The city’s Historic Districts Commission will present its annual Earl E. Borden Historic Preservation Award at the City Council meeting at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, May 20, at City Hall.
This year, the HDC has voted to present the Earl Borden Award for Historic Preservation Leadership to the Rochester-Avon Historical Society, for their leadership and development of the Oakland Regional Historic Sites website, an online resource that places information on historic sites in one easily accessible spot. The HDC also will present the Earl Borden Historic Preservation Leadership Award to Oakland University, for their commitment and efforts to maintain and preserve Meadow Brook Hall despite fiscal challenges.
Previous winners of the Earl Borden Award include buildings that serve as quality examples of preservation/restoration and individuals or groups demonstrating activism in the field of historic preservation in Rochester Hills. The awards are presented during May, which is National Preservation Month. This year, the month’s theme is “See! Save! Celebrate!”
The award was created in 1989 by the Rochester Hills Historic Districts Commission. It honors Mr. Borden, the first Mayor of Rochester Hills, who helped to obtain the Van Hoosen farmhouse for use as a city-owned museum. As Supervisor of Avon Township, he was part of the creation of the historic preservation ordinance, including designated historic districts and the Historic Districts Commission, for the community that became Rochester Hills. He was a proponent of protecting our local historic heritage through education and preservation.
The HDC is a nine-member board of Rochester Hills residents appointed by City Council for three-year terms. Some of these volunteer Commissioners may reside in designated historic properties or districts; others have a clearly demonstrated interest in or knowledge of historic preservation. The City’s Historical Preservation Ordinance requires that at least two members of the Commission be members of preservation societies; at least one member be an architect, and as available, City Council shall appoint an archaeologist, a historian or an architectural historian.
For more information, please call the City Planning Department, 248-656-4660.
About Tom and Ann Gendich