page_title: Martha Cook Building
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Martha Cook Building / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of architectural sculpture of "Portia" (1915) Martha Cook Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. From Annotated Inventory of Outdoor Sculpture in Washtenaw County by Einar Einarsson Kvaran 1989
context_page_description: Martha Cook is a Collegiate Gothic women's residence hall at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The building houses approximately 140 women pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University. Women may live in the building through all of their years of study, which is one of the features that separates this dormitory from other dormitory housing options. Martha Cook opened in the fall of 1915 as the first dormitory on campus for female students.
context_section_description: Designed by the architectural firm of York and Sawyer, it was built in 1915. New York lawyer William W. Cook, a Michigan alumnus, donated it to the University in honor of his mother, Martha Wolford Cook.  Above the main entrance is a statue of Portia by Furio Piccirilli, described as “Shakespeare’s most intellectual woman.” Samuel Parsons, the prominent landscape architect, designed the garden in 1921.
caption: Portia
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