Quinn Evans is assisting with the relocation of the historic Jackson House from Selma, Alabama, to The Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.
Starting in the late 1950s, the building now known as the Jackson House was owned by the late civil rights activists Sullivan and Richie Jean Jackson. Much of the planning for the Selma to Montgomery Marches of 1965 and other Selma-area civil rights activities was conducted from the house. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a frequent visitor, and lived with the Jacksons in the months leading up to the Selma Marches. He was also staying there when President Lyndon Johnson spoke before Congress to urge the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; Dr. King watched the television broadcast from the Jacksons’ living room.
In recent year the Jackson House had been operated as a historic house museum by Jawana Jackson, daughter of Sullivan and Richie Jean. Ms. Jackson approached The Henry Ford in 2022 about moving the house to Greenfield Village, a collection of 90+ historic or recreated structures on the museum’s campus that sees more than a million annual visitors. There the Jackson House will stand alongside other notable residences such as the home where Noah Webster worked on his famous dictionary and a recreation of the cabin where scientist and inventor George Washington Carver was born.
The relocation of a historic structure is an accepted historic preservation practice when efforts to preserve the building in place have proven unsuccessful. While we always prefer to preserve a historic building in its original context, this is not always possible—as with another Quinn Evans project at Greenfield Village, the rebuilt Detroit Central Market.
The removal of historically significant structures from Black communities is particularly fraught, considering how many of these places have already been lost to urban renewal programs or outright vandalism. As of 2020, only two percent of sites on the National Register of Historic Places were nominated for their connection to Black history, leaving countless important buildings vulnerable to demolition. We are committed to helping communities preserve significant places through efforts like our 20th Century African American Civil Rights Sites documentation project in Detroit and volunteer design work for the tornado-damaged St. James AME Church in Mayfield, Kentucky.
In the case of the Jackson House, Selma community members, national civil rights leaders, and museum professionals from across the country have expressed support for its relocation. As Gretchen Sorin, PhD, director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in museum studies at SUNY Oneonta, put it: “Not every historic building can be preserved in its original location and for this reason, so many important places are forever lost. Not so for the Jackson House that will find new life and meaning at The Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village.”
The Quinn Evans team authored a Historic Structure Report for the Jackson House in 2022 to document the house and its outbuildings’ history, character-defining features, historic integrity, and existing conditions. The report informed decision-making about the house’s relocation and planning for its ongoing management and stewardship at Greenfield Village. Once The Henry Ford moved forward with acquiring and relocating the house, we created plans for its rebuilding. New features will include sensitively integrated central heating and air conditioning, fire protection systems, a 1,500-sf interpretive space, and an accessible entry plaza.
The Jackson House was carefully dismantled over several months and the pieces moved to Michigan by truck in late 2023. We are currently working with The Henry Ford and the constructor to see that the house is properly reconstructed. The Jackson House is expected to open to the public in 2026.
