The Michigan home for the feeble-minded and epileptic, which will be located at Lapeer, if Hunter's Creek, which flows through that city and empties into Flint river, should prove to be adequate for the purposes of sewage, is likely to become one of the largest and most important of the public institutions of the state. In the opinion of the majority of the commissioners appointed by the Governor to locate the home, an abundance of pure water, adequate facilities for sewerage, a location free from malaria and so situated that large areas of adjoining farming lands can be secured in the future at moderate prices, are essential requirements.

Muskegon offered 500 acres of land as a gift, but the members of the Commission were ag?el that it was not of the quality required for the purposes of the home.

Saginaw offered the choice of two tracts of 80 acres of land each in different locations, but two members of the Commission thought both locations too flat, the possible water supply not such as the institution should have, and the market value of surrounding lands that it would be necessary to secure in the future too high. One member thought Saginaw entitled to the home and the objections of his colleagues not well founded.

Alma offered a site fairly well suited to the wants of the school, but the quantity of land to be donated was much less than that offered by the other places competing, with the exception of Saginaw.

Hudson offered 160 acres of land, and in nearly all respects the conditions required by the Commission were complied with. Hudson would have stood and equal chance in the race with Lapeer and Greenville except for the disadvantages of its location, in the extreme southern section of the state, in a county that now has one state institution, and with no direct north and south line of railroad. As Lapeer and Greenville quite as great advantages in every other way, Hudson's disadvantage of location practically ruled it out.

Greenville offered a larger donation of land than Lapeer, but not so satisfactory a location for the buildings of the institution. It was also the opinion of one member of the Commission who had examined the lands offered with more care than the other members, that they were light and not well suited for the kind of farming the home will carry on. In the proposition first laid before the Commission by the Greenville committee there was no offer of free water supply, but this was added before its final presentation.

It was the expressed opinion of two members of the Commission before the final vote was taken upon the location that if any section of the state had "claims" for the home that section was the Saginaw valley; and Commissioner Sherman said that if Saginaw had offered a site fulfilling the requirements of the home as he viewed them, he should have joined with Commissioner Sharp in voting to locate it there.

Commissioners Luce and Sherman were agreed that the choice lay between Greenville and Lapeer. Greenville offered more land, but not so good a site as Lapeer, while its railroad facilities were much inferior. Lapeer is on the two great systems of the state,—the Michigan Central and Chicago & Grand Trunk, and has an average of 16 passenger trains a day, while Greenville has but six. It is but 50 miles from the city of Detroit, with 300,000 inhabitants in the city and county, and is but 45 miles from Saginaw, the third most populous county in the state. Indeed, it may be asserted and proved that at least two-thirds the population of the state can reach Lapeer more speedily and cheaply than they can Greenville.

The questions then were, whether the stronger quality of the land offered by Lapeer, the more satisfactory site for the buildings and the advantages of its location should stand as an equivalent, or more, for the great quantity of land offered by Greenville, amounting to from 60 to 450 acres. Greenville offered 630 acres of land in one site, but the Commission were agreed, as in the case of the land offered at Muskegon, that the soil and the location were not suitable for the purposes of the home. Greenville's offer then presented the advantages of possibly twice the amount of land offered by Lapeer as a gift, some of which was of doubtful value. The margin of advantage between the two towns was very close, but Commissioners Luce and Sherman both thought Lapeer's advantages of location and railroad connections were in fact of more importance to the people of the state at large than the extra amount of land offered by Greenville, and this won the case for Lapeer. There is not the shadow of truth in the reports which have been current in some of the towns competing, to the effect that the location was settled from the first, or that official "influence" caused the selection of Lapeer. In fact Lapeer made no application until the secretary of the Commission wrote to the citizens of that place, as he did to citizens of Greenville, Eaton Rapids, Charlotte and other towns, suggesting that they put in bids.

But although a majority of the Commission have voted to locate the home at Lapeer conditionally, it is not as yet at all certain that it will go there. One member of the Commission is quite certain that the facilities for sewerage are inadequate, and the others are in doubt; and if there should be the least doubt upon this point after full investigation, some other location will be chosen.

The Times Herald (Port Huron, MI) Tuesday, 1 Dec 1893, page 2