{"id":1810,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2025-11-20T14:26:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T14:26:44","slug":"woodbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/woodbury\/","title":{"rendered":"C. D. Woodbury House, 415 M.A.C. Ave. (1903)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
C. D. Woodbury House, November 2003. Photo by Kevin S. Forsyth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chester D. Woodbury was a Lansing businessman and one of the developers of the Oakwood<\/a> subdivision. When Woodbury and his wife May lived in this residence, it was located at 292 Grand River Avenue (later renumbered to 110 West Grand River), on a double lot between Abbot Road and Evergreen Avenue. It was designed by noted Lansing architect Darius B. Moon, one of three homes designed by Moon for the Woodburys.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1911, the Woodburys sold the house to the Hesperian Society, a local fraternity<\/a>, which used it until 1926, when it was sold to the East Lansing Development Corporation<\/a> so that the site could be redeveloped as the Abbott commercial building and State Theatre<\/a>. The house was moved to 323 Ann Street where it was renamed \u201cThe Eldon\u201d and used as a women\u2019s dormitory annex until the construction of Mary Mayo Hall on campus in 1931. In 1948, it became Howland House, an independent student cooperative.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1983, the former Woodbury house was again in the path of redevelopment\u2014this time on the large lot bordered by M.A.C. and Albert Avenues, Ann and Charles Streets, now the University Place hotel complex. Preservation advocates proposed relocating it, but skeptics doubted that such a large structure could be moved, and demolition seemed likely. Fortunately, the historical record showed that the house had already been relocated once before, and it was moved to its present location at 415 M.A.C. Avenue on Monday, August 1, 1983. Its neighbor, the gambrel-roofed 427 M.A.C. (visible on the right in the above photograph), had been moved from 343 Albert two weeks earlier.†<\/a><\/sup> 3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an aside: 343 Albert Avenue, built 1930 as the Fleck Apartments and used since the 1950s as a fraternity house, was in the late-\u201960s the home of the New Community student co-op, which at the time was a haven for students espousing progressive (and sometimes radical) social change. Among the contributions of its members were the formation of the\u00a0Student Housing Cooperative<\/a>, and what is now the oldest operating crisis center in the nation,\u00a0The Listening Ear<\/a>. The building, now at 427 M.A.C. and currently a fraternity house, arguably has significance in East Lansing history, but is not listed among its\u00a0Significant Structures<\/a>.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Woodbury house stood in Oakwood<\/a>, it was even more dramatic and decorative than it is today. A wraparound porch extended partway down the right-side elevation, capped by a small second-floor porch. The main porch had siding that flared at its base on all sides and echoed the flared edges that may still be seen along the eaves and between the first and second floor. The porch was truncated long before the house arrived on M.A.C. Avenue. In addition, the first floor of the house originally had a brick veneer, rather than the wood siding seen today; this appears to have changed during the 1926 move to Ann Street. Iron cresting with finials at each gable end, a typical Darius Moon decorative touch, have also been lost.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hesperian Society House, formerly the Woodbury House, circa 1913. Note the porch extension, roofline details, and finials. Image source: Beal<\/a>, p. 198.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, many of its most distinctive elements remain: a curved bay window that extends through the eave to a similarly shaped dormer, \u201cwhich gives the illusion of a tower, especially since the dormer is covered by a false conical roof;\u201d a recessed third-floor porch in the gable, now facing south; and the oval window in the front fa\u00e7ade, similar to those Moon used on the lamented and long-demolished R. E. Olds<\/a> mansion. Even in its modified state, and after more than a century as student housing, the house remains \u201cone of the architectural ornaments of East Lansing.\u201d6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today this house is one of the last examples of several large, stately homes built in East Lansing in the first decade of the twentieth century. It also is a rare existing design by the prolific Darius Moon, on a list of his surviving buildings that is now altogether too short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The C. D. Woodbury House is listed on the state historic register and is an East Lansing Landmark Structure<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. MacLean<\/a>, pp.\u00a0243\u2013245. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Towar<\/a>, p.\u00a045. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. LSJ<\/a>,\u00a018 Jul 1983, p. 10; 2 Aug 1983, p. 1. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  4. LCD<\/a>\u00a0(1931) p.\u00a0784. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  5. Sanborn<\/a>\u00a0(1913) vol.\u00a01, p.\u00a0105; (1951) vol.\u00a02, p.\u00a0268. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  6. MacLean<\/a>, pp.\u00a0243\u2013245. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>
    1. † Note: This site had long stated that the houses were moved in 1984, and on the same day. That information came from Landmark Walking Tour<\/em>, a 1991 pamphlet published by the East Lansing Historic Commission\u2014which has since proven to contain multiple inaccuracies.\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Chester D. Woodbury was a Lansing businessman and one of the developers of the Oakwood subdivision. When Woodbury and his wife May lived in this residence, it was located at 292 Grand River Avenue (later renumbered to 110 West Grand River), on a double lot between Abbot Road and Evergreen Avenue. It was designed by […]<\/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\":\"MacLean<\/a>, pp.\u00a0243\u2013245.\",\"id\":\"0350f645-6b9d-4a64-838a-fa4fde41f681\"},{\"content\":\"Towar<\/a>, p.\u00a045.\",\"id\":\"d1a20b0c-b9e0-4c85-b9c9-66c0b955d478\"},{\"content\":\"LSJ<\/a>,\u00a018 Jul 1983, p. 10; 2 Aug 1983, p. 1.\",\"id\":\"7acc09cc-903a-4b68-948d-31ef90dd4890\"},{\"content\":\"LCD<\/a>\u00a0(1931) p.\u00a0784.\",\"id\":\"bad7db06-a6e5-4787-b12c-fbd71324ea3f\"},{\"content\":\"Sanborn<\/a>\u00a0(1913) vol.\u00a01, p.\u00a0105; (1951) vol.\u00a02, p.\u00a0268.\",\"id\":\"cc2b2c80-ec2e-42bc-83a3-cf23fea5c87a\"},{\"content\":\"MacLean<\/a>, pp.\u00a0243\u2013245.\",\"id\":\"27d66e26-bcd4-4a05-8518-d6a396a9d1f9\"}]"},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landmark-structures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810","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=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5230,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/5230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}