Hubbard name may be cut from civic center ballroom
The prominence across the city of former Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard, whose legacy as the longest-serving mayor is tainted by his racist views, will be up for vote during the Dearborn City Council meeting Tuesday.
In a quest to remove the Hubbard name from all city properties, the council will vote to remove the name from the Hubbard Ballroom in the city’s civic center, the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center. The ballroom, which holds up to 800 guests, is available for rent for weddings and family functions and is typically used for banquets and other city events.
The council will vote on whether to change the name in favor of another politician who oversaw the end of the Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln.
“The thinking is that it would evoke the ideals that President Lincoln represents, and also that it would reflect the heightened sense of luxury that the Lincoln name represents,” city spokeswoman Mary Laundroche said in an email Monday. Recent renovations to the ballroom give the space a more elegant feel, she said.
While the center is owned by the city, naming rights were given to the Ford Motor Co. because of a “generous” donation before the center opened in 2001, Laundroche said. There is also a connection with the Lincoln name because it is the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center.
Wayne Circuit Court Judge Susan Hubbard, the granddaughter of Orville Hubbard who often acts as the family’s spokesperson, did not respond to Free Press request for comment.
This is the second move to erase the former mayor, who served from 1942 to ’78, from public city spaces. A smiling and waving statue of Hubbard was taken down in June from its place in front of the Dearborn Historical Museum, where it was placed in 2015 from its
previous spot in front of the former City Hall.
Activists and city officials said the statue, which stood for more than 30 years, posed as a reminder of the city’s history of exclusion of minorities, particularly African Americans.
Councilwoman Erin Byrnes, who is heading the committee undertaking this initiative, did not respond to a Free Press request for an interview.
“We are looking at that space to ensure that the name on the space is something that reflects where the city is today, what our values are and our goal to be an inclusive and welcoming city,” Byrnes said in June.
The Dearborn City Council
7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
will meet
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