Very Important Parties

We're hiring!

If you are, or someone you know is interested in joining the most elite, highly-reputed hospitality team in the business, we are searching for the best talent the U of M / Ann Arbor area has to offer!

Tag and share away, and tell you referrals to include your name in the "referred by" section of our online application for a $15 referral bonus per referral!

Today, OrionAbbey.com proudly staffs hundreds per year at Meadowbrook Hall, to ensure their clients' event experiences are exceptional! It is a distinct honor and privilege to serve such a prestigious client, and embolden the continued MSU/OU relationship!

On September 18, 1967, Matilda Dodge Wilson died in Brussels, Belgium at the age of 83. Born in Canada in 1883, her family moved to Detroit the next year. She started working as a secretary at the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company in 1902 and met co-founder John Francis Dodge, whom she married in 1907. John died during an influenza epidemic in 1920, and his brother Horace succumbed to complications from the same outbreak later that same year. Matilda and her sister-in-law Anna Thompson Dodge sold the brothers' car company in 1925 for a record $146 million. Matilda subsequently married Alfred Wilson and built a new mansion called Meadow Brook Hall, which was completed in 1929.

Matilda Dodge Wilson went on to be elected to the State Board of Agriculture and the governing board of Michigan State University. She also became the first women to be appointed Lieutenant Governor of Michigan 1940.

Finally, in 1957, Matilda and Albert Wilson donated their 1,500-acre estate, its buildings (including Meadow Brook Hall), and $2 million to Michigan State to establish what is now known as Oakland University.