FatoAvFOCUS The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 8, 1995 - 3A The Ships that Jim Built: One of three of the president's hand-made model ships. NOPPORN KICHANANT HA/Oady By Megan Schimpf Daily Staff Reporter O n the outside, the President's House is quiet-looking and stately. But on the inside, the President's House is the Duderstadts' house. Stuffed bears look at the president while he works at his desk in his study. Caroling mice made by Susan, the eldest daughter,join the silver and tea cups in the dining room. And a special Wheaties box with James on the front sits in the library. The President's Hbuse has been home to the University's president and first family since 1852. Yet it remains a mystery to many students who see the house from the street while walking to class, and who know it only from rumors around campus. The most popular: The Duderstadts don't really live there. Anne Duderstadt looks puzzled to hear students believe that. "They do?" she said. "Yes, we sure do." She says she leaves the house each day, even if no one sees her. "I'm in and out of this place several times a day. I drive in and out," she says. "I try not to hit too many students." Looking out the windows of 815 South University Ave. offers a different perspective than looking in. Inside, the daily trials and tribulations of running the University seem to disappear in the shadow of the history that overwhelms the 155-year-old house. "I do love it for its history," Anne Duderstadt said. But the house has not remained unchanged since 1840, when it was completed. Each of the presidents who have lived there has made at least minor changes. The effect has given the house a dynamically evolving ap- pearance, both inside and out. "It's a house that's reflected the various presidents and the people who've lived here," said University historian Robert Warner. "It's been growing all the time; it's never been frozen in time. "It's always changing, and that's one of the interesting things about it. It has the stamp of every president and president's wife who've lived here," he said. The current residents are no exception. The couple moved in when James J. Duderstadt became president in 1988 and renovated a year later, replacing carpet, wallpaper and some furniture to make the house look brighter. But the historical charm of the house remains intact. Walking around the house, Anne Duder- stadt points out rooms added by Presidents Harlan Hatcher, James Angell and Alex- ander Ruthven. For her, these men and their families are more than just names on build- ings - pictures of the presidents and their families hang on the wall by the staircase. "These are my friends," she says, laughing. The first floor blends a ceremonial Uni- versity showcase with a private family home. In among the historic dining room table, the piano played by Leonard Bernstein and the fireplaces once used to heat the house are a collection of memories and personal touches. On either side of the entry hallway are the diningroom and the living room, both deco- rated in light yellow tones with white car- peting and walls. From the street, the living room is on the right, and leads into the sun room in the front corner. Here, the dark wood floors with white berber area rugs of the hallway and living room give way to dark red tiling. The room is filled with windows, as de- signed by President Marion Burton. "At that time, all these windows would have been open and there would have been a breeze," Anne Duderstadt said. "But, since then, all thewindowshavebeen painted shut." The sun room is dominated by a full-size piano, with Mendelssohn and other classical sheet music ready to be played. Underneath the piano lives Omar, a large stuffed camel. "He's a friend of the family," Anne Duderstadt said. "My husband and children have allergies, so we can't have dogs and cats. So we have a lot of stuffed animals." I NOPPORN KICHANANTHA/Daily Anne and the Two Bears: Anne Duderstadt, withTeddy and Big Al, two of the three stuffed bears who live in the president's study. NOPPORN KLCHANANTHAIDaily Getting ready: On the back porch of the President's House, the tea cups and silver are out in preparation for a luncheon today. Through the door is the dining room. Through the sun room is the plant room. With windows taking up most of the wall space, the room is filled with plants in metal pots on red tile cement shelves. Ruthven commonly kept snakes in both rooms. "It is somewhat apocryphal, but he used to say it was really kind of good training for dealing with the faculty," Warner said. The plant room opens into President Duderstadt's study, where everything says something about the man who works there. The bears - named Victoria, Teddy and Big Al for British monarchs-are seated in two chairs around a small conference table facing Duderstadt's large, L-shaped desk. On the desk is a Macintosh computer; an IBM computer and a printer sit on a corner table. The windows look out on the back- yard, but the Graduate Library looms large beyond the back fence. Three exquisitely detailed model ships, handmade by the president, sit around the room - artifacts from another time. "They were from his years on the faculty when he had a little more time," his wife said. The dark wood walls are decorated with personal awards, including a certificate from Phi Beta Kappa and the 1986 Outstanding Engineering Award from the Professional Engineers in Education, and letters from heat and air conditioning in the 23-room house. The'basement ceiling is a web of pipes and machines that regularly leak and occasionally break. "The problem is, when they added on, they had no idea the house would last this long, so they put the plumbing behind the walls," she said. "Now, when we have leaks, which is all the time, sometimes they have to tear the walls down." The heating and cooling equipment used to be in the attic. "But, then, a couple of years ago, they noticed the roof was coming apart from the house and the heavy equip- ment was pulling the attic down," she said. "Old houses are great." Anne says she spends most of her time in the kitchen. She does all of their cooking. "We don't eat very well," she says, laugh- ing. James Duderstadt does some cooking - he makes an apple pie. "He makes his apple pies every fall for the deans," Anne Duderstadt said. Any receptions or meetings at the house are catered. When the house was originally built, the front faced what is now the Graduate Li- brary. That large front porch has since been enclosed. There is another dining table there, also ready for the reception with tea cups and silver bowls of holly. The glass panels open to an inlaid slate porch. Anne Duderstadt said they rarely use the room. "You get a nice view of the Graduate pace Library and they get a nice view ofyou," she you said. "I can stand here and wave to students toliVe and they wave back." The dining room table seats 17 and the porch only 10, mak- Anne Duderstadt ing it difficult to host ance problems in large dinners. ?resident's House The most interesting room of the house is the library, built by Angell as a study. Now, the room is domi- nated by a Christmas tree, wrapped presents, and a train set running around it. Home Impmovements * 1840 - Built as one of four identical houses for professors. ! 1852 - Tappan moved in. * 1858 - Gas lighting installed. * 1864 - Haven added a one-story kitchen .. People complained it spoiled the house lines and allowed unfavorable odors to permeate the parlors. -+ At some point during Haven's tenure, a third story was added, adorned with sawed brackets favored during the Civil War. It also Included a widow's walk, unusual for an inland house. ! 1871 - Indoor plumbing installed as the final stipulation of James Angell before he became president of the University. * Angell also installed a hot air furnace. -+ First indoor plumbing in Ann Arbor. ! 1891 - West wing added to give semicircular library and more bedrooms. The dining room and the living room were made from two pairs of small rooms on either side of the ground floor hallway. * 1891 - Wired for electricity. A barn, orchard, and vegetable garden remained. ! WWI - House was made the headquarters for the Red Cross. a Students came regularly to roll surgical dressings. ! 1920 - Burton moves in the vacant house, since Hutchins was the only president not to live in the house. Added a sleeping porch on the second floor and a sun room. The backporch was enclosed into a dining area. ! 1921 - Mrs. Burton opened the house for three freshmen teas to welcome the new women. * 1930 Ruthven began a series of students teas at the house so he could meet and talk to hundreds of undergraduates a year. + Ruthven added a glassed-in plant room y Hatchers added glassed-in porch and stone terrace in the back. A ±07r) - Ar~lA fin tho hitinnn Pan t former Presidents Bush and Reagan. But the book- shelves, packed with colorful spines, refuse to define the man who is the 11th president of the Uni- versity of Michigan. Duderstadt, a nuclear engineer, keeps acol- lection ofphysics and engineering text- books, but also has on his shelves Dante, 44-, ltsaiA to visits but wouldn't w; here:" on all the mainten the P William Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, Plato and Shakespeare. The hundreds of books range from "Foucault's Pendulum" to I. *' \ v'