The story of Ann Arbor's Blunderstone Rookery

Andy Seidl, current owner of the rookery, used to live in Oxford Housing as a University of Michigan student. When Seidl and his future wife Carol took walks in the neighborhood, they'd wonder about the origins of the name, but the inquiries would stop there.

Fast forward to 1996, when the Seidls were looking to buy a home. They were checking out places outside the city when Carol noticed an ad for an open house at the Blunderstone Rookery.

Andy and Carol went in "for kicks," but liked what they saw. They made an offer, and three days later, it was accepted. 

The name inspired a curiosity to find out the backstory.

And that story traces back to 1974, when then U-M English professor Bert Hornback moved into 1717 South U.

As a child growing up in Kentucky, Hornback remembered the negative response a local woman got for giving her home a name. Neighbors found her uppity for doing so. But on Hornback's travels through Europe and England, where house-naming is acceptable if not common, he developed a different perspective on the practice.

After purchasing the home in 1974, Hornback decided to name it. And what better name for an English professor to choose than his favorite work by his favorite author? 

The Blunderstone Rookery name was chosen in homage to Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield the Younger of the Blunderstone Rookery."

During Hornback's almost 20 years in the home, he regularly opened the doors of the Rookery to students and other faculty members. In 1979, Hornback founded the Society of Bremen Scholars, a debate/discussion club that met Monday nights at the Rookery for about a decade.

A few ground rules applied. First, anyone who joined had to come every week - the half-committed wouldn't be welcome. Second, each of the 18 professors and administrators involved had to bring two students each. The goal was close the distance between students and faculty.

The weekly discussions continued into 1989, when Hornback decided he had tied up his colleagues' Monday nights long enough.

When Hornback hosted dinner parties at his home, he'd replace the R in rookery with a C, converting his home into the Blunderstone Cookery for the night - also a Copperfield reference. (Hornback said he took the C with him as a memento when he left Ann Arbor.)

"I remember seeing that happen, the cookery," Seidl said. "Hornback also had a birdhouse by the same name, and he would change the letters on that, too."

Seidl said the family enjoys the home and its name, but has no plans to buy another C.

These days, Hornback, 75, teaches English and literature at Saarland University in Saarbruecken, Germany. Hornback said he feels re-energized by his new students, his new locale, his new life. 

But he's glad a piece of his legacy in Ann Arbor remains.

"I like that they've kept the name," Hornback said by phone from Germany.

James David Dickson can be reached JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.