Built in 1840, the President's House remains the oldest building on the UM campus, although successive generations of UM Presidents have remodeled the building to meet their changing personal and professional needs as well as shifting technological standards. The President's House was one of four identical stucco-faced, two-story houses built to compose the first Ann Arbor campus. No single architect has been credited with the design of these first four buildings, although the builder, Harpin Lum, is known. (Before Lum built this set of four classroom/residences, the prominent NY architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, prepared designs for a group of Gothic Revival buildings for the UM campus, but these were never erected due to cost.) During a period of rapid campus growth, the university tore the other three much-altered houses down in 1908, 1914, and 1923, the last to make room for the Clements Library. Soon after Henry P. Tappan accepted the UM Presidency, he moved into the vacant southwest building in 1852. The house bore little resemblance to that which we see today. Originally, it had simple Greek Revival Style characteristics-simple boxy lines, trabeated windows, and a front door framed by a thin transom and sidelights. A long, one-story porch, supported by Doric piers, stretched across the front façade . Cornices had delicate carved moldings. The plan also possessed a symmetrical character common to the Greek Revival Style, each floor having a balanced arrangement of two sets of rooms flanking a central circulation hall. Fireplaces anchored the outer walls of each room. Tappan was a modernist, and worked hard to update the University's educational character, instituting graduate scientific programs and replacing professors who were clergymen with academics trained in formalized university programs. He also replaced the President House's technology, introducing gas lighting on the interior to replace candles. His bold and occasionally undiplomatic efforts to modernize earned him many enemies. In 1863, Tappan was removed by the Board of Regents, and Erastus O. Haven took charge. Haven added a third floor, the eaves of which was supported by elaborate Italianate brackets, a stylistic detail popular during the 1860s-1880s. The hipped roof of the new floor was topped by a widow's walk, an incongruous Colonial Revival touch. The gregarious James B. Angell came to the UM in 1871, having been the President of the University of Vermont. As a prerequisite for accepting the Michigan presidency, Angell requested the renovation of his prospective house. This included the addition of indoor plumbing, still a novelty at the time, and a forced-air furnace. Twenty years later, Angell had the house electrified and added a two-story addition to its west side, which included a semi-circular library on the first floor and bedrooms on the second. The four small rooms on the first floor were combined to form two. These extensive new spaces could accommodate study groups and parties thrown by the Angells. The house began to grow as the President became more visible on campus, making the house a center for social activity. Angell stayed in the President's House until his death in 1916; A beloved figure, he had remained President until 1909, a tenure of 38 years. No one seemed willing to claim Angell's house immediately after his death. The house served miscellaneous uses, as a Red Cross office during World War I and as the residence of Medical School Professor, Hugh Cabot, between 1919-1920. Marion LeRoy Burton, former President of the University of Minnesota, took on the Presidency of UM in 1920, and moved in after substantial alterations had been executed. Burton redesigned the house thoroughly reflecting 1920s architectural trends. Medical writers underscored the healthful benefits of opening up houses, exposing inhabitants to therapeutic qualities of fresh air and sunlight. Architects, in response to this medical literature, increased window expanses and routinely included new features, such as sun and sleeping porches. Burton was not able to take too many sun baths in his remodeled abode, as he died in 1925. He also enclosed a rear porch to create a expansive dining area able to seat large groups and built a garage in the rear, much like a nineteenth century carriage house, with apartments above it. By the end of Burton's tenure, the house had, for the most part, expanded to its present proportions. Subsequent Presidents did not make major alterations; the most notable were President Ruthven's 1933 addition of a study and plant room on the northeast corner of the rear and President Hatcher's installation of a glazed backyard porch and slate-paved patio in the 1960s. This continuous indoor/outdoor porch/patio enlarged the amount of entertaining space available during warm months. As the University grew, the office of the President took on increased prominence and significance. The expanding university required larger and larger pools of money to operate. Presidents became public, "political" figures more and more, hobnobbing with alumni and institutional visitors for fundraising purposes. From President Angell on, spaces within the house became larger to accommodate socializing in larger groups. As a perceptive brochure prepared about the President's House noted, "As the University became more actively involved in fund-raising, the house became a focal point for of the University's development effort, with frequent dinners and receptions for various donors. This level of both family and University activity required important modifications to the house infrastructure, including the installation of a modern heating and air conditioning system and lining the fireplace flues with concrete to protect against fires." At least two presidents--Angell and Ruthven--built new studies, sequestering them away from encroaching public entertaining rooms. Privacy was becoming increasingly difficult to get for UM Presidents, as their profile grew to national and international significance. In keeping with this heightened profile, the Duderstadts redecorated the house, attempting to improve its appearance and to underscore its historic character for visiting dignitaries. The Duderstadts also managed to renovate Inglis House as a facility for large parties and for lodging important guests, complementing the smaller gatherings now hosted at the President's House. The President's House-in its various phases-documents the changing stature and requirements of the Presidency. It also illustrates the ambivalent attitudes that the University community has held toward historic architecture. Relatively few nineteenth-century buildings remain on campus. All but one of the original buildings of 1840 were demolished in the 1908-1922 period, a period of feverish growth and master planning. As a focal point, the President's House has managed to survive, albeit in altered form. Several attempts to tear it down have failed, most notably when William Clements wanted to put his new library on its plot in the early 1920s. As a center of power, the President's House has become something of a shrine, venerated for its age and the status of its inhabitants.