Thirteen Michigan sites honored in the National Register of Historic Places in 2025

LANSING, Mich. - Thirteen historic Michigan properties were given special recognition in 2025 through their listing in the National Register of Historic Places, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has announced. Administered in Michigan by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), the National Register is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance.

"Every year the SHPO has the privilege of working with communities, groups, and individuals throughout the state to elevate Michigan sites to the National Register of Historic Places," said State Historic Preservation Officer Ryan Schumaker. "The SHPO is pleased to announce the listing of these 13 properties on the National Register in 2025, highlighting the state's diverse cultural and architectural legacy. Listing in the National Register opens opportunities for economic investment and ensures that significant places from the past continue to contribute to their community's unique character."

More than 100,000 properties across the country, including nearly 2,000 in Michigan, have been listed in the National Register since the program began in the 1960s. The National Register is a program of the National Park Service and is administered by the states.

Each place listed in the National Register is referred to as a "property," whether it is a single building, site or structure, or a historic district composed of dozens of individual buildings/contributing historic resources. In 2025, eight individual properties and five historic districts comprised of more than 300 contributing historic resources in Michigan were listed.

To be considered for listing in the National Register, a property must generally be at least 50 years old and significant when evaluated in relationship to major historical events or trends in the history of their community, the state, or the nation. A property must also possess historic integrity - the ability to convey its significance.

The following Michigan properties were listed in the National Register in 2025:

"One of the great things about the National Register program is that the designation makes clear that this place matters," said National Register Coordinator Todd Walsh. Each of these places is important for the people and stories they represent, for the challenges faced and overcome, and for the achievements of so many people who built our great state. The 13 new places listed in 2025, and all the others in Michigan, embody what it means to be a Michigander. I encourage everyone to find the places that matter in their communities and celebrate them, whether that is through the National Register or in another meaningful way."

SHPO staff help applicants craft their nominations as research is compiled. Each Michigan nomination is presented to the State Historic Preservation Review Board for their comments and approval. Once in its final form, the state historic preservation officer formally submits each nomination to the National Park Service for final review and listing.

Listing of a property in the National Register is honorary and places no restrictions on what a property owner may do. They are not required to open the site to the public nor to display a plaque acknowledging the listing, although many companies offer plaques to recognize the hard work and effort to get a property officially listed. In addition, listing in the National Register provides opportunities for promotion, makes available certain incentives like grants and tax credits that foster investment in our cities, towns, and villages, and allows for the consideration of historic resources when federal funding or permits are involved.

To obtain copies of any of these National Register nominations or high-resolution photos, contact [email protected].

SHPO grants help list new sites in Alpena, South Haven, Niles

National Register nominations can be led by a variety of entities, such as home- or business-owners, historical societies, units of government, and others. Periodically, efforts by the Michigan SHPO directly lead to new nominations. In 2021, the SHPO initiated the Resilient Lakeshore Heritage Program with federal funds from the National Park Service's Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program. Grant funds were used to help repair and restore historic buildings in cities and towns along the Great Lakes. To be eligible for a grant award, sites were required to have their property already listed in the National Register, or submit the documentation to be listed before the end of their grant award.

The Thunder Bay Theatre in Alpena was one such awardee. As part of a large-scale effort intended to help rehabilitate this building after a devastating fire so that it could be returned to active use, Resilient Lakeshore Heritage Program funds were used to open up previously enclosed storefronts and install new storefront window units, install second-floor windows throughout the building, address deteriorated masonry, and install a new fire suppression system. Rather than list the theatre building individually in the National Register, community support from the City of Alpena, Alpena Downtown Development Authority and research provided by Firefly Consulting led to the approval to pursue a historic district for much of the downtown area, including the commercial core and several local landmarks. With the new district in place, 136 properties in the downtown are now eligible for incentive programs such as historic preservation tax credits, spurring economic development and helping them better care for their buildings.

"Funds through this grant program were essential to complete the renovation of Thunder Bay Theatre and complete the nomination for our downtown to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a strategic goal of our organization to have the downtown listed on the National Register," said Anne Gentry, executive director of the Alpena Downtown Development Authority and Thunder Bay Theatre board president. "This was the perfect opportunity and partnership to achieve this significant nomination that documents and celebrates our downtown's history, while opening up further opportunities for historic preservation and economic development. We are excited to see Thunder Bay Theatre complete its restoration of its over hundred-year-old building after a series of devastating fires, thanks to the support of this grant program. We are grateful for the support of SHPO, the MEDC, and the community that has continued to support this nearly $2 million renovation of this iconic building so that TBT can continue to steward it for the next hundred years."

In South Haven, the Nichols Hotel was another grant recipient from the Resilient Lakeshore Heritage Program. Opened in 1925, the Nichols represented a modern generation of lodging situated just across the street from the steamship docks and around the corner from a railroad station. Owner E.C. Webster also operated an artificial ice plant and an ice cream factory before expanding his business as a hotelier. The hotel also included the local Western Union office. Today, the Nichols remains the singular historic hotel in downtown South Haven with historic integrity reflecting this important period in the community's history. It is presently a boutique hotel. The grant funding rehabilitated the masonry exterior, which has weathered nearly one hundred years of Great Lakes winters, and restored the original clay tile awnings.

Niles has been home to one of Michigan's oldest African American neighborhoods since the 1840s. The Ferry Street area today includes a mix of modest homes, two churches, a masonic lodge founded in 1857, and the site of the Ferry Street School, a one-room schoolhouse from 1867 built for African American children. In 2022, the SHPO applied for a National Park Service Underrepresented Communities grant to study this small neighborhood near downtown Niles and list it in the National Register for its significance in African American history. Listing residential historic districts gives homeowners access to key tools to preserve their homes such as Michigan's State Historic Preservation Tax Credit, which is now accepting new applications for 2026.

Rural Preservation in Northfield Township

Local communities can also take the lead on National Register nominations. In Michigan, 42 local units of government participate in the Certified Local Government (CLG) program, a local-state-federal partnership platform for communities to build strong local preservation programs. CLG communities can apply for grant funds each year to support local preservation initiatives, including the creation of new National Register nominations.

In 2023, a CLG grant was awarded to Washtenaw County (Michigan's only countywide CLG) to prepare a context for the historical and architectural resources in Northfield Township and to nominate up to four properties to the National Register, in partnership with the Northfield Township Historical Society. This built upon prior efforts to thoroughly survey historic resources in the township, helping local residents identify and document the oldest properties. The National Register project identified several historical themes still evident in the township, including agriculture, recreation/tourism, and the significance of the area's German heritage. These themes were studied and presented in a Multiple Property Documentation Form, a special document which makes it easier to list related sites in the National Register.

Individual nominations for several township properties followed, including two homes representing early architectural styles in the township and German Park, a club and recreation venue established in 1938 by German and German-American families who settled in the area, which continues to operate today. Additional Northfield Township nominations are expected in 2026.

"The CLG grants have allowed us to 'put Northfield Township on the map,'" said Jennifer Delisle of the Northfield Township Historical Society. "We are a small, rural township, and the two grants have allowed us first to survey many historic properties in the township, and second to not only prepare the applications to nominate four properties (a house, a farm complex, a church, and a recreational park) to the National Register of Historic Places, but to make it easier for other property owners (including me) to nominate their historic properties under the umbrella of the Multiple Property Documentation Form. Three other properties identified in the survey have also been listed in the National Register, shining a light on the unusual number of intact, high quality, but perhaps overlooked historic resources that can be found in our little township."

W. Marsh Company Building, Muskegon

Sometimes, National Register designation recognizes truly inspiring pieces of Michigan history. The C. W. Marsh Company was founded by Charles Marsh in 1900. He arrived in Muskegon to work for a company specializing in leather products. That company soon failed, but Marsh had seen how leather could be used to improve the performance of hydraulic devices through the use of carefully crafted leather packings and industrial seals. He formed his own business and moved into his new building in 1907 and expanded with an addition around 1928. Leather is tough, pliable, weather-resistant, unaffected by cold, and able to withstand high pressure at low temperature. The material's low coefficient of friction enables it to generate less heat, outlasting other, synthetic seal materials. An innovation that kept the C.W. Marsh Company at the top of the industry was its field laboratory, the first-ever established by a leather packing manufacturer, where the company experimented with product improvements starting in 1938.

The C. W. Marsh Company is still in business today, one of only three companies creating such specialized leather products in the country. Each product continues to be tailor-made for its use, some on equipment still driven by overhead drive belts. The business remains family owned.

"This is such an honor for our company and our family; for 126 years, this business has been run by five generations of my family," said C.W. Marsh Company CEO Dan Wehrwein. "We still make some of our products the same way we did when Charlie started this company. We have made many improvements to our processes over the years, but some of the original methods for making our leather seals are still in use today. I'm very proud of company and the impact we have had on the community of Muskegon, and I'm ecstatic about this nomination! My great-great grandfather founded this company. My grandfather, Jim, worked here for over 70 years. When my grandfather passed away in 2013, he asked me to keep this business viable and in Muskegon. I'm very proud to be a part of this business that has been in my family for over 126 years in the same building for 116 years!"

Follow the Michigan SHPO Instagram channel to stay up to date on the latest National Register listings in Michigan in 2026.

For more information about the National Register of Historic Places program in Michigan, and how to learn if your property might be eligible for listing in the National Register, visit https://www.michigan.gov/nrhp.

Focused on the historic preservation of culturally or archaeologically significant sites throughout the state, Michigan's State Historic Preservation Office strives to provide technical assistance to local communities and property owners in their efforts to identify, evaluate, designate, interpret and protect Michigan's historic above- and below-ground resources. SHPO also administers an incentives program that includes state and federal tax credits and pass-through grants available to certified local governments.

About Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is the state's marketing arm and lead advocate for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus on growing Michigan's economy. For more information on the MEDC and our initiatives, visit www.MichiganBusiness.org. For Pure Michigan® tourism information, your trip begins at www.michigan.org. Join the conversation on: FacebookInstagramLinkedIn, and Twitter.