Introduction

Origins

The City

Collegeville (1887, 1895)
College Delta (1897, 1899)
Oakwood (1899)
Cedar Bank (1900)
College Grove (1903)
Fairview (1903, 1905)
College Heights (1904)

Charter of 1907

Avondale (1913)
Bungalow Knolls (1915)
Chesterfield Hills (1916)
Ardson Heights (1919)
Ridgely Park (1920)
Oak Ridge (1924)
Strathmore (1925)
Glen Cairn (1926)

The Campus

Chronology

1855–1870
1871–1885
1886–1900
1901–1915
1916–1927

 

Interactive Map

Sites on the National and State Historic Registers

Complete list of
Significant Structures

Sources

Collegeville to City

When the Agricultural College was founded in 1855, there “were but seven farmhouses in a two-mile radius from College Hall.” This scattered community was distant and independent from campus, and from the outset housing to support the college was a priority. The first faculty housing was a row of houses on campus along what is now West Circle Drive. As the college grew, the demand for faculty housing outpaced the school’s ability and space to build it. It was only a matter of time before speculative development began, across the road from the college on privately owned (or state-owned) farmland.[Kestenbaum, p. 48]

Two pre-1855 farmhouses are still standing, both in the Marble District that started out in Meridian Township (unincorporated) and is now within East Lansing city limits.

Bigelow–Kuhn–Thomas House, 334 N. Hagadorn (1849) SR
Sturges–Marble House, 690 N. Hagadorn (1849)

 

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