State eyes preservation options for Green Book sites

MERRILL TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A new grant will help find ways to preserve two properties featured in the Green Book.

The book was a travel guide that provided safe and welcoming destinations for African Americans during segregation.

The state announced this week that the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office had gotten a $75,000 grant from the National Parks Service’s African American Civil Rights History program. It is sending that money to sites important to African American tourism, including an historic hotel in Woodland Park in northern Newaygo County and the historic Wilson’s Grocery in Idlewild in Lake County.

Eric Lindsey’s family owns the property that includes the store and adjacent house. Lindsey said the store represents more than simply years of keeping people fed.

“Pretty much kept the community together,” Lindsey said. “Lela Wilson, who actually built the house, also built the (now-demolished) Paradise Club … and then the Wilson Grocery store.”

The grant money will be used to hire a preservation consultant to study the condition of a number of properties, including the hotel and grocery, and ways to protect them or find a new purposes, according to Preservation Office survey coordinator Katie Kolokithas.

“In the preservation world, we call it adaptive reuse. So reusing a building doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be used for what it was used before,” Kolokithas said.

The grocery store building is still used but the owners welcome the grant and want to see other historic properties protected.

“We have probably about four or five buildings that are standing and the Wilson Grocery store and the Wilson house, them being pretty important places, we’re happy to know they’re still standing,” Lindsey said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.