The Hellenic Museum of Michigan, an institution devoted to celebrating Green culture, is turning one of Midtown's more historic buildings into one of the neighborhood's greenest.
The Hellenic Museum of Michigan recently bought the
Scherer mansion at 67 E. Kirby, one of the few remaining grand mansions along the lower Woodward corridor. Robert Pauli Schearer invented the soft gelatin capsule, which was a major step forward for the pharmaceutical industry.
The Scherer mansion was built in 1912 and eventually became the home of the Detroit Children's Museum. The building was vacant for 10 years before the Hellenic Museum of Michigan purchased it with plans of turning it into its future home in the heart of Detroit's cultural center.
"We're going to upgrade the entire building," says Ernest Zachary, president of the
Hellenic Museum of Michigan. "We're gradually getting it together."
The renovation will have a heavily lean on sustainability. The Hellenic Museum of Michigan has installed LED lights throughout the building and plans to install other green features, such as low-flow plumbing, insulation and a geothermal heating/cooling system. The Hellenic Museum of Michigan has received a $66,160 SmartBuilding's grant from the city to help make these upgrades.
The Hellenic Museum of Michigan is working to get the building to the point where it can be open on a daily basis. It has raised about $450,000 to get the project this far and is working to raise even more. For information on making a donation to the effort, call Zachary at 313-831-6100.
Source: Ernest Zachary, president of the Hellenic Museum of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke
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