For this resident, preserving our heritage is her life’s work

Rebecca Binno Savage

By Alan Madlane
Sometimes people earn all the good things that come to them.
Here at The Review, we prefer to focus on this type of person. And Rebecca Binno Savage is one of those people.
Perhaps you know her name. Perhaps you don’t. But we think you should.
So just what all has she done, exactly?
It would probably take less time to list what she hasn’t done. Let’s start with the fact that she’s written up the language for numerous nominations for many of the buildings and historical districts in Detroit for entry onto the National Register of Historic Places (this, she says, is what allows the owners of properties with these designations, or within these designated areas, to apply for federal Historic Tax Credits).
She has also assisted with many of these applications.
As such, she is something of an expert on what’s there. Or, what “used to be there,” as she puts it, for each building and lot in these areas.
She serves on the Boards of Directors for both the Detroit Area Art Deco Society and the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit. She is an advisor for the Detroit Sound Conservancy, an organization that “remains dedicated to partnerships and programs that preserve Detroit’s musical legacy.”
On top of that, she volunteers in various capacities related to her preservation knowledge base with Wayne State’s historic Freer House, the historic St. Albertus church, and the Downtown Detroit Partnership Stakeholder Committee.
Lastly, she also served on the commissions and boards of all of the following: the Hamtramck Downtown Development Authority, or DDA; the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium; the Hamtramck Brownfield Authority; Preservation Wayne; the Michigan Historic Preservation Network; and the Detroit Area Chapter of Columbia University’s Alumni Association.
But best of all, she was a recent recipient of Michigan Historic Preservation Network’s Citizen Award, an award given to “an outstanding individual” who has “made a significant contribution to the preservation of Michigan’s heritage.”
Congrats, Rebecca!
So please join us in once again tipping our cap to Hamtramck’s own busybody for good deeds, Rebecca Binno Savage.