Meadow Brook Hall

01 / The story of this place

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Matilda Dodge Wilson was the widow of automaker John Dodge, and after his death she became one of the richest women in America. In 1908 she and John had bought a farm near Rochester; two decades later Matilda and her second husband, Alfred Wilson, built a sprawling 88,000-square-foot Tudor Revival mansion there between 1926 and 1929, filling it with hand-carved woodwork, leaded glass and art gathered from across Europe. Matilda lived at Meadow Brook Hall until her death in 1967, raising her children there and hosting Michigan's social and political elite. She and Alfred had already given the land and money to help found what became Oakland University in 1957, and the mansion passed to the school along with it. Today Meadow Brook Hall sits on the Oakland University campus in Rochester Hills, a National Historic Landmark that still holds most of its original furnishings.

1. 88,000 square feet, one of America's largest Tudor Revival homes
2. Built 1926 to 1929 for Matilda Dodge Wilson
3. Gift to Oakland University, founded 1957
4. National Historic Landmark
5. Still holds its original furniture and art