933 South State Street in Ann
Arbor was the center of my college experience. This is the story of that house
and my time there.
The house was built around
1910. For the first few decades of its existence, it looked right over the
entrance to Ferry Field. Sitting on the front porch it would have been possible
to hear the crowd cheer as Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in
the span of 45 minutes in 1935.
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| This picture would have been from the driveway |
1940 Census shows the house was
occupied by the famed artist Carleton
Angell who created many sculptures on campus and around Ann Arbor,
including the famous Pumas flanking the entrance to the Ruthven Museum. He
lived in the house with his wife Gladys and their three children.
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| A parade during WWI turning in front of the house |
1950 Census lists Reuben Hartman,
a bricklayer tender and his wife Gertrude, a waitress, as the occupants, along
with 8 lodgers.
Sometime in the decades that
followed the house began being rented exclusively to students. One time some guys from the class of 1982 came by and said they had lived there.
In 2001 a group of friends who
lived there began the infamous BOX house along with some friends in nearby
houses. The BOX house was founded on the principals of friendship and novelty.
Very soon after the house earned a reputation on campus, which lead to ESPN the
magazine including a write-up of the BOX house's famous keg rolling across
State St. during football tailgates. The house was then passed down to new
generations of BOX house inhabitants along with the traditions, stories and
lore.
By the time I encountered the
house it had been student-proofed. The original hardwood floors were replaced
by white tile on the first floor and berber carpet upstairs. The kitchen had been renovated with builder-grade finishes. What originally was likely a single bathroom on the second floor was
split in two and several vanities (pee sinks) added to bedrooms. The siding was
white vinyl and the doors were hollow. Any trace of craftmanship was
eliminated. The house itself was a dump, but the things that occurred there
were the stuff of legend.
My first encounter with the house
was at a party during my Freshmen orientation when I got so drunk on the front
porch on a warm June night that I slept on a bathroom floor and missed signing
up for classes the next day. When I came back to Ann Arbor in the fall I knew
exactly where I would tailgate. While my dorm roommate spent his freshmen year
football Saturdays as a servant to fraternity brothers that he was desperate to
impress, I was immediately accepted in a wide friend circle, no doubt thanks to
my older sister who was friends with everyone there.
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| Freshmen Orientation |
During my sophomore year I lived
in a house 2 blocks away from the BOX house. We would always tailgate at the
BOX house, and during that fall the guys living in the house told me I should
put together a group to rent the house since they were planning to graduate in
the spring. So a few of my roommates and I put together a bit of a ragtag group
to rent the house for my Junior year.
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| Tailgates are better with live music |
In August 2007 I moved into 933 S.
State Street and became part of the next generation to carry on the BOX house tradition. I lived in the back room on the third floor, and upgraded the
futon I had my sophomore year for an actual bed. We had 6 guys and 2 girls in
the house. Halfway through the year we picked up two more roommates when Brick
and Andy were thrown out of their frat and moved into tents in the unfinished
basement.
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| 6 of 8 of the 2007 crew before Brick and Andy moved in |
The following year was my senior
year and the two girls and two of the guys moved out. The two basement dwellers
moved into rooms and Paul, Matt and Zola moved in. Zola did a "pledge semester" in the basement, and then moved into a room for winter semester. Matt dropped
out of college in the fall and for most of the year we had 9 guys and one
hamster inhabiting the house. It was a raucous environment where people would
just show up to hang out at any given time. The tailgates that fall were some
of the most fun days of my life.
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| The house oozed patriotism |
Living at the BOX House carried with
it a certain cachet on campus. Most of the student body was aware of the house
and our tailgates. I’d say that more than once I told a girl that I live in the
BOX House and she suddenly found me more interesting and/or disgusting. It seemed
like everyone had a story about the house.
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| We may have made this one up |
If they hadn’t been there personally
they may read about the house as we were mentioned on MGoBlog,
College Humor, and a write-up in the Michigan Daily. After I moved out in the
summer of 2009 the City Attorney for Ann Arbor sent us a Cease and Desist letter to the house to try and stop the tailgating that they said had gotten
out of hand. This lead to some bemoaning in the media and student led protests
of the city’s attempts to limit tailgating.
While my time in the house had
ended, several of the underclassmen roommates continued to live at 933 and then
next door at 1001. The BOX house carried on until eventually there was no one
left to carry on the tradition and the house reverted back to a regular student
house. With that, the BOX house was no more, but the physical house remained.
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| The house in 2018 |
When would think about the things
I would do if I won the lottery, I always liked to daydream about buying the
BOX house and turning it into the most incredible student house. I’d open up
the first floor to a big open space with couches and TVs, I’d build bigger
porch and 2nd story deck above, install a great sound system and
generally nicer finishes. I’d then rent it out way below market value on the
condition that they always host a great tailgate that me and my friends could join
in at. That was my dream, but it will never happen.
The house is now fenced off and
slated for demolition along with the houses to the north up to Packard. The
city has approved a 14-story high-rise between State and Packard and these
houses are all being demolished. The front porch where I spent so many hours
will be gone, the living room where I watched countless hours of Gettysburg
will be no more, the bedroom where I studied and had other significant life
experiences will also disappear. In its place only the memories will remain
until they too will be forgotten.
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| The house prior to demolition |
But I’ll cherish the memories, and
wanted to write down some of my favorites since that will leave this on a
happier note:
Favorite Tailgate Traditions:
Du Hast
We would always start a tailgate Saturday
by setting the house sound system (my childhood Gateway computer with WinAmp
connected to speakers) to play Du Hast at 5:30 in the morning to wake up the
residents, any overnight female guests and half the neighborhood.
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| Tailgate |
Thunderstruck
I think this has gained in
popularity in the past 15 years, but the BOX house was well known for circling
up when Thunderstruck came on to take turns drinking at each mention of the
word “Thunder”.
Keg Laps
Typically the Keg was on the porch,
so a common game was to drink directly from the key and then run across State
St., then across Hoover Ave., and then back across State St before running up
the steps and kicking the keg. Miraculously I never saw anyone get hit by a car,
but there were some very close calls.
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| Ann Arbor's finest multi-level tailgate |
The Field Goal
Another fun tradition was going
out in the street during a tailgate and trying to kick a field over the metal arm
holding up the traffic lights. I usually was the holder, and then a few
students would be on the other side of the light to return the kick. If it went
over the metal arm the whole street would cheer the successful kick. An important
thing to note is that we did this in traffic, usually before the cops would
come and start directing traffic around 10am.
Keg Rolling
Only the most skilled could
logroll their keg across State Street, turn it around and roll it back without
falling off. I could never do it, but damn if I didn’t try. By the end of
tailgate season we would have 20ish empty kegs in the basement so there were
plenty of opportunities.
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| Keg Rolling |
Favorite non-tailgate
traditions:
Fall Foliage Month
During the fall, I think usually
in September someone would declare that it was Fall Foliage Month and then we
would go out and collect leaves and branches and in one case an entire tree and
drag them into the living room. It really spruced up the place for a few weeks.
Fruit in the Street
This was one of the best
activities in the house. We would take all the rotten, uneaten fruit from the
kitchen/fridge and put it in the middle of State Street. Then we’d sit on the
porch and wait for cars to hit it. It was truly joyful game. Eventually the
game branched out and the definition of fruit expanded to any food or destroyable
items. When the question of “wanna play fruit in the street?” was raised, I
never recall anyone ever saying no.
Gettysburg
The movie Gettysburg played on
constant repeat in the house on a TV dedicated to playing Gettysburg. |
| Your intrepid author |
Hey Ya!
Anytime the song Hey Ya! came on
during a party or tailgate everyone in the house would run out to the street for
an impromptu street dance party.
Drunkest Man in America
At any given time, someone holds
the title of Drunkest Man in America, there was a good chance that man resided
in the BOX house, so after a trip to Goodwill there was always someone in
possession or challenging for the title of Drunkest Man in America. When the
trophy would inevitably get destroyed, we would take another trip to Goodwill.
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| A typical representation of earning the DMIA title |
The Masters/Old Crow Challenge
During the Masters the house would
hold an annual beer can golf tournament and try to drink as much Old Crow as
possible. There was probably more to it than that, but I was pretty drunk for the whole thing on account of the Old Crow.
Friendsgiving
Each fall before departing Ann Arbor
to return to our families for Thanksgiving we would host a Thanksgiving dinner
for all our friends. We would dress up, and people actually worked hard to prepare
a legitimate Thanksgiving feast. It might have been the most “real-life” think
we did. But it was always fun and probably the classiest think that we would
do.
Christmas Party
The BOX House Christmas Party was
always a great way to end the Fall Semester. Besides tailgates, it was probably
the most packed the house would get. When Zola lived in the basement he
reported that the floor joists would bend and creek with the weight of 100 people
on the first floor.
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| All dressed up |
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| Christmas Party |
Etcetera
So many little memories. Playing
drinking games, Paul’s feud with the street sweeper, watching girls come down
the stairs on a Sunday morning looking very confused, Paul’s eating challenges,
the house hamster, drinking challenges, and playing through. Many of those
small memories are documented by the BOX House blog at https://boxhouse933.blogspot.com/
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| I'll miss this shithole deeply |
