The Wildwood Inn (1913—c.1925)

Lulu M. and Iza Bell Smith, sisters born in Pennsylvania circa 1875 and 1877 respectively, moved with their parents to Michigan around the turn of the century and by 1910 were living with them in north Lansing. In 1913, the “Misses Smith” opened the Wildwood Tea Room in the newly completed apartment building of the same name located on the northeast corner of Abbot Road and Albert Avenue. Serving lunches and dinners, they quickly built a reputation for delicious, quality meals at fair prices. They also catered to private parties such as alumni luncheons and society (fraternity) banquets.[US Census (1910). MAC Record, 19(4), 21 Oct 1913, p. 2]

In March 1918, the Smith sisters had an opportunity to take over the operation of one of their main competitors, the College Cafe on Grand River Avenue, when its proprietor Edwin Higgs left to become the steward of the Kerns Hotel in downtown Lansing.* Although the M.A.C. Record says they “purchased the College Cafe,” it seems that the arrangement was not an outright sale because only a year later, Higgs returned and took over the business again.[MAC Record, 23(26), 29 Mar 1918, p. 9; 24(2), 11 Oct 1918, p. 2; 24(26), 18 Apr 1919, p. 3]

From October 1918 to September 1919, this little advertisement appeared weekly in the M.A.C. Record. After April 1919 it was erroneously directing the Wildwood’s potential customers to Higgs’ cafe instead. An updated ad never ran. Image Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

Undaunted, Lulu and Iza Bell immediately reopened and expanded their own business, putting the “Wildwood Cafe” into the east half of the Dickson block (see C. M. Dickson) at 322 Grand River and the “Wildwood Tea Rooms” next door at 324 Grand River, the house known today as the Rugg house. (The city renumbering in 1920 changed these addresses to 139 and 201 East Grand River, respectively.) The tea rooms only lasted a year or two before their house was moved to Grove Street, but the Wildwood Cafe remained a very popular spot, both for regular meal service and for private parties.[LCD (1919), p. 869. MAC Record, 24(26), 18 Apr 1919, p. 3; 25(13), 19 Dec 1919, p. 3]

This was the heyday of locally owned M.A.C. eateries. Williams Hall had burned, Abbot Hall had become women’s housing again, and eighty percent of the male student body was living off-campus and “eating at such places as the Wildwood Cafeteria, Ed Higgs’ College Cafe, or the College Drug.” Any restaurant putting out decent fare in the vicinity of the College should have realized a booming business, and the Wildwood was no exception; “they built up a terrific business there because they ran a really good cafeteria.” But in 1922, thanks to some simple miscalculations—and a savvy competitor—it all went wrong for the Smith sisters.[Kuhn, p. 325. Charles Washburn, quoted in Kestenbaum, p. 140]

As mentioned, the Rugg house was moved from its Grand River Avenue site around 1921. This cleared the way for a new commercial block built by developer James A. Hicks. The two-story building, addressed as 201–209 East Grand River, had five retail spaces at street level with apartments above. Hicks fitted out two of the apartments as a restaurant space and talked the Smiths into moving their business, renamed as the “Wildwood Inn,” upstairs in late March 1922.

Today the Hicks building is gone (aside from a small addition built 1923 at 211 East Grand River), demolished in late 2017 for the Center City development. That project name is so appropriate for the locale, it is almost hard to imagine that a century ago the 200 block of East Grand River was considered to be the “outskirts” of the commercial district. Most businesses were massed near the corner of Abbot Road. Beyond M.A.C. Avenue, less than half a block east of the Hicks building, Grand River Avenue was almost completely residential.[Sanborn (1926), pp. 268–273]

J. A. Hicks Block and other buildings on East Grand River Avenue, 1924.* Captioned as “The Outskirts of Town” in Miller, p. 56, although the city limits were several blocks further east of here. The sign for the Wildwood Inn, touting “cafeteria & table service,” is third from left. Also shown are the interurban tracks looking worn in their last years of operation, the Elms in their prime, and of course the odd sight of parking along Grand River Avenue. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

The Smith sisters might have gotten a good lease price from James Hicks, but they must not have factored in the lesser quality of the location, down the street and up the stairs. Moreover, they made two fateful mistakes with their move. First, they transfered into the Hicks block during the term break, when few of their usual customers were around to take notice. Second and worse, “they weren’t sharp enough to retain their old lease until they found out how the upstairs restaurant would go.”

As soon as the Smiths moved out—in fact, during that very same term break in March 1922—another pair of sisters, Ada and Clara Hunt, moved into the Wildwood’s old space at 139 East Grand River and opened the Hunt Food Shop. According to Charles Washburn, who operated a cigar shop and billiard hall in the Hicks building, when students and staff returned to campus in early April for the spring term, they:

walked right in the old place and didn’t bother to climb the stairs to the Smith sisters’ upstairs restaurant. The new Hunt Food Shop had awfully good food, and the result was that the Smith sisters were out of business inside a year. And the Hunt Food Shop went on to become one of the most famous restaurants anywhere around here.[MAC Record, 27(24), 7 Apr 1922, p. 3. Charles Washburn, quoted in Kestenbaum, pp. 140–141]

“Inside a year” is a bit of an overstatement—for example the honorary veterinary fraternity, Alpha Psi, held their initiation banquet at the Wildwood in February 1925, three years after the move. However this is the last mention of the cafe in the usual sources, and its closure was not recorded. The Wildwood Inn is listed in the 1925 Lansing City Directory, which seems to have been published around mid-year, but that entry might be a leftover in need of an update. It was definitely not around for much longer than that. By 1927 the Wildwood Inn was gone from East Lansing, and so were the Misses Smith.[LSJ, 13 Feb 1925, p. 21. LCD (1925), pp. 635, 636, 770; (1927), p. 825]

By 1930 both sisters were living in Pasadena, California, and employed as live-in housekeepers in different private homes. They continued to work as such into at least their sixties, later sharing an apartment in a rooming house. Lulu died in 1947 at age 73. Iza Bell returned to Michigan, died in 1958 at age 81, and was interred alongside her parents at Mount Hope Cemetery.[US Census (1930, 1940). Pasadena Independent, 2 Jan 1948, p. 39. Detroit Free Press, 6 Nov 1958, p. 30]

Sadly, their business acumen was not as proficient as their cooking, and today the Smith sisters are a mere footnote in East Lansing history. Thanks to a few minor missteps—first taking a year-long hiatus from the Wildwood name, then later moving just a little too far off the beaten path, inadvertently making their move in secret, and worst of all leaving the door open for the competition—their popular establishment never reached anywhere near its potential. But for about a dozen years, Lulu and Iza Bell Smith kept the bellies of the Michigan Agricultural College well fed.