An Uncommon Stay

In 2024, a swanky new hotel will open in the lively college town of Ann Arbor, The Vanguard Hotel. Behind the intricately detailed “French Brasserie” bar and light-filled lobby, however, is a man whose efforts forever changed the path of the region, as well as the University of Michigan. A true vanguard himself, James Burrill Angell led the way in creating “an uncommon education for the common man.” 

Coming from the University of Vermont in 1871, new school president James B. Angell attended chapel at the University of Michigan, which was required every morning at universities in the United States at the time. Instead of a quiet time of reflection, a tradition had been created amongst students to throw food at each other (an interesting sort of prayer). While previous presidents had not had any luck in stopping the meal-throwing melee, the story goes that upon the second day of school chapel, Angell deliberately asked the students to stop throwing things at each other–and it stopped. The event would be only the first of James Angell’s revolutionary reshaping of the university.