The Mitchell Research Center is facing financial hardships, but one woman remains determined

The air smells of dust and old books — reminiscent of bookshops tucked in the corners of big cities. Although originally part of the Hillsdale library, the old home, built in 1868 on 22 N. Manning street, was officially named the Mitchell Research Center in the 1970s. 

Local and family history has been collected there for decades, available to anyone who knows to ask. Run by the Friends of the Mitchell Research Center group, the center holds census records, genealogies, newspapers, and history books. But the future of the center is uncertain. 

According to Carol Lackey, the Mitchell Research Center, a nonprofit, running on donations and volunteers, is struggling.

“We depend on volunteers and they tend to be older volunteers,” Lackey said. “And they don’t always survive,” 

The center is also facing funding issues and risks being sold. 

“The city either wants to find a more viable way to fund and maintain the center or possibly sell it,” city manager David Mackie said. “We’re still working on a solution to the issue.”

There already has been some progress with the lease extended for the Friends of the Mitchell Research Center to six months from the end of the year. 

Growing up in Hillsdale meant the Mitchell Research Center was a part of Lackey’s childhood. 

“As a kid I came here. My neighborhood teacher picked up everybody in the neighborhood. It was before seat belts, so she just piled everybody in the car and brought us in here all the time,” she said. “We all met upstairs and learned to read and write and this is what was important. And there was this water fountain, and it was thecoolest in town.”

The house holds memories, but also history, with facts and genealogies and newspapers filling rooms and shelves. 

“We have collected this. The gathering of information has been going on for over 100 years,” Lackey said. 

Lackey has been a counselor, a bank worker, and a real estate broker. But it is in the dust and wood that she found her calling. 

“I am a real estate broker,” Lackeys said, “but my love is old buildings.”

She has renovated several buildings downtown, even finishing her last project following heart surgery.

But not every original building is able to be renovated. Many of them no longer exist.  

“These streets were full of buildings. They need old buildings, but now they are parking lots,” she said. “And I have an issue with that.” 

There are old pictures, framed and sitting in the upper rooms of the building, with faded ink that list the names. 

An old funeral home became a used car lot. 

12 N. Manning St. was an old home torn down for a car dealership.

50 N. Manning St., the Cook and Stewart home, was torn down to make a city parking lot. 

The Underwood and Lyons home became yet another parking lot. 

The Gridley home became a car dealership and then a parking lot.

“Some people just say, ‘So what?’ But I don’t want to see this woodwork gone,” she said. “To me it’s gorgeous and who really wants it torn down?”

Lackey said most people are apathetic to the leveling of old buildings.

“There are some buildings in town that need attention, and just to look the other way and tear them down is sad,” she said. “But people don’t agree with me and financially it’s difficult.” 

Lackey said she fears for  the future of the center.

“Being shut down is a constant fear. The majority of the council folks didn’t grow up here and don’t have this near and dear to their heart,” Lackey said. 

And that seems to be the crux of the issue. 

“The people that are on the city commission are basically Hillsdale College folks who don’t have the early ties here,” Lackey said. 

Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram, who serves on the city council, said his college connection does not make a difference in his council experience. 

“I would say that my relationship as a professor at Hillsdale College since 1989 has not had very much effect on my experience as a city council member,” Wolfram said. “No one at the college has ever asked me to vote in a certain way on any topic nor.” 

Lackey said she cares about this town, about its history, and she wants  for others to care too. 

On her business card, a small plastic magnet, the words read, “Every home has a history, all its own!” 

Every home has a history, but many don’t have a future. And it is both the history and the future that Lackey is trying to save.