Meadow Brook Hall - History

History

Meadow Brook Farms originally belonged to Matilda's first husband, automotive tycoon John F. Dodge. He purchased the property along with the large white farmhouse off of Adams Road as a holiday retreat for his family. John Dodge had three children with his first wife, Ivy Hawkins, and three with Matilda Rausch. He also built a nine hole golf course, of which some holes still follow the current Katke-Cousins 18 hole course, on the property. The mansion, located on South Adams Road amidst a 1,400-acre (5.7 km2) estate, is now part of Oakland University. Throughout her lifetime, Matilda actually resided in the hall for over forty years. Some of the family's time was spent away from the home on vacations in their summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine and winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona. The hall was also partially closed for a brief time during the worst part of the Depression.

Often referred to as one of America's "castles," the 110-room, 88,000-square-foot (8,200 m2) mansion is currently ranked sixth on the list of Largest Historic Homes in the United States., but is the third largest historic house museum. It was designed by William Kapp of the firm Smith Hinchman & Grylls in a Tudor-revival style and is European-inspired, however, most of the materials that were used to build the home were American-made. The playful Romanesque architectural sculpture that adorns the building was created by Corrado Parducci. Much of the original artwork collected by the Wilsons is still found at Meadow Brook including paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Rosa Bonheur, Joshua Reynolds, John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough and sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, and Herbert Haseltine. The home and the surrounding estate, known as Meadow Brook Farms, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and as of 2012, the estate is a National Historic Landmark. Landmark status is the highest honor a historic place in the United States can receive.

In 1957, Alfred and Matilda Dodge Wilson donated all of their estate to Michigan State University, including Meadow Brook Hall, Sunset Terrace, the Wilsons' retirement home, and all its other buildings and collections, along with $2 million to found Michigan State University-Oakland (now Oakland University). The Wilsons, who retained lifetime rights to the houses, lived in the Sunset Terrace home until Alfred's death in 1962. In 1963, Mrs. Wilson returned to Meadow Brook Hall and lived there until her death in 1967.