South Street Historic District / South Street Historic District

This tree-lined neighborhood, today nestled between the business district and college campuses, recalls a quiet but prosperous Kalamazoo at the turn of the century. The street was platted in 1841. Its beautifully preserved houses, which were built between then and 1915, reflect the spectrum of fashionable domestic architecture of the period with the Italian Revival style most prevalent. Many prominent middle class families lived in this neighborhood, which runs two blocks along South Street. Here were the homes of professors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, and others active in the civic, commercial, and professional life of Kalamazoo. Today the district houses community service organizations as well as businesses and families, thereby retaining its traditional cultural and civic orientation.