Kalamazoo Michigan
home: https://starling.us
by Ĝan Ŭesli Starling
copyright 2003
Rose Place is an historic court in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Most of the homes are a century old, some much older. Being a registered Historic District, owners are constrained by law in how we may alter our exteriors. In a word, any work which we do must make it more, not less, original.
It is a good thing. When the long-ago chopped up home at 223 caught fire, it required extensive work. The out-of-town landlords were not allowed to put back the tacky exterior stairwell into the upstairs appartment. All they could do was make it back into a single-family house, which they did. Even the parking pad in front (for the former upstairs appartment) got broken up and replace by grass. That alone was worth the hastles we owner-occupiers put up with. Our street cannot degredate into a slum.