Wildwood Apartments, 308 Abbot Rd. (1913—1972)
Wildwood Apartments in 1953, by then in use as a fraternity house. Photo Credit: Wolverine (1953), p. 373.
Local Weather Bureau forecaster Dewey A. Seeley (M.A.C. ’98) commissioned College Architect Edwyn A. Bowd to design a three story, six unit apartment building at the northeast corner of Abbot Road and Albert Avenue. The Wildwood Apartments were the first apartment building constructed in East Lansing, completed in 1913.[American Contractor, 34(13), 29 Mar 1913, p. 71. Towar, p. 113]
The name stemmed from the fact that Abbot Road was called “Wildwood Avenue” by the College Grove plat—but only on the east side of the street. The Oakwood plat, to the west, called it Abbot Road. Towar writes, vaguely, “this confusion of names was soon remedied after the city was organized,” but contemporary maps provide an estimated date: a Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1913 shows it as “Wildwood,” while Newman’s map from two years later says “Abbot Avenue.” Therefore it appears that the Wildwood Apartments were named after an alternate street name that would soon be removed. (Of course, it would not be long before the misspelling “Abbott” would come into the fore.)*[Towar, pp. 96–97. Sanborn (1913), p. 105. Newman (1915)]
Soon after the building was ready for occupancy in 1913, an eatery called the “Wildwood Tea Rooms” was opened by sisters Lulu and Iza Bell Smith in one of the first-floor apartments. It immediately became a popular venue for luncheons and banquets. The cafe moved out in 1918 and later reopened at a Grand River Avenue location, but that’s a different story.[MAC Record, 19(4), 21 Oct 1913, p. 2]
Detailed information on the steel-framed, brick and tile construction has not been found by this author, but if it was anything like most Bowd designs it was modestly decorated yet solidly constructed and highly functional. Long belt courses of Bedford stone and repeating, galvanized metal brackets at the eaves, while not particularly distinctive were something of a Bowd trademark. Each five-room apartment had its own private, enclosed veranda facing onto Abbot Road.
In March 1949, the building was purchased by the local chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. They moved from 803 E. Grand River, which they had purchased in 1944. (That house was built 1925 by the Orphic Society, which soon became Pi Kappa Phi. It is still standing, now a Christian student co-op.) Existing Wildwood tenants, “some of whom have lived in the building for as long as 30 years,”* were given until the first of August to move out. The fraternity stayed there for fifteen years, until 1964 when it moved to a new-built, modern house at 432 Evergreen Avenue, where it remains today.[LSJ, 13 Mar 1949, p. 33. Wolverine (1964), p. 330]
This marked the end of the line for the former Wildwood Apartments. After the fraternity moved out, the city building department inspected the building, declared it “condemned as unfit for human habitation,” and ordered it vacated. It was boarded up and left to rot.[LSJ, 10 Apr 1970, p. 3]
Then in 1968, the empty Wildwood became a pawn in the recurring effort to remove the “dry clause” from the city charter. Ann Arbor-based developers, having collected options to purchase several lots in the block bounded by Abbot, Albert, Linden, and Grove Streets, announced plans to build an $8 million, seventeen story hotel and apartment building on the Wildwood Apartments site and the lots behind it. One catch: the project would only go forward if the city rescinded its liquor ban. The prospect of $200,000 in annual tax revenue was an enticement—and so too was the fact that the Wildwood had become an eyesore anchoring a prominent downtown corner and was seen as a hindrance to redevelopment. On November 5, 1968, voters “approved liquor by the glass… by a vote of 7,147 to 3,935.” The nearly two-to-one balance in favor, coming after referenda in 1958 and 1962 had each failed to change the law, was widely thought to be a direct result of the hotel proposal.[Kestenbaum, p. 40. LSJ, 5 Aug 1971, p. 55]
This sign promoting “A Better East Lansing” was erected in front of the Wildwood Apartments in 1968. “But first city liquor policy must be changed.” Photo Credit: Lansing State Journal, 10 Apr 1970, p. 3.
Two years later, nothing had come to pass. The Lansing State Journal ran an article titled “Promise Unfulfilled,” in which a city inspector described the Wildwood’s utterly derelict condition, noting that it would be “virtually impossible to renovate the old apartment building to meet current standards.” The owner of the property was holding out hope that the developers would be able to proceed with the hotel, and said that “it’s just a matter of financing.” But it was not to be. The developers were unable to obtain the needed backing, and the lot soon went up for sale along with others that had been under option. The apartment block, deemed by the city “an attractive nuisance, posing a danger to the community,” was demolished in September 1972.[LSJ, 10 Apr 1970, p. 3; 5 Aug 1971, p. 55; 24 Jan 1972, p. 13; 10 Aug 1972, p. 17; 13 Sep 1972, p. 17.]
Three commercial buildings were built on the north side of Albert from 1971 to 1976 and remain today, but the site of the Wildwood Apartments has never been rebuilt upon. At some point the City took over the property and established a “no name” park there. In 2016 the City Council named the park for William B. “Bill” Sharp (1928–2016, M.S.C. w/’49), former East Lansing police officer, school board member, and longtime city council member.[ELi, 22 Jun 2016]
