{"id":561,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=561"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:09:38","slug":"delta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/delta\/","title":{"rendered":"College Delta (1897)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Map by the author, based on Newman<\/a>, 1915.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cDelta\u201d—the triangular area of land extending west from the junction of Michigan and Grand River Avenues to just beyond Delta Street—was included as part of the original Agricultural College land purchased in 1855. At that time, Michigan Avenue\u2019s eastern end was at\u00a0Harrison Road<\/a>. When it was extended to Grand River Avenue in the mid-1860s,\u00a0the Delta (also known as the \u201cFlatiron\u201d) became isolated from the rest of campus. It was assigned to the Botany department in 1888 for use as an experimental garden, but with better proximity to the center of campus than\u00a0Collegeville<\/a>, the Delta soon became a prime candidate for faculty housing.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1897, the State Board of Agriculture was uninterested in further expansion of\u00a0Faculty Row<\/a>, and that year platted the site into \u201cCollege Delta.\u201d†<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Designed by civil engineer Fremont E. Skeels (M.A.C.\u00a0\u201978, Assistant Secretary to the Board 1897\u201398) it offered ten large lots at prices ranging from $110 to $150, with proceeds from the sale \u201cgoing towards the purchase of land for an athletic field on the south side of the river,\u201d now known as Old College Field. Water and sewer service were provided by the College, and housing quickly sprang up. Potential buyers were required to have \u201cconnection with college affairs,\u201d and were made to enter a contract \u201cto erect a residence costing not less than $800.\u201d (At the time, a professor\u2019s annual salary at M.A.C. was typically $1,800; assistant professors and instructors earned considerably less.) Burton O. Longyear (Instructor in Botany 1894\u20131904, later State Forester of Colorado) was the first to build, moving into his house on January 1, 1898. By September, five more houses were complete and two were in work.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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College Delta, circa 1900, view from campus facing north. Only two years after its platting, at least eight houses have already appeared on the Delta. Longyear\u2019s house is at far left. Image source: Chace Newman Family, reprinted in Kestenbaum<\/a>, p. 8.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because College Delta was intended for faculty housing, for several years the Board kept close tabs on its development and purchasers. An illustrative and surprisingly candid moment appears in the Minutes of the Board. Mrs. Olive Backus—who had previously operated the kitchen of\u00a0Abbot Hall<\/a>—purchased the lot at the Delta’s apex and built a boarding house there. She entered into an arrangement with the College to provide room and board for up to a dozen students of the\u00a0Women\u2019s Course<\/a>\u00a0which, just two years after its inception, had already exceeded the capacity of Abbot Hall. The \u201ccomfortable and attractive model students\u2019 home\u201d was ready by autumn 1898 and housed ten boarders that term, making Mrs. Backus \u201cthe first pioneer of East Lansing in that enterprise,\u201d according to Towar.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a year later, in the August 1899 board meeting Secretary A. C. Bird announced that Mrs. Backus was planning to build a store on her property as well. Bird admitted that she had an \u201cunquestionable\u201d legal right to do so, but since the Board\u2019s intent was that \u201cnothing of this kind should ever be done\u201d he suggested an unsubtle resolution: because the water and sewer services were being provided by the College with \u201cno written agreement entered into, it might be possible to prevent the execution of this building by suggesting to Mrs. Backus that water supply at least would be cut off from her premises.\u201d The Board gave President Snyder and Secretary Bird power to act, and although nothing further was ever mentioned (in the official record at least), no store was built—and by October, Olive Backus had returned to her hometown of Dansville.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former residence of Professor C. E. Marshall<\/a>, 224 Michigan Avenue, built 1898. After Marshall moved away in 1912 it was converted as a boarding house for faculty and staff, including the Delta Club<\/a>. In fall term 1920 it became the home of the Hermian Literary Society, which became a chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity in 1937 and remained here through at least 1961. Its site is now a parking lot. Image source: Wolverine<\/em> (1930), p. 304.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twelve houses were eventually built on the ten lots of College Delta.††<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Over the years, these homes were occupied by a who’s who of M.A.C. and East Lansing figures, including:5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n