Brooks’ Addition to College Delta (1899)

Charles S. Brooks was foreman of the M.A.C. Experiment Station poultry department from April 1895 to June 1899. In this capacity he published a bulletin on his poultry experiments that was “quite comprehensive,” received recognition for substantial improvements in the College’s breeding stock, and traveled extensively to represent the College at poultry shows across the state.¹

A widower, in 1896 he married his second wife Hannah McKenzie. At some point he acquired the land between Collegeville and the Delta, and with the lots of College Delta selling quickly, in April 1899 Brooks platted this addition. It consisted of twenty-three lots—including Lot 1, a wide strip along the east edge that Brooks reserved for himself—and three new streets: Louis Street, named for Charles’ son Louis C. Brooks (M.A.C. ’92);^† Empire Street, renamed Elm Place in 1910; and Prospect Street, which was changed to Oak Hill Avenue following the creation of College Heights, and later became Hillcrest Drive.²

The plat aimed to fulfill an unmet demand that was partly caused by the recently extended streetcar line, and the M.A.C. Record published an article touting it as “a desirable location for a suburban home.” A couple of lots along Michigan Avenue sold quickly. The Record article claimed Brooks would “use some discretion in selling,” but that soon turned out not to be the case—when his employment contract with the College expired at the end of June 1899, Charles and Hannah Brooks moved to Saginaw to be near her family, and in September they sold all but one of the remaining lots to Martha A. Wright, a local landowner.³

Mrs. Wright asked the College to connect Brooks’ Addition with its water and electric light systems, but the Board seems to have tabled this request without action. By 1901, title had transferred to Martha’s daughter and son-in-law, William and Mary E. Champe. The Champes sold the north portion of Lot 1 to the school district later that year for the site of Central School, and gradually sold off the rest of the lots.⁴

There are a few houses on Brooks’ Addition that are notable but did not make the list of Landmark and Significant Structures. One of these is 117 Louis Street, which according to city records was built in 1896. Its early residents have been difficult to determine; in 1908 Mary Champe sold the house to deputy sheriff Noah A. Snyder and his wife Ida.⁵

Two others are 334 and 404 Michigan Avenue, built 1908 and 1912 respectively. These substantial frame houses have both served for more than a century as rooming houses, the former also having been the original home of the Delta Club. They have survived untold numbers of student residents and are now used as fraternity houses.

C. M. Krentel House, 322 Elm Place (1906)
Central School, 325 W. Grand River Ave. (1917) SR/NR

Next: Oakwood

1. MAC Record, 3(37), 31 May 1898, p. 1; 4(14), 13 Dec 1898, p. 1. ↩︎
2. LSR, 15 Jan 1896, p. 1; 10 Sep 1910, p. 6. Sanborn (1926), p. 276. Newman (1915). ↩︎
3. MAC Record, 4(34), 9 May 1899, p. 3. LSR, 8 Sep 1899, p. 3. LSJ, 26 Apr 1912, p. 7. ↩︎
4. Minutes, 26 Sep 1899, p. 346. LJ, 29 Aug 1901, p. 2. LSR, 1 Oct 1901, p. 1. ↩︎
5. LSR, 15 Jan 1896, p. 1. MAC Record, 5(3), 26 Sep 1899, p. 1]. ↩︎

1. † Platted as a cul-de-sac, Newman’s 1915 map shows Louis Street as a through street to Grand River Avenue. No other map concurs.↩︎