The Martha Cook Building first housed women students of the University of Michigan in 1915. New York lawyer William W. Cook (1880), a Michigan alumnus, donated the building. New York architects York and Sawyer designed this building as well as the university Law Quadrangle, one of Cook's later donations. In honor of his mother, Martha Walford Cook, William Cook began donating funds in 1911 for the construction of a womens' dormitory on campus.
Cook stipulated that the University would donate land and all utilities free of charge. Also, the University could never derive profit from the building. All income was to be reinvested in the building at the discretion of the residents themselves and a board of women governors. Initially, the dormitory was designed to house approximately 110 young women. It was a significant emblem of the University’s commitment to attracting women, and was the first women’s dorm at Michigan.
The building's exterior is designed in the popular Collegiate Gothic mode. Above the main entrance is a statue of Portia, described as “Shakespeare’s most intellectual woman.” The interior of the building was designed by the Hayden Company of New York and is meant to recall Gothic and early Renaissance times. The furnishings in the main rooms are from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.
There are two female statues in the main hallway, one is a full-size replica of the “Venus de Milo” and the other is “Edwina” which was created by one of the building’s alumni. In the Red Room is a portrait of Martha Wolford Cook (1828-1909) painted by Henry Caro Delvaille. While in the Gold Room, over the Angell fireplace is a bust of William Cook. Also located in the Gold Room is Mr. Cook’s specially commissioned Steinway from 1913.
Samuel Parsons, a prominent landscape architect and long-time superintendent of Central Park, designed the garden in 1921. Paul Sutterman’s statue “Eve,” which is located on the north end of the garden, was a fiftieth anniversary gift from the building’s alumnae. In the opposite corner of the garden from “Eve” is the building’s tennis court.
Cook stipulated that the University would donate land and all utilities free of charge. Also, the University could never derive profit from the building. All income was to be reinvested in the building at the discretion of the residents themselves and a board of women governors. Initially, the dormitory was designed to house approximately 110 young women. It was a significant emblem of the University’s commitment to attracting women, and was the first women’s dorm at Michigan.
The building's exterior is designed in the popular Collegiate Gothic mode. Above the main entrance is a statue of Portia, described as “Shakespeare’s most intellectual woman.” The interior of the building was designed by the Hayden Company of New York and is meant to recall Gothic and early Renaissance times. The furnishings in the main rooms are from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.
There are two female statues in the main hallway, one is a full-size replica of the “Venus de Milo” and the other is “Edwina” which was created by one of the building’s alumni. In the Red Room is a portrait of Martha Wolford Cook (1828-1909) painted by Henry Caro Delvaille. While in the Gold Room, over the Angell fireplace is a bust of William Cook. Also located in the Gold Room is Mr. Cook’s specially commissioned Steinway from 1913.
Samuel Parsons, a prominent landscape architect and long-time superintendent of Central Park, designed the garden in 1921. Paul Sutterman’s statue “Eve,” which is located on the north end of the garden, was a fiftieth anniversary gift from the building’s alumnae. In the opposite corner of the garden from “Eve” is the building’s tennis court.
Excerpt from the 1916 Michiganesian:
The New Dormitories opening last fall of the two residence halls for women inaugurates a new epoch in housing conditions for students in the University. They mark the way for a return to the earlier days of the University, when all the students were housed in dormitories. The present system of allowing students to find accommodations for themselves in the homes of the citizens of Ann Arbor was instituted as far back as the time when President Tappan saw no way of increasing the facilities of the University except by utilizing the rooms in what are now the two wings of University Hall which, before his time had been used as dormitories. His marked sympathy with German educational methods also predisposed him to follow this practice, which was customary in Germany.
Since those days, however, conditions have changed and for anyone who has made a study of student life the need of better housing conditions is apparent. The obvious solution of the problem is the erection of residence halls, or dormitories, particularly for those people who are not accommodated in fraternities or clubhouses. For the men, the Michigan Union Clubhouse will have a marked effect. For the women, the erection of the Helen Handy Newberry Hall and Martha Cook Building has probably been the greatest step towards ameliorating conditions. As is evidenced by their names, each of these Halls is a memorial to a mother on the pan of her children. The Martha Cook Building was erected by the Cook family of Hillsdale, while Newberry Hall was erected by the children of Mrs. John S. Newberry, whose husband was a graduate of the University in the class of 1847.
Few college buildings, to say nothing of dormitories or halls of residence, surpass the new Martha Cook Building in architectural beauty or in perfection of furnishings and decorations. Every detail bears the evidence of careful thought for the comfort of its occupants on the part of the designers and donors. In general it is an exceptionally fine adaptation of the Tudor- Gothic, always a favorite style for college architecture, though this is the first example of this type at the University of Michigan. While in its main hnes it is simple it shows an unusual perfection in detail which makes it unquestionably the finest building in Ann Arbor. Few buildings in the country can be found so perfect in their architecture and appointments.
The main entrance is upon South University. The building in general is Tapestry brick, relieved by a simple pattern in darker brick. All the trimmings are of cut stone in which the Gothic details are accentuated even to rows of Gargoyles in the stone cornice near the top of the building. The entrance has become an emblem of the building and is reproduced in numerous details throughout, upon several of the mantels, upon the china service designed for the building and even in the linen.
Upon entering one stands at the end of a long cloistered hall with flag paving and a groined ceiling of white stone upon the blue of the vault. This hallway is flanked by a long series of tall windows which take up the whole side of the passage way and open upon a terrace overlooking the lawn. At either side of the main entrance are short hallways, the one on the right leading to the reception room furnished in crimson and gold. One of the features of the room is an open fireplace of Botticino marble. At the left of the main entrance another passageway leads to the apartments of the social director and the business manager.
Immediately beyond the reception hall and connected with it by a paneled anteroom is the second and larger of the two parlors, which serves as a living and music room. This room is elaborately paneled in teak wood from the Philippines. The plaster ceiling is a replica of one in the South Kensington Museum in London. Several doors at the side open into the long Gothic corridors at the left. In the blue room is the fire-place dedicated by the late President Angell.
Beyond the living room is the dining room, in its turn opening on to the corridor, with seats for one hundred and sixteen girls in groups around small round tables. The room is paneled in rich brown oak to which the fuiniture of the room corresponds.
These central rooms occupy the equivalent of two full stories with a mezzanine floor at either end, each of which furnish a space for a group of seven or eight rooms. Most of the rooms are on the second and third floors, each of which has accommodations for approximately forty girls. There are also about fourteen rooms on the fourth floor in addition to three reserved as rest rooms to be used by any of those in the building who feel it desirable to have absolute quiet. All but a few of the rooms are single, in accordance with the desire expressed by a ballot of University women, though there are a few double rooms. The furnishings of the rooms are simple but of the very best quality.
Both the buildings are under the direction of Governing Boards. Mrs. Chauncey F. Cook, of Hillsdale, Miss Grace G. Millard, '97, of Detroit, and Mrs. Frederic B. Stevens, of Detroit, are in charge of the Martha Cook Building of which Miss Frances C. Mack, formerly of Ferry Hall, Chicago, is business manager, while Miss Gertrude H. Biggs, who comes from a school in Chicago, is the social director.
Since those days, however, conditions have changed and for anyone who has made a study of student life the need of better housing conditions is apparent. The obvious solution of the problem is the erection of residence halls, or dormitories, particularly for those people who are not accommodated in fraternities or clubhouses. For the men, the Michigan Union Clubhouse will have a marked effect. For the women, the erection of the Helen Handy Newberry Hall and Martha Cook Building has probably been the greatest step towards ameliorating conditions. As is evidenced by their names, each of these Halls is a memorial to a mother on the pan of her children. The Martha Cook Building was erected by the Cook family of Hillsdale, while Newberry Hall was erected by the children of Mrs. John S. Newberry, whose husband was a graduate of the University in the class of 1847.
Few college buildings, to say nothing of dormitories or halls of residence, surpass the new Martha Cook Building in architectural beauty or in perfection of furnishings and decorations. Every detail bears the evidence of careful thought for the comfort of its occupants on the part of the designers and donors. In general it is an exceptionally fine adaptation of the Tudor- Gothic, always a favorite style for college architecture, though this is the first example of this type at the University of Michigan. While in its main hnes it is simple it shows an unusual perfection in detail which makes it unquestionably the finest building in Ann Arbor. Few buildings in the country can be found so perfect in their architecture and appointments.
The main entrance is upon South University. The building in general is Tapestry brick, relieved by a simple pattern in darker brick. All the trimmings are of cut stone in which the Gothic details are accentuated even to rows of Gargoyles in the stone cornice near the top of the building. The entrance has become an emblem of the building and is reproduced in numerous details throughout, upon several of the mantels, upon the china service designed for the building and even in the linen.
Upon entering one stands at the end of a long cloistered hall with flag paving and a groined ceiling of white stone upon the blue of the vault. This hallway is flanked by a long series of tall windows which take up the whole side of the passage way and open upon a terrace overlooking the lawn. At either side of the main entrance are short hallways, the one on the right leading to the reception room furnished in crimson and gold. One of the features of the room is an open fireplace of Botticino marble. At the left of the main entrance another passageway leads to the apartments of the social director and the business manager.
Immediately beyond the reception hall and connected with it by a paneled anteroom is the second and larger of the two parlors, which serves as a living and music room. This room is elaborately paneled in teak wood from the Philippines. The plaster ceiling is a replica of one in the South Kensington Museum in London. Several doors at the side open into the long Gothic corridors at the left. In the blue room is the fire-place dedicated by the late President Angell.
Beyond the living room is the dining room, in its turn opening on to the corridor, with seats for one hundred and sixteen girls in groups around small round tables. The room is paneled in rich brown oak to which the fuiniture of the room corresponds.
These central rooms occupy the equivalent of two full stories with a mezzanine floor at either end, each of which furnish a space for a group of seven or eight rooms. Most of the rooms are on the second and third floors, each of which has accommodations for approximately forty girls. There are also about fourteen rooms on the fourth floor in addition to three reserved as rest rooms to be used by any of those in the building who feel it desirable to have absolute quiet. All but a few of the rooms are single, in accordance with the desire expressed by a ballot of University women, though there are a few double rooms. The furnishings of the rooms are simple but of the very best quality.
Both the buildings are under the direction of Governing Boards. Mrs. Chauncey F. Cook, of Hillsdale, Miss Grace G. Millard, '97, of Detroit, and Mrs. Frederic B. Stevens, of Detroit, are in charge of the Martha Cook Building of which Miss Frances C. Mack, formerly of Ferry Hall, Chicago, is business manager, while Miss Gertrude H. Biggs, who comes from a school in Chicago, is the social director.