Johnson W. Hagadorn house (1905—1972)

House built for J. W. Hagadorn, date unknown. Although this photo was used in the 1925 yearbook as illustration for the Kappa Delta sorority (formerly the Letonian society), evidence suggests that it was taken while the house still stood on Grand River Avenue, prior to its move in 1917. Photo Credit: Wolverine (1925), p. 192.

Johnson W. Hagadorn, M.D. (1839–1910) was born near South Lyon, in Oakland County. He attended the State Normal School at Ypsilanti followed by the University at Ann Arbor, where he received his M.D. in 1870. After arriving at Lansing in 1873 he opened a practice and pharmacy with his brother Alexander, who was a physician as well. J. W. Hagadorn practiced medicine for more than 35 years and was regarded as “a leading physician of Lansing.” According to his obituary “Dr. Hagadorn also ran a large [seventy-acre] farm east of the city on which he raised many fine horses of which he was always a lover.” It was located on the east side of the road that now bears his name, straddling Grand River Avenue; today north of the avenue it is the Brookfield subdivision (Oakland and Maplewood Drives, and Roseland Avenue), and to the south it is the site of several apartment complexes between Hagadorn Road and Northwind Drive, as well as the Lauzun house.[LSJ, 23 Aug 1912, p. 5. Chadwick, p 1]

In 1899 Dr. Hagadorn joined Chester D. Woodbury, Judge Edward Cahill, and Arthur C. Bird in the development of Oakwood. Along with Woodbury and Bird, he constructed a large, comfortable house facing Grand River Avenue. Hagadorn’s house, completed in 1905, was on the northwest corner at Evergreen Avenue. As with Woodbury’s house across the street, it was designed by famed Lansing architect Darius B. Moon.[MacLean, pp. 249–252]

Although Towar claims that he “lived there for several years,” this author has found no other indication that Dr. Hagadorn ever lived in this house. Weekly advertisements in the M.A.C. Record and listings in the Lansing City Directory from the time of this house’s construction until Hagadorn’s death in 1910 all list his home address as 219 Capitol Avenue in Lansing (later renumbered to 225 South Capitol). His offices at 212 South Washington were conveniently located almost in his back yard, just five doors up, across an alley.[Towar, p. 45. MAC Record, 12(1) 18 Sep 1906, p. 4. LCD (1910) p. 318]

In fact, shortly after completion of the house in 1905 the Hesperian Society, having lost its meeting room and most of its members’ dormitory rooms in the Wells Hall fire, rented “the new house completed for Dr. Hagadorn,” “on the northwest corner of Grand River Avenue and Evergreen Avenue, becoming the first fraternity house in East Lansing.”[Towar, p. 45. MacLean, pp. 249–251. ELHC Final Report (2008), pp. 6–7]

Therefore it is this author’s contention that the house in Oakwood was built as a model home to attract buyers to the new subdivision, rather than as a residence for Hagadorn himself. His fellow developers who also built on that prime frontage, Bird and Woodbury, may have lived in their houses for a while, but their brief residencies there—eight years at most—suggest that these too were mainly to make the development look lived-in. If so, the ploy worked: by 1915 Oakwood was substantially sold, and more recent additions adjacent to it (College Heights, Bungalow Knolls, and Oakwood’s replatted Lots 83 and 84) quickly filled in.[Newman, 1915]

In 1911 Dr. Hagadorn’s widow Dora sold the house to Anson Crosby Anderson (M.A.C. ’06, Professor of Dairy Husbandry 1910–1920), which precipitated the Hesperians’ purchase of the Woodbury house across the street. (For more context on this move and the controversy surrounding it, see The Society Houses.) Anderson and his family lived in the house for about five years, marking the only extended period of time that this house appears to have been occupied by a sole owner.

The East Lansing State Bank was founded in 1916 and began operating from a rented storefront on Abbot Avenue, but its board of directors soon created an “East Lansing Development Corporation” for the purpose of building a more permanent home for the bank. Professor Anderson, one of the directors, transferred his property to the ELDC so it could erect the new bank building on the site. To accommodate this construction, in 1917 the house was moved to the rear of the lot, where it became 319 Evergreen. This changed to 215 Evergreen in the City’s 1920 renumbering. (The ELDC was dissolved circa 1921; five years later, the bank formed another ELDC to build a new bank block and multi-use commercial building, including theatre, known as “The Abbott.”)[LSJ, 7 Mar 1917, p. 1]

In 1920 the former Hagadorn and Anderson house, now facing the curve of Evergreen Avenue (Albert Avenue was not extended until 1953), was leased to the College to become a women’s dormitory. This was the start of more than five decades as various forms of student housing:

• 1920–1923: a dormitory for women students called “Waterbury House.”*
• 1923–1931: Letonian, a local student society for women. In 1924 Letonian was installed as a chapter of the Kappa Delta national sorority.*
• 1932–1946: A rooming house called “Evergreen Manor” that was variously rented, including as the first listed home of newly formed Farm House fraternity (1935).
• 1946–1949: The first home of Pi Beta Phi, a newly chartered sorority.
• 1949–1965: Asher House for Men, a cooperative for Christian Science students.[LCD (1922) p. 861, et al. LSJ, 17 Sep 1965, p. 20]

Asher House for Men, circa 1961. The original porch has been replaced by one with dramatically tall, yet decoratively plain, two-story columns. Photo Credit: Wolverine 1961, p. 359.

In its last couple of years (1970–1972), the house at 215 Evergreen was rented by the Student Housing Cooperative and populated as Eleutheria. It was destroyed by fire on June 6, 1972. The blaze, caused by an improperly disconnected 220-volt range wire, spread through the building in five minutes, injuring three residents and two firefighters; East Lansing Fire Chief Arthur P. Patriarche said, “it’s a miracle they got out.” A restaurant later occupied part of the site. Now it is the location of the Graduate Hotel, which opened in 2021.[LSJ, 27 Aug 1972, p. 17. State News, 1 Sep 1972, p. 8. Kestenbaum, pp. 10, 21]

Former J. W. Hagadorn house, shortly after the destructive fire of 6 June 1972.
View from Albert Avenue west, with the Peoples Church addition and bell tower in the background (and a 1971 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser in the foreground).
Photo Credit: Lawrence Kestenbaum, reprinted in Kestenbaum, p. 10.