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Morton House Museum announces Benton Harbor 2024 Preservation Awards

Members and supporters of the Morton House Museum gathered late last week to recognize and celebrate the 2024 Preservation Award winners. The group also released their Top 10 Most Endangered List.

Chuck Jager is the executive director of Morton House Museum and shared the announcement.

“These awards are part of the mission of the Morton House Museum to be the Home of Benton Harbor History. The Preservation Awards seek to congratulate and reward those who save historic buildings and places in Benton Harbor.”

The MHM has made the Preservation Awards every two years, since 2010. Selections are made by a committee of Benton Harbor residents, businesspeople, historians, and community advocates.

The committee uses five criteria: community significance, historic importance, architectural significance, cultural impact, and how a restored building is returning vitality to the city.

The Awards Ceremony was held on November 7 at The Secret Garden At The Harbor (209 W. Main).

The 2024 Preservation Award Winners

The Parks/Hightower House
- Built c. 1910
- Aka Hightower Manor, it is currently owned by former Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower and his wife June
- Owned by the Parks Family from 1919 to 1982
132 Water Street
- Currently home of the OutCenter
- For 76 years, it was the home of Garb’s Clothing Store
- Recently received historically-accurate façade improvements
The GhostLight Theatre
- Originally part of Burch Printing Company
- Used in the 1970s and ‘80s by the Type House and Harbor Graphics
- Chosen for the vitality the GhostLight Theatre has brought to Benton Harbor
Empire Avenue Fire Station Apartments
- Built as Fire Station #2 in 1947
- Continued to be used as a fire station until 1975
- Transformed into a six-unit apartment building in 2011 by Emergency Shelter Services
- Provides safe and affordable housing to chronically unsheltered women