Meadow Brook Hall

Meadow Brook Farms originally belonged to Matilda's first husband, automotive tycoon John F. Dodge. He purchased the property along with the large white farmhouse off Adams Road as a holiday retreat for his family. The mansion is located on a estate off South Adams Road; Dodge added a nine-hole golf course, some of the holes of which still follow the current Katke-Cousins 18-hole course on the property. Meadow Brook Hall was constructed between 1926 and 1929 by Matilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband, Alfred Wilson at a cost of $4 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The couple also owned "Breakwater", an oceanfront home in Bar Harbor, Maine, and a winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona, and also eventually a smaller retirement home, dubbed “Sunset Terrace”, on the Meadow Brook estate, which they occupied from 1953 until Alfred’s death in 1962. Matilda resided at the estate, either at Meadow Brook Hall or Sunset Terrace, for nearly forty years. during which the family resided in the existing farmhouse. Covering and with 110 rooms,{{cite news |url=https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/06/14/meadow-brook-hall-architect-william-kapp/7234324002/ In 1957, Alfred and Matilda Dodge Wilson donated the 1,500 acre estate to Michigan State University, along with $2 million to create a branch college campus, now known as Oakland University. The Wilsons moved out of Meadow Brook Hall in 1953 into their newly built retirement home, Sunset Terrace nearby, and lived there until Alfred's death in 1962. Mrs. Wilson moved back into Meadow Brook Hall within months of her husband's death, and lived there until her death in 1967. Sunset Terrace now serves as the residence for the current President of Oakland University. Additional buildings which were also designed by William Kapp on the estate included: • Knole Cottage (1926), a six-room miniature playhouse on the Meadow Brook estate. • Sunset Terrace, a retirement home for Matilda and Alfred Wilson on Meadow Brook, which in 1963 became the Oakland University president's home. ==Concours d'Elegance==

The Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance was held annually during August on the grounds of Meadow Brook Hall from 1979 until 2010. This week-long event was one of the largest collector car shows in the world, and a social event in the tradition of the first Concours in 1920s Paris which was an exhibition of automotive design, craftsmanship, history and a tool for automobile manufacturers to market products. In 2010, promoters announced that the Concours d'Elegance would leave Meadow Brook Hall after that year for the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth, Michigan. The event is now known at the Concours d'Elegance of America at St. John's. ==See also==