Columbia University - Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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The floors are of hard wood and are especially adapted to that past time. T The concert hall, or ball room. as some call it, is like the lounge and dining hall, two stories high. It is meant to be used for class and club meetings as well as a rehearsal place for the various musical organizations. The mezanine floor contains four private dining rooms which are reserved for such occasions as Spec- tator and fraternity banquets, and are assigned rent-free to such groups. These rooms may be opened into one making one large banquet hall. A warming kitchen is provided for these rooms and automatic dumbwaiters bring the supplies from the kitchens in the basement. All the cooking for the grill. dining room and breakfast rooms is done in these main kitchens which are fully equipped in the most modern manner. There are electric mixing machines, meat choppers, ice-cream freezers. There are elaborate pastry kitchens in which most of the breads, cakes and desserts are made. There is also a central refrigerating plant which consists of three large compressors. Prom this plant pipes lead to the various refrigerators in the basement, dining-room and mezzanine and also to an ice freezing plant where all the ice used in the building is manufactured. All the stoves and warming tables have hoods suspended over them and large suction fans draw away the air which is laden with the odors of cooking before it can escape through the building. So far as any stranger to John Jay could tell there are' no kitchens in it. Yet over fifteen hundred meals are prepared there daily. On the fourth floor of the building are the offices of the various student activities. Each activity or group of two smaller activities has an office to itself While the A. A. has a suit of inter-connecting ollices at one end of the Hall. Spectator has two large ollices each with glass enclosed sanctums, one for the Editorial department and the other for the Business Department. Jester now gg leads his merry, care-free life in a spacious room which has already been decorated in true Laughing Lion style. Varsity and Mornz'ngsz'de share a room together. The Debating Council, Instrumental Club and Chess Teams each have a room, while Kings Crown takes on a more busi- ness-like atmosphere in an up-to-date office with no chicken-wire enclosures. Columbiarfs Editor shares an oilice with its Business Manager although there are two doors which denote that there really are two offices. Culee Club has its spacious office and head- quarters on the Mezzanine floor. The A. A., as already men- MAIN LOUNGE THE GRILL 5 201 1

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lish tavern tap-room. The ceiling has real oak beamsg the floor is of tile, the windows are of the old casements style with leaded panes. The pillars which support the ceiling are likewise of solid oak. The olden atmos- phere of the room is further preserved by high-backed benches, rough-hewn tables, and felectricj candelabras which give a soft light. A cozy feeling is lent by a large open fire place, the gift of the Class of 1915 in mem- ory of its members who were killed in the Great War. The lobby of the main entrance on the ground floor is large and furnished with mas- sive chairs and setees. A huge rug, woven especially for Columbia, bears a King's Crown in its center. Windows are also pro- , vided in the lobby for the distribution of tickets and magazines. The walls are pan- eled with oak. A balcony overhangs the lobby on three sides, while 'tall glass doors encases in handsome metal work, located in a partition of glass which runs up to the second story level are on the fourth. . V Out of the lobby open doors into the Dining Hall, to the steam tables, of the Cafeteria and to the lobby of the dormitory ollice. The dining hall is. two stories high a-nd a specially constructed ceiling together with composition floors tends to absorb sound, thus providing quiet. The room which takes up the whole Broadway end of the building, is surrounded on three sides byg mammoth leaded glass windows. On the fourth side may be seen the balcony which is really the third or mezzanine floor. The tables in the dining hall are of various sizes, seating from twenty people down to those for two people. Clean, linen is provided each day and usually each table has a vase of flowers. On the opposite, that is Amsterdam end, are the main lounge and the concert hall or ball room. The lounge is deeply carpeted with large rugs, and the furniture is of the over-stuffed Variety. A large ireplace, which the Class of 1881 College, Mines and Political Science, donated is the center of at- traction, and on its mantel are or- naments given by Stephen G. Wil- liams, '8l. In the upper part of the Hreplace is carved the words which express the whole spirit of the build- ing: . - l THE ENTRANCE Hold Fast to the Spirit of Youth Let Years to Come Do What They May . Large doors connect the lounge with the concert hall, and when these are opened the two rooms provide a a very pleasant place to hold a dance. DINING HALL Lzooj

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tioned, has a suite of connecting offices. These all open on an inner hallway which leads into a large undivided room. This is the managers' room and the manager of each team has a flat-top desk for his own use. There is also a small room partitioned off from the rest in which are located a battery of steel iiling cabinets. Philolexian has the third largest quarters on the floor. It represents the home that the society has been looking for for over a hundred years, It is something that it can call its own and know that it can be free to meet there unmolested by worried janitors and anxious directors. The members have undertaken to decorate it in the general style of the period of the year 1802 when the society was founded. The Alumni of the society have contributed sums to aid them inthis work and, while far from suificients amounts have been donated at present, the energy and ingenuity of the active members have suce ceeded in converting four blank, unpainted walls into a cozy, tastefully fur- nished meeting room and library. The effects of John Jay on the student body have already begun to man- ifest themselves. There is a new spirit of general camaraderieg a better ac- quaintance, more congenial and wide spreadg a more apparent college spiritg a better and more effective throwing together of men of diverse characteristics and interests to their mutual benefit. There has also been a decided increase in cultural activities such as orchestral and band concerts, lectures on topics' of interest to college men and debates and forums on current problems. Such events have all been well attended and enthusiastically received. The Class of l927 feels a proprietory interest in John Jay Hall. It is the only class to be in College, both when the plans were announced and when the building was -completed. Members of this Class were the first editors and managers to occupy the activities oflices there. And it was in its Soph Show that Alan Max repeated Royal Cooney's immortal line: A HAPPY DREAM HAS TURNED INTO A REALITY. 52023