ARC Chairman Duane Anderson meets with committee at site of Elm Lawn chapel, background
Crumbling Elm Lawn Chapel First Target of Restoration Committee
Volunteer, City's Architectural Review Committee
March 27, 2003
By: Dave Rogers
When people in a community get together to solve problems, good things usually happen.
That's a standard principle of community development. And, in Bay City, the problems that need to be solved include how to preserve the dozens of historic structures scattered about our town.
"We have so many areas of need in historic preservation," said Dee Dee Wacksman, board member of the Bay County Historical Society and activist with the Trombley House and other historic preservation projects, commenting: "We need a sugar daddy with deep pockets."
A pair of local residents, Mary Ewald-Sayles, of the Hyatt-Ewald Funeral Home, and Deborah Lang, manager of Elm Lawn Cemetery, are taking the lead on an important preservation project with support of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) of the City of Bay City.
The first initiative involves restoring the imposing Gothic chapel at Elm Lawn. The 1890s chapel is still structurally sound but is deteriorating and unusable in its presentcondition.
The chapel has a feature of the 19th century which is fascinating to visitors: a morgue with crank-operated lift to hoist caskets from the basement up to the chapel. The morgue was used as a place to store the caskets with bodies in winter when the ground was too hard for burials. With modern technology grave warmers are used and burials are conducted year-around.
Reports are that the morgue was frequently broken into by hoboes traveling through town by rail from a nearby tracks. Caskets and their occupants who were wearing jewelry were pillaged.
The chapel is a popular feature of the Bay County Historical Society's cemetery and "ghost" tours. About 1,500 out-of-town visitors viewed the chapel last year, in additionto dozens of local folks who took the Historical Society's trolley tours.
Mrs. Sayles and Ms. Lang believe that the chapel, if restored, can be used for a variety of community events in addition to the tours.
Next priority for a restoration project may be the companion Gothic gatehouse/office with arch at the foot of Green Avenue.
The preservation group hopes to raise funds through donations and grants and is considering how to establish a special perpetual care trust fund for projects such as the cemetery structures.
The ARC met with city planners and cemetery officials on March 26, toured the chapel and pondered the question of how to preserve it. Duane Anderson, an architect who is ARC chairman, will seek quotes on the cost of the renovations.
The cooperative venture with the city, the ARC and volunteers bodes well for the future. If a format can be found, the process can be applied to many projects to preserve historic structures and facilities in the community.