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Emery Houses

historic houses in Lansing, Michigan, USA

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ55886762
Source-derived summary

The Emery Houses are two duplexes located at 320–322 and 326–328 West Ottawa Street in Lansing, Michigan, United States. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The structure at 320–322 West Ottawa is significant due to its association with Populist activist Sarah E. Van De Vort Emery, a well-known public speaker and writer of the 1880s and 1890s.

History

The land on which these houses sit was purchased in 1885 by Sarah Emery and her son Archibald. The two houses were likely built on the lots in 1888 and 1889. Archibald Emery lived in the unit 328 from 1888 to 1894, and sold the entire structure to W. H. Bosley in 1902. Sarah Emery and her husband Wesley lived in unit 320 from about 1889 to about 1891. In 1891, one half of the duplex was sold, with the Emerys retaining the other half. Sarah Emery died in 1895, and her estate sold the remaining house to Mrs. Cora Murray in 1900.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Emery Houses” as historic houses in Lansing, Michigan, USA. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1993, 1885, 1888, 1889—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Emery, Houses and historic can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as historic houses in Lansing, Michigan, USA. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q55886762. Authority coordinates are 42.735, -84.557. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1993, 1885, 1888 and 1889.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Emery Houses”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Emery Houses primary sources, Emery Houses archive and Emery research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Emery Houses” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.