LANSING — Local entrepreneur Bradly Rakowski has been contemplating one of his biggest projects ever — a “race against time” to move and restore one of the oldest and most historic homes in the city so that it can flourish as an Airbnb and community and event space in Old Town.
The Greek Revival-style house was built in 1847 and became home to state Sen. Joseph Kilbourne, who is considered instrumental in making Lansing the state’s capital. It’s known as the Kilbourne-Mead House to also recognize James Mead, a dry goods merchant who became one of Lansing’s first elected aldermen. Rakowski said Mead took over the home in the 1850s.
Rakowski took a serious look at the 1214 Center St. property last year and secured it through a $1 deal with Michigan Community Capital, a community development corporation based in Old Town. He has since researched all aspects of the approximately 4,000-square-foot home that he and his husband Chris Swope, Lansing’s city clerk, hope to move a block north in June to a 1314 Center St. parcel they already own.
Race against time
The couple has spent months stripping the home down to the basics of its post-and-beam construction. The west side Lansing residents have found traces of American history — a broken china cup, a 1950s matchbox, along with signs of all sorts of animals. They’ve envisioned knocking out a ceiling for an open-concept kitchen and painting the exterior and interior walls white for the Airbnb and community and event space they’d like to make available next year.
The plan is for five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, the kitchen, separate living room and library spaces and a basement utility room.
But first the move, a pressing step in their plans because of the ravages of termites, moisture and neglect on the nearly 180-year-old, vacant home that functioned most recently as apartments.
“The problem is that this mortar is just clay,” Rakowski said of the walls of the basement. “When it gets damp and then it’s not properly temperature controlled, it just crumbles. The foundation has been a problem for a long, long time.
“It needs to go now because it’s not going to last. It needs to be moved. The foundation is just really in bad shape.”
There’s no firm date set yet, but the plan is for a professional house-moving company — McCormick House Moving in the Jackson area — to carefully knock openings in the existing foundation and slide steel I-beams beneath the structure, creating a platform.
Rakowski said hydraulic jacks will lift the house off its foundation. Wheels will be placed beneath the platform, and the entire structure will be transported by truck to its new location. A new foundation will be prepared to take on the historic home within weeks.
“It’s a really historical house, not only for the city of Lansing but for the state,” Rakowski said. “It’s really great to be able to save it. We’re going to make it historical, but it’s going to live in today’s century.”
‘The right partners’
Rakowski owns Bradly’s HG in Old Town. He already knew Eric Hanna, president and CEO of Michigan Community Capital when, last summer, the two seriously discussed the Kilbourne-Mead home and whether it could be saved.
He ran into Hanna while the other was checking on the historic home that was included in a list of MCC’s properties.
“He said it was being studied,” Rakowski said. “I’m like, ‘I know what that means. This is probably going to get torn down.’ So I said, ‘Would you sell me the house for whatever ….We can move it to my lot.’ That struck up the conversation.”
The entrepreneur said what followed was Michigan Community Capital’s decision to sell the home to him and Swope for $1. Hanna’s enterprise will cover some of the moving costs, and Rakowski and Swope will fund the rest of the project for an estimated $320,000, which they said is probably less expensive than building new.
“This house has stood in Lansing since before Michigan had a permanent state capitol,” said Hanna in a statement. “We are grateful to have found the right partners that will ensure this home continues to be a community asset in Lansing for generations to come.”
‘This was a castle’
According to Rakowski’s research, the home is the oldest standing structure in Lansing and was the “sweetheart deal” that came with Kilbourne’s last and decisive vote to have the capital in Lansing.
“He got this house. He got this land, and he got a very lucrative job working for James Seymour, who owned 34% of Lansing at the time,” Rakowski said. “He was the last and decisive vote. This is what he got. You have to remember — 1847, this was a castle. There was a building boom but a lot of the buildings were not like this. They were shanties.
“This house … It’s like strength, wealth, power.”
It didn’t take long for Rakowski to convince Swope to commit to his renovation project. Swope’s parents moved a house from downtown Ypsilanti to the property where they lived in Ypsilanti Township.
Swope credits his husband’s knowledge of architecture.
“He’s like ‘Greek Revival.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, OK,’ ” Swope said. “It is really cool, the age of the house and being the oldest house in Lansing. My dad always worked on our house, so I’ve worked on houses. I’ve done all that kind of stuff. It’s nothing new for me to jump in.”
The couple invites others to follow the home’s move and transformation on Bradly’s HG social media accounts. They also welcome others to contact them if they’re able to help out with the work.
They’re looking forward to sharing the revived Kilbourne-Mead house that will have a new porch and also gardens on an additional lot they acquired from the Ingham County Land Bank once committing to the project.
“So our lot goes way back,” Rakowski said, looking forward to the day he’ll be able to really fathom designing the home’s interior and inviting guests inside. “Just being able to share the house … It’s so historical. It’s kind of cool to have people walk through it and experience it.”
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Sharing Lansing’s past: Historic home to be moved, restored in Old Town
Reporting by Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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