{"id":6823,"date":"2017-10-03T07:24:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T11:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6823"},"modified":"2017-10-17T09:28:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T13:28:41","slug":"meadow-brook-hall-se-michigan-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6823","title":{"rendered":"Meadow Brook Hall: SE Michigan Gem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meadow<\/a>

photo: Mark Goebel, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019ve visit Southeastern Michigan, you probably know about charming Greenfield Village<\/a> and The Henry Ford Museum. You may have taken in \u00a0a Ford factory tour (conducted in the super-automated Ford F-150 plant, not the grimy industrial behemoth nearby. PS\u2014if you are tempted to blame off-shoring for the loss of American manufacturing jobs, one look at the floor of this factory will give you second thoughts. The culprit isn\u2019t just foreigners, it\u2019s automation. Hardly an assembly-line worker in sight.)<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve enjoyed the fantastic murals cropping up in downtown Detroit. And the area\u2019s stunning museums, the zoo, Belle Isle, Hitsville, USA<\/a>. The trendy upscale restaurants. But if you sojourned in the Motor City without wheels of your own, you may have missed another compelling attraction, Meadow Brook Hall<\/a> and gardens, 40 minutes north of downtown in a bucolic section of the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Personal Tragedies & Great Wealth<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The 180-room Tudor revival mansion was the home of Alfred and Matilda Dodge Wilson. Her first husband, John Dodge, died in 1920, a victim of the Spanish influenza epidemic, and his younger brother Horace died less than a year later. She became one of the wealthiest women in American when she and her sister-in-law sold the brothers\u2019 automotive business for the equivalent of more than $1.3 billion in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n

John left Matilda with three young children, and in 1925, she married wealthy lumber merchant Alfred Wilson. Tragedy continued to stalk her, however. John and Matilda\u2019s young daughter Anna Margaret died the year before her remarriage. In 1938, her only son Daniel died on his honeymoon, when he drowned off Ontario\u2019s Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.<\/p>\n

By then, the Wilsons had built Meadow Brook Hall, now a National Historic Landmark, completed in 1929. Everywhere you look, inside the house and on the grounds, there are details to intrigue and delight the eye and loads of great stories. Once Matilda was surprised by a party, when the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra struck up \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d for her, and a young Frank Sinatra sang.<\/p>\n

\"Meadowbrook<\/a><\/p>\n

Meadow Brook Hall offers a house tour several times a day\u2014our guide was knowledgeable and talked more about the history than the minutia of decoration which so often bog down tour guides. You also hear about Mrs. Wilson\u2019s significant charitable enterprises, including providing land and funding for the establishment of Oakland University, and her brief stint as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan. The Hall offers a \u201cbehind-the-scenes tour,\u201d which includes servant quarters and the attic (I wonder whether you can climb Alfred Wilson\u2019s secret staircase!). Also a walking tour of the estate, woods, and playhouses. The garages hold classic Dodge vehicles from the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

Top off your visit with an outdoor concert at the nearby Meadow Brook Amphitheatre.<\/p>\n

Books to throw in Your Suitcase<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n