The house built by a book

Cornell English professor Winifred Mayne Van Etten ՚25 won $10,000 from The Atlantic’s book contest in 1936. Her book funded the build of the entire house. The Van Etten-Lacey House (VEL) has been home to English professors and only English professors its entire existence. 

Shortly after the death of both Van Ettens in the mid-’80s, another Cornell graduate and English professor purchased the property and moved in. Stephen Lacey ’65 lived there until his death in 2000. Lacey’s legacy included courses in Shakespeare, on England, and literature of AIDS. Lacey was the first openly gay professor at Cornell and founder of its first lesbian and gay support group.

Students from Van Etten’s era and beyond attended numerous literary gatherings at the home. With the generous support of alumni and spearheaded by Mark Van Etten ’76 (a relative of Winifred’s husband, Ben Van Etten ’28, who hand-built the home), Cornell purchased the home and refurbished it in 2012, making sure that generations of students will continue to read, write, and yes, create community at VEL.

Cornell has a rich literary history that includes Robert P. Dana. Dana started and then, later, revived the North American Review in the 1960s and went on to serve as Iowa’s Poet Laureate from 2004 through 2008. He taught at Cornell from 1954 to 1994.