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Historic place

Oakland University

201 Meadow Brook Road, Rochester, MI

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 largest public universities.

📅 1957–present🏛️ SchoolStill hereBuilt 1957
Open on the mapSlide back to 1957
Oakland University, 201 Meadow Brook Road, Rochester, MI
Oakland University, Rochester (2007) · Brian Gingrich, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The story

In 1957, Matilda Dodge Wilson -- widow of auto pioneer John Dodge -- and her second husband, lumber baron Alfred G. Wilson, handed Michigan State University their entire Meadow Brook estate: roughly 1,443 acres, the buildings on it (including the 110-room Meadow Brook Hall), and $2 million in cash. The new school opened as Michigan State University-Oakland, welcoming its first 570 students and 25 faculty on September 21, 1959.

Growth was fast. The first class graduated in 1963, the same year the institution was renamed Oakland University. By 1970 it had become independent of Michigan State. Today it's a public research university with more than 16,000 students -- all grown from a couple's country estate between Detroit and Flint.

The land never fully shed its origins. Meadow Brook Hall still stands on campus as a historic house museum, and the gift also seeded two cultural institutions: the Meadow Brook Music Festival (opened July 1964 as the summer home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) and Meadow Brook Theatre (first curtain January 4, 1967), still the largest nonprofit professional theater in Michigan.

What's There Now

Oakland University, an active public research university whose campus still includes the original Meadow Brook Hall, Music Festival, and Theatre.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The university was originally named "Michigan State University-Oakland" and didn't carry the name "Oakland University" until 1963.
Matilda Dodge Wilson's gift included not just land but $2 million in cash -- a substantial endowment for a brand-new school in 1957.
The first students (1959) attended classes on the grounds of a working country estate, with the 110-room Meadow Brook Hall sitting right on campus.
The Meadow Brook Music Festival pavilion (1964) was built with Kresge Foundation funding and seats close to 8,000.
The campus spreads across two cities -- Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills -- even though its mailing address says "Rochester."

Connected places

Meadow Brook Hall

Rochester Hills, MI
Matilda Dodge Wilson

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

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