Hildene Manor, 1926

2220 Washtenaw Avenue

Hildene Manor, 1926

This Tudor Revival style building is actually eight six-room apartments, cooperatively owned. When it was built it was the only cooperatively owned apartment house in Ann Arbor. The large roomy apartments reflect the 1920s when apartment living was chic and largely confined to the wealthy. The builders of this venture, the Group Homes Apartments, chose the Tudor Revival or "Olde English" style as a way of expressing their taste, their refinement, and perhaps their lineage. Half-timbered with stucco on the exterior, it has symmetrical stone arched entries, a steeply pitched roof punctuated by chimneys, and groups of double hung windows with small panes of glass.

The owners of each unit are free to decorate them individually while the group as a whole maintains the grounds and the exterior. Though many such cooperative ventures fail, this one succeeded, "because of the spirit of the people living there."

The apartments adopted the name Hildene Manor in 1927, a year after the building was completed. A newspaper article from that year stated that it acquired a name because it was located outside the city limits, and no number could be given to it for mail delivery, "so the residents decided to name it to avoid confusion." Perhaps they also liked the idea of referring to themselves as living in a "manor."

Recognizing that Hildene Manor has never fallen into disrepair and has always been maintained in the high standards with which it was built, the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission gave it a Preservation Award in 1990. Though it has long been part of the city of Ann Arbor, its setting on Washtenaw beneath massive trees still gives the sense of a country estate today.