Appropriate housing for out-of-town students was needed for the success of the new school. John M. Longyear and J.C. Ayer erected a building for that purpose on the site of St. Michael's Catholic Church today. It was ready for use by summer school students in 1900 and seventy occupants lived there that first summer. A dining room accommodated 140 people and a suite of rooms adjoined the dining room which served as an apartment for Northern's first principal, Dwight B. Waldo, and his family. Later, Marquette was better able to provide private housing for Northern students, and the school stopped using the building around 1917. It was purchased by a Catholic priest in 1919 and in 1942 the building was remodeled and converted into St. Michael's Catholic Church.