detailing the story behind a building, EMU will have helped make that possible.

"We have a long relationship with Eastern Michigan and we know the students there," says Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing. "They were interested so we thought this would be best for Michigan's historical markers."

The program began in 1955 to ensure that markers tell the important, accurate stories about Michigan's past. There are now about 1,630 markers across the state. An executive order shook up the normal agency that has overseen the program, so handing it over to EMU and its partners was done as a cost-cutting move.

EMU will incorporate the historical markers into its graduate Historic Preservation Program. Selected students will prepare marker texts as the final project for a master's degree and present them to the commission for approval. EMU's Historic Preservation Program is the largest graduate program in historic preservation in the nation, and the only such program in Michigan.

Source: Eastern Michigan University and Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center in Lansing
Writer: Jon Zemke