Marwood House History

In the fall of the year nineteen hundred and thirty-six, Reverend William McFadden, of the Methodist Church of West Lafayette, held a meeting at the Wesley Foundation. This meeting was held to discuss plans for securing a suitable house for starting a Cooperative House. After a house was found at 204 Marstellar Street, fifteen Purdue students organized and moved into the house on or soon after January 1, 1937, and they named the house Marstellar Cooperative House, and paid a $20.00 monthly house bill. The first fifteen members were as follows:

The first house officers of Marstellar Cooperative House were as follows:

Marstellar Cooperative later became known as Marwood Cooperative House when it was decided to combine the names of the streets the house was on, the corner of Marstellar and Wood Streets.

The following is a list of the house advisors and their years of dedicated service to the men of Marwood:

Bachelor Haven, on the corner of Waldron and State Streets, became the second house occupied by the Marwood members on June 2, 1942. Mr. Goodnight, the landlord of Bachelor Haven, rented the house to the Marwood members for $50.00 a month. In 1946, plans were completed to pay off the mortgage of the house, and in 1955, the house was officially purchased and owned by the Marwood members.

In the fall of 1967, Marwood Cooperative moved to a new location at 136 Littleton Street. The purchasing price, consisting of the house (owned by Dr. Calvert) and three acres, was $85,0000.00. the house was previously occupied by a Jewish fraternity, Tau Epsilon Phi. In 1978, the mortgage was paid off on this house, and, once again, Marwood owned its own house.

The following is a list of house mothers and their years of grateful dedication to Marwood:

In 1977, after Mrs. Huffman left, it was decided that a house mother was no longer needed. Instead, a cook was hired to prepare the five evening meals. The other meals were prepared by the house members themselves. This cook was Mrs. Ema Ryan. Mrs. Ryan retired after the Spring semester of 1985. In the search of a new cook, a member of the house, Mr. Timothy Ehlerding, proposed to act as cook in exchange for free room and board, and the members accepted. To avoid having to fill the cook position so often, it was decided to hire someone other than a house member as cook. Mrs. Edith Crandall was hired in the fall of 1986. Then , in October of 1990, Mrs. Crandall retired, due to her husband’s declining health. The house members accepted the quick solution of having two house members, Mike Albrecht and Brent Spaulding, alternate cooking responsibilities. Following this, Marwood members took over the responsibility of all food preparation.

In the fall of 1995, Marwood Cooperative became known as Theta Delta Chi. In order to ease growing financial burdens, the House hoped to benefit from belonging to a national chartered fraternity. After one year and no real foreseeable benefit, the House returned to being known only as Marwood and rejoined the Purdue Cooperative Council. This movement is why Marwood is no longer the longest running Cooperative House but is still the oldest.