The Bunker

Do you remember Depot Town in 1974, for example, when Bev and Don Shankwiler bought the Artrain Building? The place looked like London after the blitz... Yet in 1977, when the Heritage Foundation held its September meeting in Shankwiler's imaginatively renovated building, things had begun to happen all along that part of Cross Street and a new spirit had emerged - the spirit is very much in the flesh, and Depot Town is a vital, living area popular to thousands all over southeast Michigan.


Small projects as well as big ones contribute to the new sense of faith emerging that Ypsilanti cant lose, that the old idea that this was a town without an identity is dead, and that a new sense of community pride is spreading well beyond the city limits.


Movement now is into Ypsilanti, not out of it. Enthusiasm is high, property is selling, people are moving in, most encouragingly into downtown. Lowered interest rates are a big help. Still, people want assurance that their investment is safe. A tight Historic Ordinance is a major way of protecting those investments which are so vital to the continued revitalization of Ypsilanti. -- Jack Harris, Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation