Pages from the Past
Books from the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission
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.