The interior of the Wright House is pictured.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is featured in the Spring 2025 edition of The Tartan magazine. Read more from The Tartan at alma.edu/tartan.
Over the past year, a group of dedicated volunteers have taken to saving the home of the city of Alma’s — and Alma College’s — namesake, Ammi Wright.
Students of Alma College can now count themselves among those volunteers, as classroom studies have been integrated with a restoration effort that has become well known city-wide.
This past fall, Andrew Sellers’ marketing class divided into groups and dedicated the entire term to creating sustainability plans that would allow the Wright House to not only survive following its restoration, but to thrive — either as a museum, an event space, a retail antique shop or other options that prove to be economically viable.
“We use a work-based learning model, which provides students with opportunities to apply their academic and technical skills to real-life applications,” Sellers said. “It’s exciting for these upper-level business and marketing students to take the theories they’ve studied and put them to use in a way that benefits the community around them.”
Previously, Sellers said, students in marketing worked with an energy-drink manufacturer, and in the future, they intend to work with other companies. All of the students’ projects are rooted in business and marketing theory. They make use of a “SWOT analysis,” which is a decision- making technique that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization or project.
“The client that you’re working with might change, but the steps still remain the same,” Sellers said. “Our students are going into every meeting asking questions like, ‘How is this business going to operate? What will it cost?’”
Pat Benson is a member of the nonprofit Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society (GCHGS) and one of the principal coordinators of the Wright House restoration project. She explained that the house was built for the family of Wright, a pivotal figure in Michigan’s lumber industry and one of the early industrial leaders in the history of mid-Michigan. It served that purpose for many years, Benson said, before being sold and converted into other uses.
However, the house has sat vacant for many years and fallen into disrepair. Many efforts have been made to restore it; however in 2024 one idea finally struck a chord with the community. Since then, volunteers have been hard at work to ensure its viability for years to come.
“We believe it’s going to cost around $40,000 annually in order to simply keep the lights on in this house,” Benson said. “So, we were faced with the question, ‘How do we raise that money? What does the community want to see in this space, and what will they pay money for?’”
To answer those questions, the volunteers turned to Alma College students. Sellers’ class visited the Wright House on multiple occasions and spoke with volunteers to get a better understanding of the project. They pitched their ideas at the end of the term, and the nonprofit group is weighing its options moving forward.
“All of the students we’ve worked with have wowed us with their professionalism,” Benson said. “They are organized, articulate and interested. They ask specific questions. It’s exciting for us to make these decisions, because we know they are coming from a place of passion and expertise.”
Cohen Schroeder, an economics major from Westphalia, Mich., said he could imagine a future in which he returns to Alma College for homecoming after graduation and visits the Wright House, to ruminate on the impact that he made as a student.
“I plan to do this type of work after I leave Alma, so to have an opportunity to get some practice in the real world, before I graduate, is really valuable,” Schroeder said. “I’m grateful for that, as well as being able to contribute to this great project.”
What is the Wright House?
- Constructed in 1886-87 at 503 N. State St., lumber baron Ammi Wright and his second wife, Anna Case, moved in in 1888. The house was considered advanced for its time, in part due to having its own hot water system. Its grandeur includes seven ornately carved fireplaces, stained-glass windows and beautiful wood floors and doors.
- Owned by the Wright family until 1934, when it was converted to Smith Memorial Hospital.
- More than 7,000 babies were born there before the hospital became Northwood Institute (now Northwood University, in Midland, Mich.) in 1959.
- In February 2024, it was purchased by the Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society with the intent of restoring the house to its former glory.
— Information provided by the Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society
