Welcome to Robert Owen Cooperative House!

Welcome to one of the oldest and best co-ops in Ann Arbor. Founded in 1938, Owen House moved to its present site in 1944, making it the second oldest existing ICC co-op. With more than sixty years of cooperation behind it, Owen house isn't just another place to live, but an entire way of life that can be both fun and educational.

Owen House is named after Robert Owen (1771-1858), who was known as the 'Father of Co-operation' and of British socialism. He was born in Newtown, Wales and worked in London and Manchester before becoming the manager of the mills of the New Lanark Twist Company in 1800. While in New Lanark he developed his theory of character formation, his ideas on the education of children and the improvement of working conditions - such as the reduction of working hours and the introduction of sick pay.

Owen was involved in work to limit child labor in factories and set up co-operative communities in the UK and America. One of his sons remained in America and became a Senator. There is a Robert Owen Museum in Newtown, Wales and the village which became world famous as Owen's model community and has now received World Heritage Status.

In 1945, Owen House changed to a women's house because of the scarcity of male students during World War II. It changed back into a men's house a year later as soldiers returned from the war, and went co-ed in the 1960s. Owen House also housed the ICC office until it moved into the Student Activities Building in 1957.

From the outside, one can tell that great things await within. A large old house nestled away amongst foliage, Owen is inviting from the moment you step on the porch. As you go through the front hall further into the house, you will notice the beautiful woodwork and spaciousness that make the house probably the nicest ICC co-op. The fun, friendly atmosphere is created by the unique people that live there. On any given night, there might be people hanging out in the Pleasure Parlour, "studying" by the fire, playing guitars in the Def Jam Room, playing a game of billiards or foosball, watching a movie, or all of the above. Owenites are a diverse group with a wide range of interests, which makes Owen a great place to meet people from different backgrounds as well as an interesting place to live.

Owen houses 24 people in 3 singles, 9 doubles and 1 spacious triple. We also have boarders that come to our house to eat and they come from all around the local neighborhood. We boast a nicely inviting fireplace, a DVD, VCR, a piano, spacious bike shed and a freshly refurnished porch with an elegant porch swing. Owen has a number of traditions, such as the House Prom. We eat meat sometimes but always have vegetarian alternatives. All in all, Owen has been and continues to be a great house and I think you'll thoroughly enjoy living here.

Welcome to Owen House's Lobby!	From our lobby you can walk upstairs to your room, or stay downstairs where our living room, dining room, and kitchen are located.	Our living room comes equipped with sofas for socializing, a piano, ping pong table, and pool table (under ping pong table).
We pride ourselves over our clean kitchen space with every available cookware and ingredients provided.	We also have a large stove when we cook for the entire house. We always provide dinner for our members from Sunday-Thursday during the fall and winter semesters.	We have plenty of fridge space to store our public AND private foods. Not pictured: Two more refridgerators.
Our dining room is where are members congregate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Be a part of this social scene and join our house!	Upstairs are our rooms, which are seperated by hallways and mini-living rooms.	A typical double inside Owen house.
One of our three bathrooms in the house. Comes with 3 sinks, 2 stalls, and 2 shower stalls.	In our basement we have a washer and dryer for our members to use.	We also provide our members with 12 off-street parking spots.
On the side of our house is our prized trampoline! Come over and give it a try!	Sometimes at night we sit outside and enjoy conversing around a great campfire.

GUFF: This word stands for everything that is shared communally. It is used mainly as a noun but it can also be a verb or an adjective as well. The term probably originated as “general unspecified free food,” but now can mean many things in addition to food. We have guff raisin bran, guff laundry detergent, guff flour, guff magic markers, guff newspapers, guff tools, etc. The rules of thumb for guff is as follows: If it’s not labeled (i.e. it doesn’t have anybody’s name on it), it’s guff.

Work: This is the most important duty of a co-oper and the thing that keeps the place running. Each house member does approximately four hours of work a week. Boarders from Stevens co-op or local apartments do about two hours (the rest they do at their own houses). Work is either scheduled or unscheduled. Scheduled jobs are done at a set time each week. These jobs include cooking dinner or cleaning the kitchen after lunch or dinner. Unscheduled jobs are more flexible in that members can do the job whenever they like, just so long as it is done each week. These jobs include, common room cleans, bathroom cleans, guff maker, etc.

In addition, to the above kinds of jobs, the house also elects house officers. (All officers are elected at the new members meeting held in the spring.) These positions and their responsibilities are

President - servers on the ICC Board of Directors, facilitates, house meetings and takes care of odds and ends;
Treasurer - drafts the house budget for the house to vote on, collects monthly charges, pay the bills,
Maintenance Manager - handles minor (and some major) maintenance problems around the house
Social/Educational -Director plans house educational events as well as parties and movie nights
Secretary - takes minutes at house meetings, posts ICC announcements, forwards mail.

Work Holiday: Despite what the name might suggest this is not a vacation from work. Rather, once a term, we set aside an entire weekend day to clean the entire house and work on improvements projects like painting or staining the woodwork on the front stairs. It is a lot of work but is really fun. Get up early for a pancake feast, work all day and then relax with beer and pizza in the early evening

House meetings: Perhaps one of your most important responsibilities as a house member is to attend house meetings and actively participate. We usually have these meetings every other week and they generally run two to three hours. At house meetings we decide on everything - what newspapers to buy, how many times a week to serve dinner, how to deal with uncooperative behavior, how much to spend on the next party, etc. etc. Sometimes we have general discussions on relevant topics which we call a co-op forum. Topics of discussion range from gay issues, to ICC development projects, to in-house and out-of-house relations. House meetings are also good times to get to know your house mates better and to catch up on what’s going on in the house and in the ICC.

House Charges: Each year we set our budget, which determines how much we have to pay each month. House charges go towards buying food, maintenance, soc-ed, and ICC expenses such as the ICC wide maintenance funds, development projects, mortgages, taxes, etc. This year, house charges are $420 per month. Can you beat that?

Food: This year we decided to serve dinner every night except Saturday. In addition to this, we also have Sunday brunch, a house favorite. Sunday morning comes (well Actually afternoon) and people mosey on down to the kitchen (usually in their robes and post Saturday night stupor) to fresh muffins, hash browns, potato pie or whatever the cooks dream up. Often during Sunday brunch, many a new guest is introduced.

Quiet Hours: Quiet hours voted on each semester and they are currently from midnight to 9 a.m. and 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekends. No phone buzzing is allowed. Of course, we have 24 hours courtesy which means you can nicely request someone to turn their stereo down when you are tying to take an afternoon nap.

Historical Photos

Every year, Owen House has a intra-house Prom Party. This is a picture of our guys from years ago.	Here is a picture of our girls from the very same year.	Our prom dinner.