The Eugene V. Debs Cooperative House is a

student housing cooperative A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are designed to lower housing cos ...

founded in 1967, one of the 18 cooperative houses which make up the Inter-Cooperative Council at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Debs Cooperative is located at 909 East University Avenue in Ann Arbor,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, and is named for

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

candidate

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...

. Debs has a reputation for being politically active, socially conscious, and environmentally focused. House funds go towards maintenance and the purchase of organic food, and members of the house cook

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

meals five nights a week.

History

The structure at 909 E. University Avenue was built in 1905 as a three-story single family home. In 1939, the house was rented by former members of Rochdale Cooperative House, another Ann Arbor cooperative, and opened under the name Congress House. In 1940, Congress House was relocated and the building was renamed the Muriel Lester Cooperative House, after British peace activist Muriel Lester. Lester Cooperative offered interracial and interfaith women's housing until 1943, when it too was relocated and the building at 909 E. University was sold. During a period of expansive growth beginning in the early 1960s, the Inter-Cooperative Council looked into re-acquiring the building from its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard F. Field. After a lengthy process of negotiations, the house was purchased on May 1, 1967, for a price of $49,500 (approx. $358,000 in 2016 inflation-adjusted dollars) and was opened as the Eugene V. Debs Cooperative House. It originally operated as an all-boys' cooperative house, with two apartment rooms available for married students. By the mid-1970s, this was changed to allow students of any gender, and it remains a mixed-gender house today. Screenwriter and director

Lawrence Kasdan Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the '' Star Wars'' films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''The Force Awakens'' (2015), and '' Solo: A Star Wars St ...

lived at Debs Cooperative in the late 1960s, and his experiences at the co-op served as a basis for the 1983 film '' The Big Chill''. Many of the characters were based on his housemates, and the ways in which they cook communal meals and share their house echo the culture of Ann Arbor cooperatives.

Structure

Debs Cooperative is a 3-story frame house, with 15 residential rooms capable of housing 23 students. It has a shared kitchen, dining room, and two common rooms, one located on the ground floor and one in the basement. The yard has a shed for bikes and garden supplies, an outdoor compost bin, and several garden beds.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The ICC's Official Website

The Debs House page on the ICC website
Cooperatives at the University of Michigan Houses in Ann Arbor, Michigan Student housing cooperatives in the United States Residential buildings in Michigan 1967 establishments in Michigan

History

Structure

See also

References

External links