Carleton College - Algol Yearbook (Northfield, MN)

Page 16 text:

WILLIS Fire! In a blinding blizzard during the Christmas holi- days in 1879, Carleton ' s principal building— seven-year- old Willis Hall— burned. Although Willis combined chapel, recitation rooms, chem lab, library, and men ' s dorm, the fire proved to be a blessing in disguise— the college ' s misfortune attracted sympathetic attention. Ready for use by the following September, the reno- vated Willis included a room for prayer meetings and the gentlemen ' s literary societies. Our academic predecessors did not spend all their time at Greek and Latin. The janitor often tugged at the bell-pull in vain, and in the fall, yellow pumpkins 12

Page 15 text:

■ ' -S-J p CARLETON BUILDS A CAMPUS The Carleton campus has made a spectacular change since Willis, its first permanent building, lifted its peaked bell tower beside the river in 1872. Its watching windows have guarded the Bald Spot for 82 years, while all around the grassy rectangle there sprang up building after building to accommodate the growing student body arid wealth of equipment. Willis has seen the classes come and go since 1874 (two graduates, three non-graduates), and to each departing group its memory has been a key to the recollection of Carleton living. Its bell has controlled the ebb and flow of traffic across campus, Now, after two years of transitional muteness, the bell is almost ready to ring again from the tower of the new student union, and campus life will center around Willis in a new sense. In a way, the rebuilding is t ' pical of Carleton ' s growth: gradual, accomplished within the framework of tradition; sometimes awkward, the target of critical commentary from alumni and witty remarks from students; controversial at its outset, but soon absorbed into the pattern of daily life and the thoughts and memories of those who live with its influence. It is this pattern of change and absorption that we hope to show in the 1954 Algol.

Page 17 text:

Dedicati on ceremony at Homecoming Finishing touches for the plaster used to blossom on each of the four corner spires. At- tempts to smoke out chapel services by stuffing the chimney with hay were thwarted by the installation of a furnace in 1880. Gradually other buildings joined Willis ' lone spire, saplings grew to trees, the Bald Spot shrank, and bv the 20 ' s, ivy covered the old building. To successive gen- erations of students Willis has been the focal point of campus life, combining post office, bulletin board, classrooms, and chimes. When the grandiose schemes for a student union simmered down to remodeling, Willis Hall was the logical choice, and so for the past two years the Willis bells have rung irregularly while workmen swing sledge hammers and haul cement to transform Willis anew into the center of college life at Carleton. Well, eventually. . 13