Today the Michigan Department of Transportation building in Lansing is named after him, "The Murray Van Wagoner Transportation Building".
(meta data) TITLE: Michigan government office buildings' namesakes (meta data) AUTHOR: Justin A. Hinkley SUBSCRIBE NOWfor full access Get the news # Murray who? Meet state office buildings' namesakes Justin A. Hinkley, Lansing State Journal Published 7:03 a.m. ET Oct. 27, 2015 | Updated 3:16 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2015 ## From Cora Anderson to Soapy Williams, why they earned multi-story monuments Every day, thousands of Michigan state government employees move in and out of towering memorials to these men — yes, all but one of them are men — who were some of this state's most important actors.(Photo: File photo) LANSING - They were politicians and engineers and heirs to shaving cream fortunes. At least one was a known scoundrel and more than one wanted to be president. Every day, thousands of Michigan state government employees move in and out of towering memorials to these men — yes, all but one of them are men — who were some of this state's most important actors. Through legislation, resolution and executive order, state leaders have named many buildings on the Capitol Complex in downtown Lansing and a few buildings in other cities after people who helped shape Michigan's past and laid foundations for its future. LANSING STATE JOURNAL 22 Michigan women to name government buildings after One of those buildings is named after Stevens T. Mason, Michigan's first governor after statehood. In honor of Mason's Oct. 27 birthday — he'd be 204 years old if he were alive today — here's a look at the namesakes of some of our state government facilities: ## Anderson House Office Building Address: 124 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing Named: By House Resolution 479 of 2000 Cora Anderson, first woman elected to the state House and first American Indian to serve in the Legislature, is seen in this photo provided by the state Capitol historian and the Archives of Michigan. (Photo: Photo provided) Cora Anderson (1882-1950), was the first woman elected to the state House and the first American Indian to serve in the Legislature when she held office for one brief but impactful term in 1925 and '26. But the woman newspapers called "The Lady of the Land" had already broken barriers against both women and Indians as an Upper Peninsula teacher and public health advocate, organizing Baraga County's first public health agency and helping to establish that county's first public nurse. In the Legislature, she advocated for public health and women and led the Industrial Home for Girls Committee. She tackled alcoholism, tuberculosis and accountability for township finances. Sources:Michigan Women's Historical Center & Hall of Fame, Michigan Capitol historian, legislative records ## Richard H. Austin Building Address: 430 W. Allegan St., Lansing Named: By Public Act 209 of 2005 Richard Austin, the first black man elected to statewide office, is seen in this LSJ file photo. (Photo: LSJ file) Austin (1913-2001), was a man of firsts. Not only was he the first black Michigander elected to statewide office, other than the Michigan Supreme Court, he also was Michigan's longest-serving secretary of state, holding the office from 1970 through 1994. He was also Michigan's first black certified public accountant, earning his degree from the Detroit Institute of Technology, and he was the first black Wayne County auditor. We can thank him for vehicle registration tabs, which allow us to replace stickers every year instead of the whole license plate, and for mail-in registration renewals. He also helped make voter registration and plate renewal simultaneous. NOTE: Though Austin was the first black Michigander elected to statewide office, the first black Michigander successful in a statewide election was Dr. Dewitt Burton, elected to the Wayne State University Board of Governors in 1959. The governors are elected by a statewide ballot, but their jurisdiction is limited to the university. Otis Smith was the first black justice on the Michigan Supreme Court. He was appointed by Gov. John Swainson in 1961. Sources: Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB), Michigan Department of Transportation, Senate Fiscal Agency ## Cadillac Place Address:3044 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit Named: State government inherited the name when it took over the building in 2011 Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac (1658-1730), the fur trader and schemer who convinced the French government to establish a riverside outpost called Detroit, has given name to a city and a really nice car. And, around the turn of the millennium, his name was put on the former General Motors Co. headquarters in downtown Detroit. A bust of Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, is seen in this photo from WikiMedia Commons. (Photo: WikiMedia Commons) An ambitious, controversial figure known to overstate his social stature and rank in French government, Cadillac nonetheless won the praise of French officials and was named commander of Michilimackinac. Despite causing new tensions with American Indian tribes there, Cadillac in 1698 went back to France and talked King Louis XIV out of the equivalent of $300 and 100 men to build a fort along the Detroit River. In the summer of 1701, Cadillac and his troops set up camp around what is today Hart Plaza. In Detroit, Cadillac was accused of distributing alcohol and bribing Canadians. In 1710, he was made governor of Louisiana — a serious downgrade in French stature. After more controversy, he was called back to France in 1717 and briefly imprisoned before again talking his way to prominence. He was governor of the French city of Castelsarrasin when he died in 1730. Sources: Canadian Museum of History, HistoryDetroit.com, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, DTMB LANSING STATE JOURNAL Missing governors, missing stories at Capitol ## Lewis Cass Building Address: 320 S. Walnut St., Lansing Named: By House Concurrent Resolution 35 of 1952 Lewis Cass, the second governor of the Michigan Territory, is seen in this LSJ file photo. (Photo: LSJ file photo) Born in New Hampshire and starting his political career in Ohio, Cass (1782-1866) eventually became one of Michigan's premier political animals. He was the second governor of the Michigan Territory and helped usher us into statehood. He designed our coat of arms, founded the Historical Society of Michigan, served as President Andrew Jackson's secretary of war and President James Buchanan's secretary of state. After one failed bid, he was the Democrats' presidential nominee in 1848, losing to Zachary Taylor. He also represented Michigan in the U.S. Senate for 10 years. Sources:Michigan Senate, U.S. State Department Office of the Historian, DTMB ## Billie S. Farnum Building Address:123 W. Allegan St., Lansing Named: By Senate Resolution 474 of 1980 Saginaw native Billie Sunday Farnum (1916-1975) — named after evangelist Billy Sunday — was Michigan's assistant secretary of state from 1957 to 1960 and its auditor general — the state's last publicly elected auditor — from 1961 to 1964. He was an aide to U.S. Sen. Blair Moody and served in Congress himself for a single two-year term starting in 1965. Part of Michigan's "Five Fluke Freshmen," he was ousted from Congress amid political uprisings of the civil rights and antiwar movements. Billie S. Farnum, 19th District Congressional representative and former state auditor and secretary of the state Senate, is seen in this photo provided by the Archives of Michigan. (Photo: Archives of Michigan) But Farnum stayed in politics. After Congress, he held a top spot at the Democratic National Committee, hobnobbing with the likes of Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, and then capped his life with seven years as secretary of the state Senate. Sources:Oakland University, Michigan Capitol historian, legislative records ## John A. Hannah Building Address:608 W. Allegan St., Lansing Named: By Executive Order 1991-26 (Gov. John Engler) Hannah (1902-1991), was president of Michigan State University from 1941 to 1969 — succeeding his father-in-law, Robert Shaw — and pushed the Spartans into the Big Ten conference. In the 1950s and early '60s, he served on the International Development Advisory Board and as an assistant secretary of defense. President Dwight Eisenhower named him the first chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1957, and he served another three presidents in that capacity over a dozen years. John Hannah, longtime president of Michigan State University, is seen in this LSJ file photo. (Photo: LSJ file photo) At MSU, his office was so famously "open door" that he had the door removed, and he was known around campus as "Uncle John." Only a call from President Richard Nixon in 1969 could pull him from the Spartans. He resigned that year to become administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. He also served in the United Nations. Sources: New York Times obituary, Michigan State University, DTMB ## Jerome T. Hart Building Address:411 E. Genesee Ave., Saginaw Named: By Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 of 1995 Jerome T. Hart, a longtime state senator from Saginaw, is seen in this photo provided by the Archives of Michigan. (Photo: Archives of Michigan) Hart (1932-1995), was Saginaw's state senator from 1965 to 1991, becoming one of the Legislature's most senior statesmen before term limits were enacted in the early 1990s. The Democrat, a lifelong Saginaw resident and a former assistant to the state treasurer, held numerous leadership roles during his time in the Senate, including chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, and he made public education his cause. He battled diabetes all his life and suffered a stroke in 1981 but still represented his community for nearly another decade before losing the 1990 election. Jon Cisky, who bested Hart in 1990, introduced the resolution to rename the Saginaw state office building in Hart's honor. Sources:The Political Graveyard, Gongwer News Service, legislative records, DTMB ## Frank J. Kelley Walkway Address: The walkway, much like the position of attorney general, bridges the legislative and gubernatorial functions at the Capitol to the Michigan Supreme Court at the Hall of Justice. The walkway spans the entirety of Capitol Complex, over Walnut and Pine streets. Named: By Public Act 486 of 2012 He'll turn 91 years old on New Year's Eve, but that'll be only the latest accomplishment for Frank Kelley (born 1924). Michigan's top cop for 37 years, Kelley still holds the record for America's longest-serving attorney general. He was also the youngest attorney general when Gov. John Swainson named him to the post in 1961. At the helm, Kelley formed the nation's first consumer and environmental protection divisions, and "was a tireless advocate" for fairness, Gov. Rick Snyder said while dedicating the walkway in 2012. Sources: DTMB, legislative records Frank Kelley, the "eternal general," is seen in this LSJ file photo. (Photo: LSJ file photo) ## Stevens T. Mason Building Address: 530 W. Allegan St., Lansing Named: By House Concurrent Resolution 35 of 1952 This LSJ file photo shows a portrait of Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of the State of Michigan. (Photo: LSJ file photo) Mason (1811-1843) was a 19-year-old Virginian when President Andrew Jackson named him secretary of the Michigan Territory in 1831. Mason replaced his own father in the position, and he later became governor of the territory when Gov. George Porter died of cholera. Mason led Michigan through the Toledo War border dispute with Ohio and into statehood in 1837. He appointed the first state superintendent of public instruction and the first state geologist and advocated to put the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He was buried in New York but was moved to Detroit in the early 20th Century. In 2010, during a renovation of Detroit's Capitol Park, Mason's body lay in state in the Capitol in downtown Lansing. Sources: Michigan Historical Center, DTMB, Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal archives Buy Photo Michigan National Guard Honor Guard members stand guard over the casket of Michgan's first Governor, Stevens T. Mason, as his body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Lansing on Oct. 26, 2010. (Photo: Rod Sanford/The Lansing State Journal) ## Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital Address: 30901 Palmer Road, Westland This photo provided by the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University shows Reuther delivering a speech to the American Legion. (Photo: Photo provided) Named: Unclear How exactly the hospital was named after the famed United Auto Workers president seems to have been lost to time, but Walter Reuther (1907-1970) was an advocate for social justice and testified before both state and federal lawmakers on numerous issues, including health care. Officials from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, and a Reuther descendant who worked on a documentary about the UAW president all were unsure exactly how or why the hospital bears Reuther's name, but it appears state government simply inherited it. Four years after Reuther's death, a building called the Walter P. Reuther Long Term Care Facility was erected at the notorious, now-defunct "Eloise" psychiatric hospital complex in Wayne County. The state bought that building in 1979 and renamed it the Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital. A native West Virginian, Reuther came to Detroit in 1927 and worked for the Ford Motor Co. until he was fired after campaigning for a socialist presidential candidate. After a few years in Europe, Reuther returned to Detroit in 1935 and quickly rose through the ranks of the UAW. He led the union between 1946 and 1970, and pushed it and the labor movement as a whole into activism on civil rights, poverty, the environment, public housing, health care and even international relations. He and his wife died in a 1970 plane crash en route to a new worker education center — now called the Walter & May Reuther UAW Family Education Center — in northern Michigan. Sources: Wayne State University, legislative records, Sasha Reuther (great-nephew who produced documentary on Walter Reuther) ## George W. Romney Building Address:111 S. Capitol Ave., Lansing Named: By a Jan. 22, 1997 amendment to Public Act 173 of 1968 In this 1963 photograph, Governor George Romney, surrounded by city officials, signs the Grand Ledge City Charter. The 50-year old document still controls the city's government. City officials are considering beginning the process of replacing the charter. (Photo: Photo provided/LSJ file photo) Born to American emigrants in Mexico, Romney (1907-1995), was an auto-industry titan who resigned from the American Motors Corp. to run for Michigan governor in 1962. Our 43rd governor — the state's first Republican executive in 15 years — served from 1963 through 1969. Known as "the spokesman for a better Detroit," Gov. Romney tackled economic doldrums and strongly supported what was then the new Michigan Civil Rights Commission as he took on housing segregation. As his son, Mitt, would do a generation later, Romney ran for president in 1968 but dropped out early in the Republican primary contest. He later served as President Richard Nixon's secretary of Housing & Urban Development. Sources:New York Times obituary, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, DTMB ## Murray D. Van Wagoner Building Address: 429 W. Ottawa St., Lansing Murray D. Van Wagoner, longtime state highway commissioner and one-term governor, is seen in this photo provided by the Archives of Michigan. (Photo: Archives of Michigan) Named: On Aug. 11, 1999 by Gov. John Engler and by an amendment to Public Act 173 of 1968 Though he was only a one-term governor, one could argue that Van Wagoner (1898-1986) was vital to the mid-century boom that made Michigan an industrial powerhouse. As state highway commissioner from 1933 through 1940, he helped build the state's highway system that carried Detroit and the Big Three automakers into global dominance. He oversaw one of the nation's first highway needs studies, established the first roadside park on the state highway system and built America's first permanent state highway travel information center. He oversaw the construction of a Straits of Mackinac causeway that was the first step in construction of the Mackinac Bridge. In his short stint as governor, the Democrat helped eliminate a $27 million deficit, reinstated the state mental hospital, consolidated tax collection and reorganized the Michigan Civil Service Commission that oversees state employees. After two unsuccessful elections, he returned to engineering. Sources: MDOT, National Governors Association, DTMB ## G. Mennen Williams Building Address:525 W. Ottawa St., Lansing Named: By a Jan. 22, 1997 amendment to Public Act 173 of 1968 This LSJ file photo shows then-Governor G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams, right, signing legislation creating the Mackinac Bridge Authority (Photo: LSJ file photo) As governor, Supreme Court justice, battle-hardened Navy man and globetrotting diplomat, the Detroit-born G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams (1911-1988) made a career of civil service. Heir to the Mennen shaving lotions fortune (hence the nickname), Williams started off as a lawyer, earned 10 battle stars during World War II, and then joined the civil service force at the Office of Price Administration and later the Liquor Control Commission. He ran for governor as a Democrat in 1948 — against the will of his mother, who refused to donate any of the family fortune to a Democratic candidate. In office, he helped push the decades-in the-making Mackinac Bridge to completion and started the annual bridge walk tradition. After the governorship, he served as a foreign diplomat for Presidents Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1970 and remained on the bench until 1986, serving as chief justice his last four years. Sources: Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, National Governors Association, Detroit Historical Society, DTMB Contact Justin A. Hinkley at (517) 377-1195 or jhinkley@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley. ## 22 Michigan women to name buildings after Out of 13 state government facilities named after notable Michiganders, only one is named for a woman. In the spirit of the ongoing national debate about whether the U.S. Treasury should put a woman's face on the $20 bill, here are a list of Michigan women — all members of the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame — for whom Gov. Rick Snyder or the Legislature could name state facilities. The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget lists at least 28 government facilities with no name attached to them. In keeping with the theme of most of the named state buildings, this list includes women recognized for contributions to state government and almost all of them are deceased Mamie Geraldine Neale Bledsoe (1900-1991), director of the Equal Employment Opportunity DivisionThe Con-Con Eleven,the 11 women (of 147 delegates) who served on the 1961-62 Michigan Constitutional Convention, including Vera Andrus (1896-1976), Ruth Gibson Butler (1891-1981), Anne M. Conklin (1925-1975), Katherine Moore Cushman (1916-1991), Ann Elizabeth Donnelly (1924-1984), Adelaide Julia Hart (1900-1995), Lillian Hatcher (1915-1998), Dorothy Leonard Judd (1898-1989) — inducted twice because she also served on the state Civil Service Study Committee that helped form the Michigan civil service system, Ella Demmink Koeze (1905-1986), Marjorie Frances McGowan (1930-1980), and Daisy Elizabeth Elliott (born 1919).Eva McCall Hamilton (1871-1948), first woman elected to the state LegislatureHelen Martin (1889–1973), worked for the Geological Survey Division of the Michigan Department of Conservation and helped compile the centennial geological map of MichiganN. Lorraine Beebe (1910-2005), elected to the state Senate in 1966 and helped create the Michigan Women's Commission and the Michigan Office of Youth ServicesElizabeth Lehman Belen (1886-1975), first woman and first Democrat elected to represent Lansing in the state House, organized the bipartisan Michigan Woman's Government League, and held numerous administrative posts for multiple governorsLucile Belen (1912-2010), a longtime Lansing city councilwoman who helped save trees on the Capitol lawn by organizing women who threatened to tie themselves to the tree trunks after the Legislature proposed clearing trees to add statehouse parkingCora Mae Brown (1914-1972), the first black woman elected to the state Senate and supporter of numerous civil rights protectionsMartha W. Griffiths (1912-2003), state lawmaker, congresswoman who sponsored the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution and lieutenant governorLucille Hanna McCollough (1905-1996), longtime state rep who made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for her 100% voting attendance record and who helped author the state's school funding formulaRuth Thompson (1887-1970), first woman to represent Muskegon in the state House and Michigan's first congresswomanMatilda Dodge Wilson (1883-1967), Michigan's first female lieutenant governorRead or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/1N4vJtyShare your feedback to help improve our site experience! ###### More Stories ###### Mr. Taco owner says business will be 'rebooted' Aug. 17, 2019, 9:45 a.m. ###### MSU athletic trainer charged with 3 crimes in 2 courts Aug. 15, 2019, 5:53 p.m. ###### Landmark apartments in E.L. cleared for move-in Aug. 16, 2019, 7:30 a.m. ###### Boy, 16, shot while playing basketball in Lansing Aug. 15, 2019, 10:42 a.m. FOR SUBSCRIBERS ###### Board admonishes lawyer for 2014 investigation of Nassar Aug. 15, 2019, 3:34 p.m. ###### MSU asks judge to dismiss fraud lawsuit Aug. 16, 2019, 12:39 p.m.
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Murray Van Wagoner
Retirement, death and legacy.
Van Wagoner retired from political life and returned to his engineering interests. He was a member of American Legion, Freemasons, Elks, and the National Exchange Club. He died at the age of eighty-eight in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He is interred at White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery of Troy. 
