A Mission by History Loves Company
The Forever Home Project.
Restoring Michigan’s historic homes. Rebuilding lives through preservation, purpose, and hands-on work.
The Forever Home Project connects historic preservation with personal recovery by helping bring at-risk homes back to life while creating opportunities for people rebuilding their own.
The Mission
Every home has a story worth saving.
The Forever Home Project bridges two passions: historic preservation and personal recovery. We believe old homes can become more than restored structures. They can become training grounds, confidence builders, and proof that a second chance can still stand strong.
Each home we save represents a second chance — for the building, for the block, and for the people who help bring it back to life.
Why It Exists
Restoration is not only about buildings.
Michigan is filled with historic homes that still have life left in them — homes with original woodwork, front porches, old windows, worn floors, and stories that deserve more than demolition or neglect.
At the same time, there are people looking for purpose, structure, skill, and a path forward. The Forever Home Project exists at that intersection: saving homes while helping people rebuild pride in what they can create with their own hands.
Preserve
Historic Homes
Identify and support the restoration of vacant, neglected, or at-risk historic homes in Michigan communities.
Train
Hands-On Skills
Connect participants with real restoration work, practical skills, craftsmanship, and meaningful project experience.
Rebuild
Lives & Confidence
Create opportunities for people in recovery to build purpose, routine, confidence, and pride through work that matters.
Revive
Neighborhood Pride
Help return beauty, stability, and possibility to the blocks, neighborhoods, and communities these homes belong to.
Part of a Bigger Story
The Foundry. Downtown Pontiac. History Loves Company.
The Forever Home Project is one part of a larger mission to document, preserve, and celebrate the places and stories that make Michigan worth caring about. The Foundry in downtown Pontiac is where that mission lives in the physical world — a space you can visit, shop, and be part of.
How It Works
Four steps. Real impact.
The model is simple: find homes worth saving, connect the work to people who need purpose, fund the mission through community support, and document the impact as each project moves forward.
Step 01
Identify Homes Worth Saving
We identify vacant, neglected, or at-risk historic properties in Pontiac and other Michigan communities where restoration can make a visible difference.
Step 02
Partner With Recovery & Workforce Programs
We work toward partnerships that can train, support, and employ participants in hands-on restoration, repair, cleanup, and preservation-related work.
Step 03
Fund the Work Through Community Support
The project is supported through HLC purchases, donations, sponsorships, collaborations, and community-backed campaigns tied to specific restoration efforts.
Step 04
Restore Homes, Skills, and Pride
As homes are restored, the work creates visible neighborhood impact, hands-on experience, and a story of preservation people can follow and support.
Why It Matters
Purpose is the missing piece.
For many people in recovery, meaningful work can change everything. A home gives that work a shape. A project gives the day structure. A restored detail gives someone proof that their effort matters.
“When we restore homes, we restore people.”
How You Help
Every purchase helps move the mission forward.
A portion of History Loves Company sales supports The Forever Home Project. When you buy a print, a piece of apparel, an artifact, or a story-driven product, you are helping fund the work of preservation.
As projects are selected and partnerships are finalized, updates will be shared through History Loves Company, The Foundry, and the Stories We Keep newsletter.
Ways to Support
Help preserve what is still standing.
Shop HLC
Buy prints, apparel, artifacts, and products connected to Michigan history and preservation.
Sponsor a Project
Businesses, organizations, and community partners can help support future restoration efforts.
Share the Story
Follow along, share updates, and help bring more attention to homes and neighborhoods worth saving.
Be Part of the Work
Help us restore homes and rebuild lives.
The Forever Home Project is built on the belief that preservation can be practical, personal, and powerful. Every supporter helps move the mission forward.