Sharon Ferraro, Michigan

(retired) Historic Preservation Coordinator, City of Kalamazoo, MI

Sharon Ferraro has been the Historic Preservation Coordinator in her hometown of Kalamazoo MI (Population 75,000 – 2070 historic resources in 5 districts) since 2001. For the past five years she has worked with the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, training historic district commissions throughout western Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. In 1999-2001, she completed a reconnaissance level historic resource survey for Kalamazoo and has also nominated the Village of Richland, the Sand Hills Light Station, the Ahmeek Streetcar station in the Keweenaw Peninsula, a winery, an 1840s farmstead and a part of downtown Kalamazoo to the National Register of Historic Places. She is currently co-writing a National Register nomination for the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial School for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe in Michigan. In 2003, she co-founded the Old House Network, devoted to teaching old house owners hands-on repair and rehabilitation skills through workshops and an annual Old House Expo. Sharon received her master’s degree in historic preservation from Eastern Michigan University in 1994 and worked as a consultant on a wide variety of projects including Study Committee reports for a historic district in Ann Arbor, Michigan, forensic investigation of an 1850s home in Adventist Village Battle Creek Michigan and various highway projects.
Email: pastmaster1014@gmail.com