Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the college dorm
complete with pennants. Here is a “new
and improved” version of a post I did in June 2012 featuring dorm life at
Harrisonburg Teacher’s College in 1924 (now James Madison University – Go
DUKES!).
Most college students will agree that the first year dorm
experience generates the strongest memories about leaving home and living on
campus. My grandaunt Velma Davis (later
Woodring) was going to college in an exciting time. The young president Samuel P. Duke had been
on the job for just a few years, and he was building new classrooms and dorms
as fast as he could find the money. When
faced with a housing crisis, he sought additional funds for more dorms but was
denied. However, Mr. Duke was a clever
man. He convinced a doctor in town to
build an apartment building so that HTC could rent the entire place to house
over 60 students. And so Wellington Hall
came to be home for Velma in 1924-25.
 |
| Wellington Hall South Main Street, Harrisonburg, Virginia 1924 |
Wellington was located on South Main Street across from
campus.
 |
| Velma appears to be reading someone's scrapbook. |
Dorm life in the 1920s
Quiet hours were from 7:00-10:00 on weekday nights and 2:00-4:00
on Sunday afternoons.
It was "Lights out" at 10:30 each night. As a result many girls studied by flashlight under their covers or in the bathroom.
Visiting during study hours required permission from the
House chairman.
 |
| Leta LeVow dressed in her "unmentionables" doing the unmentionable -- smoking! |
No smoking PERIOD – not on campus, not when away for the
weekend, not when traveling to and from campus. (I wonder how they monitored that!)
Students had to be ON campus by 6:00 p.m. every day.
Students had to wear hats if they went into the business
section of town.
 |
| Leta got the top bunk. Three girls shared a room. |
If walking a mile from campus, students had to be in groups of
3 or more.
There was no riding in an automobile except with parents, a faculty
member, or a woman.
Students could not leave campus on Sunday except to go to
church.
 |
| Velma captioned this photo: In old room 17 Wellington Hall |
Dates were received in the reception room of Alumnae Hall.
Men had to be on an approved list to date HTC girls.
In 1947, the college finally purchased Wellington
Hall. Over the years it served as a
dorm, as faculty housing, and finally as administrative offices. In the 1970s, “house mothers” were no longer
required in dormitories, so Wellington Hall became the retirement home of the
last of those elderly mother-figures who scrutinized the gentlemen callers and
offered a sympathetic ear to homesick freshmen.
Then in 2006, after 82 years of service, Wellington was razed to make
room for the new performing arts building.
Wave your pennant!
Ray Rah Sepia Saturday!
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
Pretty strict rules. Love the photo of the 'unmentionables.'
ReplyDeleteThat had to have been rather scandalous -- somebody had to develop that picture!
DeleteI bet rules like these do not exist today.
ReplyDeleteI just knew you could rock the world of college days! Velma is by all means, one happy girl. Great fun post indeed!
ReplyDeleteSome sort of similar rules applied when my daughter lived in a dorm on the campus of Fresno State University, but 'policing' of those rules was rather lax. Suz often found herself trying to study out in the hallway b/c her roommate had a boyfriend who 'visited' frequently. She tried to complain about it, but to no avail. So the following year she moved into an apt. with friends. Her dorm experience at UMASS, however, was a good one.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started about those boyfriend visits. My daughter had the same experience with a roommate and "live-in" who wasn't even a student! That bum was getting a free room while my daughter couldn't even change her clothes. Long story short, my daughter was assigned to a new room -- but it didn't seem right that my daughter had to move when it was the other party in violation of the school's rules
DeleteWe have several old apartment buildings here in Asheville that are identical to Wellington Hall. They would be far too small for the stuff modern students bring to college. I did not have an idea for this week's theme until yesterday when I remembered your great stories of Velma's teachers college and connected it to my postcards of the Iowa State Normal School.
ReplyDeleteWe have some old apartment buildings in Portsmouth and Norfolk that look much like this too.
DeleteI don't believe for a minute you didn't have an idea for this week's prompt! But thanks for the compliment.
They both look like they were having fun.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the men had to be / do to get on the 'approved' list.
Good question -- I guess they had to go to church and have a job or be a student.
DeleteThey still had a lot of rules when I was in college. The summer school I attended one year was worse--they wouldn't let women out of dorm without a dress.
ReplyDeleteI had rules too, but my mother thought the rules looked like "not rules" compared to the ones she had as a college student.
DeleteVelma and Leta took some very good photos of life in their dorm. Would that more ancestors would do that!
ReplyDeleteI have very few photos of interiors -- I wonder if the lighting was just good or if Velma had a flash.
DeleteThings that would not happen in college dorms now. Although, things wouldn't be all that different for the students, ie homesickness.
ReplyDeleteYes, can you imagine telling a student she had to wear a hat to go somewhere??
DeleteLeta was a rebel to admire. I wouldn't have been game.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm a rule-follower too.
DeletePerfect college photos. I hope Velma wasn't led astray too much by her friend Leta, who cleared enjoyed flaunting those strict rules!
ReplyDeleteI think the two of them had a pretty good time, judging by all the photos. I doubt either one was really "too" bad.
DeleteA fascinating,ng account of dorm rule sin the 1920's and how great to have the photograph as well. The nearest I came to this exp[experience was staying in a YWCA hostel in Cambridge, Mass. when I worked for a year in the USA - though I did have a room to myself.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the hostel was rather sparse too.
DeleteSome of those "rules" were protective I'm sure but there were still too many and some too silly.
ReplyDeleteYes, silly rules for sure. I imagine many rules just had to be eliminated because they were too hard to enforce -- like no smoking at home on the weekends.
DeleteWhat a beautiful building! And look at those beds. And bunk beds from way back when too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, those beds don't look too comfy, do they?
DeleteWonderful match to the prompt image - right down to the pennants!
ReplyDeleteI was hoping to study those pennants but didn't. I wonder if they were significant to Leta and Velma. Surely they must have been.
Delete