Robert S. Shaw House, 824 Longfellow Dr. (1940)

Shaw House, July 2004. Photo Credit: Kevin S. Forsyth.

Robert Sidey Shaw was born in Woodburn, Ontario on July 24, 1871, and joined the M.A.C. faculty in 1902 as Assistant Professor of Agriculture. By 1908 he had advanced to the dual appointment of Dean of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station. He served as acting President three times before officially taking that post in 1928.

R. S. Shaw, eleventh President of M.S.C. (1928–1941)
Photo Credit: MSU Archives.

During his tenure, he “instituted a major reorganization of the curriculum, established a graduate school,” and showed excellent foresight for the school’s later expansion by purchasing some 1,000 acres of land surrounding the college. In 1941 he retired to become President Emeritus, handing over the reins to his son-in-law, John A. Hannah, who had married Sarah May Shaw in 1938.[MSU Archives biography]

Shaw’s retirement home is a lovely Georgian Revival work that stands proudly on a knoll overlooking Shaw Estates, one of several subdivisions he platted (see also Glen Cairn). The streets of Shaw Estates are all named for famous nineteenth century poets and scholars: Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and William H. Prescott. Robert Shaw lived here until his death on February 7, 1953.