Gov. Wilber M. Brucker House, 621 M.A.C. Ave.(c. 1923 – c. 1999)

Wilber Marion Brucker (1894–1968) was Attorney General of Michigan 1928–1930 and Governor 1931–1932, during which time he resided at 621 M.A.C. Avenue. While he served the State, his wife Clara Hantel Brucker (1892–1980) attended the College, earning a B.A. in Liberal Arts in 1930 and an M.A. in History and Political Science in 1932. (She also appears to have pledged Alpha Chi Omega sorority in 1930, which is intriguing given that she was not your typical sorority member: in her mid-thirties, married, and with a four-year-old child.)¹

After leaving office Wilber Brucker had a lengthy career with a Detroit law firm, with one hiatus when he was appointed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Secretary of the U.S. Army, 1955–1961. During his administration the Army saw many technological advancements and launched the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1.

The house at 621 M.A.C. was one of three^† former homes of Michigan Governors listed as a significant structure by the East Lansing Historic Commission. In the 1990s it was owned by the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, which wanted to use the land to expand the parking lot of its chapter house next door. Efforts were made by the City to obtain $45,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to acquire a vacant lot (preferably in the Bailey neighborhood), relocate and rehabilitate the house, and resell it as part of a short-lived “Single Family Purchase Program for Handicappers.” This project never came to fruition and ultimately the house was demolished.²

1. Minutes, 7 Jun 1930, p. 880; 1 Jun 1932, p. 1006. Wolverine (1930), p. 288. ↩︎
2. LSJ, 4 Aug 1994, p. 25. ↩︎

1. † Editorial: Unlike the other “governor’s houses” noted as Significant Structures by the historic commission—those of Wilber Brucker and George Romney—numerous sources concur that the house at 415 Clifton Boulevard was not Murray Van Wagoner’s residence during his term as governor. In fact, this author has not managed to find a single contemporary source to confirm that he ever even lived there. Under these circumstances, to call it the “Governor Van Wagoner house” is, at best, misleading and anachronistic.↩︎