Lansing community might say goodbye to historic landmark

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Eastern High School, a historic Lansing landmark, might soon be demolished to make way for a new psychiatric facility, and city leaders, alumni, and community members are rallying together to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The University of Michigan Health-Sparrow has plans to build a 120-bed psychiatric facility on the site of the school, but this proposal has sparked a debate over preserving the city’s history.

“I’ve just admired the building and I was kind of shocked to hear when it was slated to just be torn down,” said Dale Schrader, former President of Preservation Lansing.

The school, built in 1927, has been a community landmark for nearly a century. Lansing City Council Member Ryan Kost says they just don’t make them like this anymore.

“This isn’t an ordinary school. This is pre-World War II architecture that is absolutely gorgeous,” Kost says. “At the end of the day, this is part of Lansing’s DNA.”

Sparrow bought Eastern High School in 2016 and it closed down in 2019. Officials say they plan to use the site for a behavioral health facility to address the mental health crisis in the Lansing community.

To preserve the historical building, a committee was formed, along with a Facebook page called Friends of Historic Eastern High School , which quickly gained a large following.

“I think there’s a lot of people in the City of Lansing, including city officials, that want to see it restored,” said Schrader.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor’s spokesperson told 6 News that the mayor would be disappointed to see Eastern High School be demolished, and he’d love to see the building be reused somehow.

The Lansing City Council Will soon vote on a resolution that both highlights the need for mental health care and stresses the historical value of Eastern High School.

“What I don’t understand is why it has to be mutually exclusive like—you want mental health,” says Schrader. “You can, or do you want to preserve this building? I don’t know why you can’t have both.”

Sparrow would not explicitly disclose their plans to 6 News, but they said that “converting the existing former EHS building to a state-of-the-art behavioral health hospital is not possible.”

The City Council hopes to work with Sparrow to find a solution that meets both preservation and mental health care needs.

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