2025 Year End Letter
As 2025 and a year spent honoring our Golden Anniversary comes to a close, know that we truly value everything that you have ever done to support us. Whether it's your membership and donation, sharing in our hard work, your assistance in our calls for direct advocacy, or your attendance at our tours and events, you are truly what has made Preservation Detroit great across our 50 years. With your support, we have truly been able to positively influence policy and re-development in our beloved City of Detroit. Without you, our voice would be small and weak. We know that during these challenging times there are many groups competing for your time, attention, and donations, but we would assert that few are as long-lived or as dedicated to the City of Detroit as Preservation Detroit.
We humbly ask you to remember us and our mission to Preserve Detroit’s Historic Places in your year-end giving. Please know that we are hard at work in both events and advocacy. But none of our good works would be possible without generous donations to fund our mission and operations by supporters like you.
Our 50th Anniversary Gala at the Dakota Inn Rathskeller was a massive success, and we’re hoping to build off that momentum to start our next half-century. At our Gala, we celebrated the work of 7 Preservation Honor Award recipients in Building, Community, and Cultural Preservation. Earlier this year, we also successfully rebooted our Endangered Buildings List - calling attention to 9 important Detroit structures. Our rejuvenated lecture series featured 9 separate events and captivated over 560 attendees. Our robust Tours Program offered 10 different tours and educated over 730 guests. We continued Summer Happy Hours and introduced an October Bar Crawl. Preservation Detroit also became a Non-Profit signatory to the Detroit 2030 Commitment, re-affirming that adaptive re-use and historic preservation are environmentally and economically sustainable.
The momentum we have helped to build at the Belle Isle Boathouse continued this year, with a major positive announcement from the development team at the Historic Designation Advisory Board in November. And on a Saturday in late August, the People for Palmer Park and the City of Detroit celebrated the re-opening of the Historic State Fair Bandshell, a preservation effort that we have long supported.
Our Board also gained two new members, Cassandra Talley in January and Katie Cook in May. Both of whom are renowned experts in Detroit’s built history. In May, we also saw the departure of our Treasurer, Maria Perez, who we will sorely miss, but we were pleased to welcome an able replacement for that role in Katie Cook.
We're already looking forward to more and better in 2026, so please stay tuned to our mailing lists and social media feeds for additional information. We hope that you will join us in supporting that mission to preserve the fabric of Detroit that we all treasure and love. We truly value your partnership in this effort, and we couldn't accomplish half of what we do without your membership and yearly gifts.
Preservation Detroit’s Board of Directors:
Devan Anderson, Board President
Katie Cook, Treasurer
Alex Hill, Director
Cassandra Talley, Director
Chris Gongora, Director
Jeff Richards, Director
Marcia Black, Director
Mark Hall, Director
Tanya Stephens, Director
Samantha Ellens, Director
Sarah Pounders, Preservation Associate