French Chateau-style mansion built 1917-1918 for ball-bearing magnate Leander J. Hoover; now headquarters of University Bank — exterior viewing only from Washtenaw Avenue.
2015 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing only from Washtenaw Avenue; this is a working bank headquarters, not a tour site.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Sidewalk along Washtenaw Avenue; the mansion sits back from the road behind a 320-foot pathway and cast-iron gate
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1918 · One of Ann Arbor's most ambitious French Chateau-style private mansions · Documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS No. MI-303) · Tied to the Hoover Steel Ball Company, an important early Ann Arbor industrial concern · Site of an owner death tied to the 1918 influenza pandemic, the year the mansion was completed · Current headquarters of University Bank (University Bancorp), Ann Arbor
Leander J. Hoover (1876-1918) was a self-made industrialist who learned ball-bearing manufacturing as a teenager and built a national business. After founding the Grant Hoover Company in Merchantville, New Jersey in 1906, he established the Hoover Steel Ball Company in Ann Arbor in 1913. Flush with success, he commissioned Ann Arbor architect Rupert Koch to design a French Chateau-style mansion on a 3.3-acre estate at 2015 Washtenaw Avenue. Construction began in 1917 and reportedly cost approximately $350,000, an extraordinary sum at the time. The estate included a 320-foot pathway from Washtenaw Avenue, a cast-iron gate, and a separate carriage house.
Hoover did not live to enjoy the finished home. After a prolonged illness complicated by the 1918 influenza pandemic, he died in September of 1918 at age 42, the same year the mansion was completed. His widow eventually sold the property, and over the next several decades it cycled through a striking sequence of owners: Kappa Sigma fraternity (1922), Carroll and Mrs. Benz (1946), Tau Delta Phi fraternity (1950), Youth for Understanding (1968-1978), the advertising firm Group 243 Inc., and Patton Corporation (1983), which leased it to General Automotive Corporation.
In 1984 the Patton Corporation invested more than $2.3 million in a major restoration, adding modern HVAC, an elevator, and custom millwork while preserving the historic envelope. In 2005, University Bank acquired the entity Hoover LLC that owned the property and made the mansion its corporate headquarters. The bank further renovated the interior with current technology and security systems while keeping the building's historic character intact.
The Hoover House was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS No. MI-303) and remains one of Ann Arbor's most architecturally significant private residences, even as it functions today as a working bank.
Sources
The Hoover Mansion's reputation as a 'haunted home' has been carried forward primarily by a 1988 Ann Arbor News feature by Constance Crump titled 'Haunted Homes,' which included the property in a roundup of Ann Arbor houses with tragic backstories. The Haunted Mitten Podcast's Ann Arbor episode likewise references the mansion in connection with Hoover's death from influenza-complicated illness in September 1918, just as the building was being completed.
The paranormal claims attached to the building, however, are thin in the surveyed sources. The Ann Arbor District Library catalog page for the 1988 article preserves the headline and date but does not retain the specific phenomena alleged. Independent witness accounts, named apparitions, or recurring phenomena (footsteps, voices, sightings) are not documented in the materials reviewed for this listing.
Because the structure is now University Bank's working headquarters, there is no public interior access for would-be investigators, and any modern paranormal claim about the building would necessarily be filtered through bank staff or contractors. As a result, the haunted reputation here is essentially atmospheric, tied to the resonant story of a 42-year-old industrialist dying of influenza in the year his dream home was completed. This entry is flagged for human review pending stronger sourcing.
This venue is privately owned (now University Bank corporate offices) and not open to the public — appreciate the grounds from the public street only.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
View the French Chateau-style limestone mansion from Washtenaw Avenue, including the long approach drive, formal cast-iron gate, and carriage house on the 3.3-acre estate. The exterior reads as one of the most ambitious early-20th-century private homes in Ann Arbor.
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