Martha Cook

Martha Cook Dormitory. Photo courtesy aadl.org

Rich history behind the gates of this all girls dorm

by Sofia Fekete

On my weekly Tuesday morning walk to my psychology lecture, I walk by 17 different buildings, including the Martha Cook dormitory with its picturesque garden and restrictive looking black steel fence. Since first day of classes, I wondered what the interior of this mysterious building might hold. I decided to brave through the unappealing exterior and give Martha Cook a second chance on its impression on me and found a rich history behind its locked doors.

In 1914, the name Martha Cook was given to Collegiate Gothic building by the orders of a wealthy Michigan alumni named William Cook, who wished to name the building after his mother. The name Martha, meaning “the lady” according to the BabyCentre database, turned out to be a great fit for the building and its antique elegance. To this day, the dorm's "the serene Gold Room not only hosts teas and other events but provides a convenient and cozy environment to study and relax in," according to its website, which also says "residents enjoy Friday afternoon teas, dinners together on Sundays, Harry Potter Week, wellness events, and more."

According to a scholarly journal written by professor Carla Yanni, Martha's son William Cook, the building's benefactor, was a strong believer in upholding the traditional roles of women as housewives who were fit to marry (Yanni 76). So the dorm served to mold young women into their rightful roles as “coeds” on campus, during a time only men could hold the title of "student."

In addition to these traditional views on the roles of women in society and education, William Cook decided that the Martha Cook building would create an “environment that fostered a model for gracious living…including only upper-class anglo-saxon women” (Perez). The Cook family, a name that originated in England with a predominantly white lineage, felt very strongly about the racial division that would occur within this dorm. In recent years, this has called the University’s glorification of the Cook family into question, which has added to the controversial history of the building (Powell).

Women in the first floor corridor (1915). Picture courtesy Semanticsscholar.org

Portrait of Martha Cook [in Martha Cook Building], 1918. Courtesy UM Bentley Historical Library

Though the history of Martha Cook holds racial and sexist influences that are not accepted today, life inside of the dormitory has changed tremendously in the decades since it was built. Traditions such as afternoon tea have been modernly adapted into Friday afternoon tea, where attendance is no longer mandatory and girls are not required to adhere to a modest dress-code. While still an all-women's dorm, the gender requirement within the dorm has transitioned from a sexist division of “educationally inferior” women, to a safe space for women to grow and empower each other. In an interview by Andrea Perez from The Michigan Daily newspaper, one resident of Martha Cook explained, “I knew I didn’t want to rush a sorority, but I still wanted an all-female community where I could live and make friends so Martha Cook sort of fit the bill” (Perez). Through these modern transformations, the Martha Cook building, one of the few campus buildings named after a woman, has become a symbol of the resilience of women in education throughout our history.

Works Cited

“Martha.” BabyCentre UK, https://www.babycentre.co.uk/babyname/1007669/martha.

Perez, Andrea. “An Afternoon Tea: The Stark Traditionalism of Martha Cook Dorm.” The Michigan Daily, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.michigandaily.com/statement/do-coeds-still-exist/.

Powell, Kimberly. “Meaning and Origin for the Surname ‘Cook.’” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 5 Apr. 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/cook-last-name-meaning-and-origin-1422486.

Yanni, Carla. "The Coed's Predicament: The Martha Cook Building at the University of Michigan." Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, vol. 24 no. 1, 2017, p. 26-45. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/669085.

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