Home›Places›Rochester Hills, MI›Meadow Brook Hall
Historic place

Meadow Brook Hall

350 Estate Drive, Rochester Hills, MI

A widow of the Dodge automobile fortune poured $4 million into a 110-room Tudor mansion, then handed the whole estate to the state of Michigan -- and a university grew on the lawn.

📅 1929–present🏛️ Historic HomeStill hereBuilt 1929
Open on the mapSlide back to 1929
Meadow Brook Hall, 350 Estate Drive, Rochester Hills, MI
Meadow Brook Hall exterior · Wm. Chris Rowland II, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The story

Matilda Dodge Wilson was the widow of John Dodge, who with his brother Horace built one of America's largest carmakers before both brothers died within months of each other in 1920. The Dodge fortune made Matilda one of the wealthiest women in the country. In 1925 she married lumber broker Alfred Wilson, and the couple set about building a country estate on their farmland north of Detroit.

Between 1926 and 1929 they raised Meadow Brook Hall, an 88,000-square-foot Tudor-revival house designed by architect William E. Kapp of the Detroit firm Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. Modeled on the country manors of England but built entirely with American materials and labor, it ran to 110 rooms and cost roughly $4 million. Matilda involved herself in nearly every detail, down to the switch-plate covers and the grand staircase.

In 1957 Matilda and Alfred gave it all away: the mansion, about 1,400 acres, and $2 million, donated to Michigan State University to found a new campus. That campus became Oakland University, which now surrounds the house. The Hall opened to the public as a museum in 1971 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012.

What's There Now

Still standing on the Oakland University campus, open as a historic house museum and a wedding/event venue.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

At 88,000 square feet and 110 rooms, it ranks as the fourth-largest historic house museum in the United States.
During the Great Depression the family closed up the great house and lived in the original farmhouse instead.
The plaster ceilings and ornamental work were created by Corrado Parducci, the sculptor behind much of Detroit's Art Deco ornamentation.
The house holds original paintings by Anthony van Dyck and Joshua Reynolds, plus Tiffany glass and Stickley furniture.
Matilda Dodge Wilson later served as the first female lieutenant governor of Michigan.

Connected places

Wagon Wheel Motel

Cuba, MO
Tudor Revival

Das Bevo

St. Louis, MO
Tudor Revival

Bevo Mill Speakeasy

St. Louis, MO
Tudor Revival

Guardian Building

Detroit, MI
National Historic Landmark

Ryman Auditorium

Nashville, TN
National Historic Landmark

The Hermitage Hotel

Nashville, TN
National Historic Landmark

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Oakland University

201 Meadow Brook Road · 1.2 km away
A 1,400-acre farm estate, a Tudor mansion, and a $2 million check turned a Dodge widow's gift into one of Michigan's lar

Chrysler World Headquarters and Technology Center

1000 Chrysler Drive · 3.3 km away
One of the largest office buildings in America rose out of 504 acres of Auburn Hills farmland, crowned by a 15-story tow

The Palace of Auburn Hills

6 Championship Drive · 4.6 km away
A privately financed arena that opened with the Bad Boys Pistons became one of the busiest concert halls on Earth -- the

Aaron Webster's Mills (Auburn settlement)

Auburn Road & Squirrel Road · 4.7 km away
Before the Stellantis towers and the outlet mall, this corner was a dam, a millpond, and one man's bet that the Clinton

Church's Lumber Yards

107 S Squirrel Road · 4.8 km away
A lumber yard that started hauling boards by horse and wagon in 1890 is still selling lumber on the same downtown corner

Pontiac Silverdome

1200 Featherstone Road · 5.2 km away

Know something about Meadow Brook Hall? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?

Add it on the map