Photo: 321-323 S. Walnut photo circa 1935.
Courtesy of the Stebbins Real Estate Collection.
By Local History Librarian David Votta
Most people will never live in a historically significant structure. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find a story in the walls, or in the people who lived there before you. The mosaic of information you discover can be woven into a fascinating narrative.
Need incentive to start your research? There are federal and state tax incentives for anyone who can demonstrate their home’s sufficient historic value. By minimizing the waste of historic construction materials in landfills and abating new construction, preservation of older homes also reduces environmental impact. And as a bonus, the quality of materials in older homes is often superior to modern counterparts.
Scanning books and websites can provide valuable information about the history of your home. Identifying the style of architecture, such as Greek Revival or Cotswold Cottage, places your home construction within a specific time frame. Learning this time frame is the first step in tracing the history of your home.
When was it built? Most homes in the area were built from 1910-1960, although some date to pre-1850. The simplest way to discover a built date is by contacting the assessor. Some local municipalities, such as Lansing, have direct access through their websites. For homes or buildings located anywhere in Ingham County, visit the Ingham County Equalization Tax portal at www.ingham.org. Go to the “Property Search” tab to search by address or owner’s name. Once you identify your property and enter that record, click on “Buildings” to see the built date. (Note: Non-profit owned structures rarely have this information online. You will have to contact the county or local assessor by phone, or visit the office.)
Beware of information concerning old homes with nice, round numbers for built dates. If it states 1900, or 1870, etc., that’s probably a guess. As cities grow and annex rural property, they do not always incorporate township records. Too often old records are destroyed by neglect or simply discarded.
Occasionally you may determine a built date, but then find conlicting information, such as a map from an earlier period that includes the home. The dilemma in such a scenario is which source to believe. Sometimes both sources are true. For example, a farmhouse might have burned in 1875, and then been rebuilt soon after. There are few absolutes. Part of doing house research is gathering all the possible facts and creating the most plausible scenario.
Once you know the built date you can start documenting the owners by searching City Directories or phone books. City Directories are similar to phone books, but are cross referenced and historically provide more information than the phone book. Early City Directories told where a person worked. The Capital Area District Library’s Downtown Lansing location has City Directories for Lansing going back to the 19th century. The Library of Michigan also has an extensive collection of rural community directories throughout the state.
If you cannot locate the built date online, try conducting this research at the Register of Deeds in Mason. Search property transactions by Grantor to Grantee back through time. The present owner is the Grantee of the property, while the previous owner is the Grantor. You can then repeat the process with the previous owner as the Grantee to discover who they purchased the property from. The older the home, the more time-consuming this process will be.
The Ingham Co. Register of Deeds also has a searchable index online back to 1956 (with some gaps). You will need to create an account but there is no charge to view the index. Images can be purchased.
There are many other resources to help fill out the story of your home. Assessor information also provides the legal description of the property. This will name the plat of subdivision. All Michigan plats and subdivision maps dating to 1821-over a dozen years before statehood-are now available online from the Department of Labor and Economic Growth at http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/platmaps/sr_subs.asp
Historic Atlases often provide the names of property owners in rural areas, and sometimes even have drawings of significant homes. The State Archives of Michigan has a collection of Rural Property Inventories, which were part of the WPA programs in the 1930s. These cards of every home provide a sketch of the structures on a property and field notes about the home. When you have learned who the owners were, you can use historic census data to find the names of everyone in the household, children, and even boarders or servants.
An easy place to begin this research is at the Capital Area District Library website. Visit www.cadl.org/history and click on “Researching the History of Your Home” to will find links to maps and the other resources mentioned in this article. Part of the library’s collection is the Stebbins Real Estate Collection, which houses nearly 100 thousand historic photographs of homes and buildings in the area. With help from the library you just might find an old picture of the home you grew up in, even if it is no longer there.
Capital Area District Library Reference Department
401 S. Capitol Ave., Lansing
(517) 367-6346
Email: fastfacts@cadl.org
This article was originally printed in the August 1, 2010 – August 14, 2010 edition.
