Pages from the Past

Books from the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission

Kalamazoo: Nineteenth-century Homes in a Midwestern Village

Keeping a current inventory of historic buildings and sites was an early charge of the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission. To do this, it brought in Western Michigan University professor and architectural historian Dr. Peter Schmitt to help.

Kalamazoo Lost & Found

This book’s framework was developed from author and historian Lynn Houghton’s slide show of buildings that were “Lost” for a variety of reasons.

Walking Through Time

The Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission’s second publication was the result of a three-year citywide inventory and survey of historic buildings.

Open Access Digital Editions

These books, published by the City of Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission (KHPC), represent nearly a half-century of work in the KHPC’s endeavor to fulfill one of the duties it was assigned at its 1965 creation:

It shall be the duty of the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission to prepare and keep current an inventory of historic resources within the City which, in its judgment, have such value as to warrant preservation and/or redevelopment; to publish such inventory…

Well-referenced, popular and successful, the books can be found in library, museum and personal collections in Kalamazoo and beyond. In 2021, the KHPC decided they should be more accessible and were fortunate to find a partner in the Kalamazoo Public Library for these digital versions.

While many people would prefer to see all of the buildings represented standing and unaltered, disaster, time, and “other plans” have taken their toll. Some are gone, others are substantially altered, and those outcomes are noted on the Introduction page for each book.