{"id":1397,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2024-04-26T20:16:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:16:41","slug":"vanwagoner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/vanwagoner\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Murray D. Van Wagoner House, 415 Clifton Blvd. (1925)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Van Wagoner House, July 2004. Photo by Kevin S. Forsyth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Murray Delos Van Wagoner (1898\u20131986) was a civil engineer and state highway commissioner before serving one two-year term as Governor of Michigan, 1941\u20131942. He enacted legislation establishing the Michigan State Safety Commission \u201cto promote greater traffic safety on public roadways.\u201d In return, the headquarters of the Michigan Department of Transportation in the state capitol complex is named for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not clear when, if ever, Van Wagoner lived in this house, but when it comes to transportation history another former occupant is arguably at least as notable as the ex-governor. From no later than 1938 to about 1965, the house was owned by George P. and Lillian M. Ritts.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Paul Ritts (1895\u20131968) was a research engineer for Oldsmobile when he lived here, but prior to that Ritts lived in Auburn, Indiana, where he worked on the engineering team that developed the innovative Cord 810 luxury car. Among his contributions Ritts is credited with the simple but effective idea of adding holes to the Cord\u2019s distinctive hubcaps to provide much-needed cooling ventilation to the brake drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A 1936 Cord 812 convertible, showing off its innovative hidden headlights, chrome supercharger pipes, and Ritts\u2019 ventilated hubcaps.\u00a0Auburn\u2013Cord\u2013Duesenberg Museum<\/a>, October 2015. Photo by Kevin S. Forsyth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ritts was also one of a trio, along with Auburn chief engineer George Kublin and fellow engineer Stanley R. Thomas, who in July\u2013August 1935 drove a 4-door prototype Cord 810 \u201con its initial shakedown cruise all the way to Los Angeles so that E.\u00a0L. Cord could have a look at it,\u201d then drove it back to Indiana to incorporate the founder\u2019s notes and lessons learned on the trip.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cord automobile was only produced for two years but was, in many ways, well ahead of its time. George Ritts was an important part of this history and deserved to be remembered for that. Unfortunately his obituary in 1968 claimed other automotive innovations \u201cpioneered by Mr. Ritts include windshield wipers, thermostatically controlled heat, air conditioning and many others,\u201d all of which can be easily refuted.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial: Unlike the other \u201cgovernor\u2019s houses\u201d noted as\u00a0Significant Structures<\/a>\u00a0by the historic commission\u2014those of\u00a0Wilber Brucker<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0George Romney<\/a>\u2014numerous sources\u00a0concur that this was not Murray Van Wagoner\u2019s residence during his term as governor. Therefore to call it the \u201cGovernor Van Wagoner house\u201d is, at best, misleading and anachronistic.<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. Lansing City Directory (1938), p.\u00a0443. Lowell Ledger, 15\u00a0Aug\u00a01968, p.\u00a021. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Coachbuilt.com<\/a>. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Lowell Ledger, 15\u00a0Aug\u00a01968, p.\u00a021. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Murray Delos Van Wagoner (1898\u20131986) was a civil engineer and state highway commissioner before serving one two-year term as Governor of Michigan, 1941\u20131942. He enacted legislation establishing the Michigan State Safety Commission \u201cto promote greater traffic safety on public roadways.\u201d In return, the headquarters of the Michigan Department of Transportation in the state capitol complex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Lansing City Directory (1938), p.\u00a0443. Lowell Ledger, 15\u00a0Aug\u00a01968, p.\u00a021.\",\"id\":\"051a7735-40dd-4875-ba7a-4cc127e2dd18\"},{\"content\":\"Coachbuilt.com<\/a>.\",\"id\":\"9dd049fc-7f6d-4daf-8b6c-2105485f512b\"},{\"content\":\"Lowell Ledger, 15\u00a0Aug\u00a01968, p.\u00a021.\",\"id\":\"5520690f-e908-409c-8a08-694c566066e5\"}]"},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-significant-structures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}