Building a historic partnership

With 150-plus businesses, Detroit’s Eastern Market is the largest historic public market district in the U.S. Each year, millions visit the market, taking in its grand size and rich history, making it a popular attraction for guided tours — and UM-Dearborn students play a role in the information that’s shared. 

Students in Composition and Rhetoric Lecturer P.F. Potvin’s Honors Writing and Rhetoric project-based learning course have partnered with Preservation Detroit, the city’s largest and oldest nonprofit preservation organization, which offers lectures, walking tours and historic awareness programs. UM-Dearborn students contribute to the organization’s Eastern Market tours by researching and writing about different aspects of the market’s past and present. The course takes place during the fall semester.

“When Preservation Detroit does tours, we get people from everywhere — born Detroiters, people from around the state, country and world, as well as history buffs and food enthusiasts. We hear a lot of stories about Eastern Market that they heard through the grapevine. It’s fascinating stuff, but we can’t share it during a tour until it’s researched. These students are doing that work and they are good at it,” says Lisa Rush, who facilitates Preservation Detroit’s Eastern Market tours. “This class looks into the origin of businesses, documents how the market has evolved and gathers stories directly from the people whose family members have been at the market for decades. They are reviewing information we have and finding new information. We are very grateful for the classes’ help with this.”

At the beginning of the class, students take a historic walking tour — guided by Rush — to get a feel for the market and to explore what aspects they’d like to explore for their project. Topic ideas are also provided by Preservation Detroit. Then students do archival research, conduct interviews, and ultimately script and produce a podcast, which is recorded in the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters’ Media Studio. The podcast is shared with Preservation Detroit staff, who listen for information to use on their tours. Podcasts are not publicly available, but Potvin is working with Mardigian Library to include them in the library’s collection. To date, student groups have completed more than 35 podcasts on topics like Bees in the D, Henry the Hatter, the Detroit Unity Bell and murals in the market.

Potvin says he got the idea to bring service learning into this class after he attended several Preservation Detroit’s tours. Potvin grew up in Michigan, but he wasn’t familiar with Eastern Market. When he accepted his UM-Dearborn teaching position in 2008, Potvin looked for ways to increase his knowledge of the city.

“I knew my family lived in Detroit in the 1800s, but I had grown up near Traverse City. The only time I remember visiting Detroit was for sporting events. I didn't know much about Eastern Market, but people kept telling me about it,” he says. “I decided to go on a tour about Eastern Market and it was super interesting. Then I went on a Detroit architecture tour, a graveyard tour and others. I came to realize just how important that this knowledge is because it keeps Detroit’s history alive. And that’s a theme that we talk about a lot in COMP 110 — how if history doesn't ripple out, then it stops. The work being done by Preservation Detroit is a prime example of carrying out those ripples. Working with them is a great fit for the class.”

First-year student Kat Le, a computer science and cybersecurity double major, says her group focused on the business Steinkopf and Sons Wholesale Nursery. She liked how they are a Michigan-based business with 50-plus years of history — and they focus on growing native plants, which is something she has an interest in.

Le, who is from Grand Rapids, chose to study at UM-Dearborn because of the highly rated cybersecurity major. She took the class because she liked the community-based aspect of it. “I didn’t know much about Detroit, its energy or culture, before moving here. Taking this class helped me learn more,” she says. “My parents came down for Thanksgiving and I took them to Eastern Market to show them around. It was so cool to show it off to them. They were really into it and I was glad that we got to share that experience together.”

At the end of the Fall 2024 class, Rush listened as six student groups presented their research work. The CASL Building classroom was full, and students shared photos and audio clips from their interviews. Rush thanked the students for their work.

Le says she’s glad Rush appreciated their efforts — but thanks wasn’t necessary. She says the students were the lucky ones to have had the chance to take part in the project.

“Doing work like this is important to me because it’s going to be archived so people in the future can access it. We are adding to Detroit’s rich history,” she says. “This class allowed me to express myself in a way I wouldn’t normally do — I’ve never done a podcast before or done research like this. When I finished, I realized that a portion of me is in the script. So when people listen to the research we gathered years into the future, I’ll be there in a way too.”

Preservation Detroit’s Tours Eastern Market tours take place on Saturdays from May through September. Get more information here.

Story by Sarah Tuxbury