Collegeville to City
When the Agricultural College was founded in 1855, there “were but seven farmhouses in a two-mile radius from College Hall.” This scattered community was distant and independent from campus, and from the outset housing to support the college was a priority. The first faculty housing was a row of houses on campus along what is now West Circle Drive. As the college grew, the demand for faculty housing outpaced the school’s ability and space to build it. It was only a matter of time before speculative development began, across the road from the college on privately owned (or state-owned) farmland.[Kestenbaum, p. 48]
Two pre-1855 farmhouses are still standing, both in the Marble District that started out in Meridian Township (unincorporated) and is now within East Lansing city limits.
Bigelow–Kuhn–Thomas House, 334 N. Hagadorn (1849) SR | |
Sturges–Marble House, 690 N. Hagadorn (1849) |
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