Landon–May House, 243 W. Grand River Ave. (1902)

Landon–May House, February 1992. Photo Credit: Kevin S. Forsyth.

This house, the only surviving example of a dozen private residences which once stood on College Delta, might be more appropriately called the Bogue–Landon–May House. Its earliest known occupants were Ernest Everett Bogue (1864–1907, M.A.C.’s first Professor of Forestry) and his wife Myra. The Bogues only resided here for a few years before moving in 1905 to “a house near the river on what is now Bogue Street, which in those days was the edge of town.”[MAC Record, 11(2), 26 Sep 1905, p. 3. Kestenbaum, pp. 115–116]

Following the Bogues, this was the home of Dr. Herbert W. Landon and his wife Abby Dorothy (Sterling). The Landons had moved from Lansing to a house in Oakwood in 1903, when Dr. Landon was appointed by the College to be the only physician whose “certificate will be accepted by the military department to determine the capacity or incapacity of the men of the College to drill.” They moved to this house by 1906. During World War One, Dr. Landon was commissioned as a captain and served in an artillery regiment of the 85th Infantry Division. After the war the Landons settled in Monroe, Abby’s hometown.[MAC Record, 8(30), 21 Apr 1903, p. 3. LCD (1904), p. 238; (1916), p. 428. LSJ, 5 Apr 1919, p. 9]

By 1919 this house was owned by Ira and Wealtha May, retired farmers from Eaton County, who lived here with their four adult daughters. Their eldest Jessie was a clerk in the M.S.C. Athletic Department. Ira died in 1925 and Wealtha in 1931, but Jessie and her sister Nina continued to own and live in the house throughout their lives. Nina passed away at age 83 in 1976, when her house was one of just three remaining on College Delta. Since then the house has been used for a variety of commercial, professional, and rental purposes.[LCD (1919), p. 646. LSJ, 24 May 1976. Kestenbaum, p. 9]

Correction: A previous version of this page mistakenly attributed this house’s Landon name to Linda Landon.