Univeristy of Detroit - Detroit, MI - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

94. The UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT, McNichols Road and Livernois Ave., a Roman Catholic institution conducted by the Jesuit order, was opened in downtown Detroit in 1877 and incorporated in 1881 as Detroit college, a liberal arts institution. In 1911, it was reorganized as the University of Detroit. The College of engineering was added the same year, and the School of Law was established in 1912. The College of Commerce and Finance was begun in 1916 as an evening school; regular day classes were inaugurated in 1922. The School of Dentistry (1932) operates three clinics with 71 chairs at 630 E. Jefferson Ave.

The university has two campuses. The original on on East Jefferson Avenue was occupied until 1927, when the new buildings were completed on a 70-acre plot in the northwestern residential section. Designed by Malcomson and Higginbotham, the six structures are uniformly styled in an adaptation of the Spanish Renaissance. Included in the group are the Faculty, Commerce and Finance, Chemistry, Science and Administration, and Engineering Buildings, the Aerodynamical Laboratory, the Memorial Tower, the power plant, and the stadium. The buildings are two and three stories high, of concrete faced with Ohio sandstone; all have red tile roofs except the flat-top Engineering Building.

Th LIBRARY (open 9-5 Mon.=Fri., 9-12 Sat.), housed in the Engineering Building, has 98,000 volumes with especially extensive collections in literature, history, religion, and law. In the aeronautics section of the same building is a wind tunnel used by many Detroit manufacturers to test stream lines for automobiles and airplanes; the tunnel tests a 6-foot model in an air current of 107 miles per hour. The Memorial Tower, in reality an ornamental smokestack for the power house, was erected in honor of the students and alumni who lost their lives in the First World War. The stadium, of reinforced concrete, seats 18,000 people; six 100-foot towers light the field for night sports.

The downtown campus includes Dinan Hall, Old College Hall, and the St. Catherine Memorial Chapel, utilized by the School of Law, the School of Dentistry, and the evening College of Commerce and Finance.

The Very Reverend Charles H. Cloud, S.J., Ph.D, is president of the university, having succeeded the Very Reverend Albert H. Poetker in 1939. The administrative council is composed of prominent Detroit businessmen. The school has an enrollment of 4,000 students.-Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State 1941

A few updates to the guide in the 80+ years since it has been written. The Very Reverend Charles H. Cloud, S.J., Ph.D, is no longer president of the university having died in 1944 vacating the office. The current President is Donald B. Taylor, Ph.D., who became the 26th president of University of Detroit Mercy in 2022. The University of Detroit Stadium was demolished in 1971 after the football program was discontinued in 1964 due to funding.

Notable alumni nclude Elmore Leonard, author of Get Shorty, Be Cool, and The Big Bounce

University of Detroit was ranked #2 in Michigan and #52 in the country for The Wall Street Journal College Pulse 2024 rankings of Best Colleges in the U.S..

Book: Detroit Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 280-281 Year Originally Published: 1941

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