{"id":1481,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2025-10-14T13:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:38:08","slug":"brucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/brucker\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Wilber M. Brucker House, 621 M.A.C. Ave.(c. 1923 \u2013 c. 1999)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Governor Wilber M. Brucker, circa 1930. Image source: WSU Library<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wilber Marion Brucker (1894\u20131968) was Attorney General of Michigan 1928\u20131930 and Governor 1931\u20131932, during which time he resided at 621 M.A.C. Avenue. While he served the State, his wife Clara Hantel Brucker (1892\u20131980) 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<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u20131961. During his administration the Army saw many technological advancements and launched the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The house at 621 M.A.C. was one of three†<\/a><\/sup> 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 \u201cSingle Family Purchase Program for Handicappers.\u201d This project never came to fruition and ultimately the house was demolished.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an aside, Wilber Brucker was also the namesake of one of the houses featured in the Lansing State Journal<\/em>‘s Home-Building Campaign of 1929\u20131931<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. Minutes<\/a>, 7\u00a0Jun\u00a01930, p.\u00a0880; 1\u00a0Jun\u00a01932, p.\u00a01006. Wolverine (1930), p.\u00a0288. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. LSJ<\/a>, 4\u00a0Aug\u00a01994, p.\u00a025. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>
    1. † Editorial: Unlike the other \u201cgovernor\u2019s houses\u201d noted as Significant Structures<\/a> by the historic commission\u2014those of Wilber Brucker<\/a> and George Romney<\/a>\u2014numerous sources concur that the house at 415 Clifton Boulevard<\/a> was not Murray Van Wagoner\u2019s 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 \u201cGovernor Van Wagoner house\u201d is, at best, misleading and anachronistic.\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Wilber Marion Brucker (1894\u20131968) was Attorney General of Michigan 1928\u20131930 and Governor 1931\u20131932, during which time he resided at 621 M.A.C. Avenue. While he served the State, his wife Clara Hantel Brucker (1892\u20131980) attended the College, earning a B.A. in Liberal Arts in 1930 and an M.A. in History and Political Science in 1932. (She […]<\/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\":\"Minutes<\/a>, 7\u00a0Jun\u00a01930, p.\u00a0880; 1\u00a0Jun\u00a01932, p.\u00a01006. Wolverine (1930), p.\u00a0288.\",\"id\":\"3f3bdb94-05da-4ceb-acd9-8b4a4dab55e2\"},{\"content\":\"LSJ<\/a>, 4\u00a0Aug\u00a01994, p.\u00a025.\",\"id\":\"80a62ce8-7e35-4a82-9ae7-99ee05ce29eb\"}]"},"categories":[10,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-losteastlansing","category-significant-structures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","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=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5191,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions\/5191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}