Wheaton College - Nike Yearbook (Norton, MA)

Page 20 text:

MARY LYON HALL SEMINARY HALL (1849, 1878): Originally called Seminary Hall, the building was renamed in 1910 for Mary Lyon, a pioneer in American education who acted as a consultant to the Wheaton family at the founding of the Seminary and established the curriculum. The original building consist- ed of the current north wing, plus an addi- tional ca. 10 feet at the back. It was enlarged to include a science wing (south wing), gym- nasium and library (west wing), additional classrooms (east wing), grand stairway and cupola in 1878. The ground floor of the west wing was used successively as the gymnasi- um (until 1903, when the new gymnasium building was completed), the physics labora- tory and the biology laboratory (in 1913). The new gymnasium, opened in 1903, included space for music practice rooms, and the space used for that function in Mary Lyon Hall was devoted to a supervised quiet study hall. The Library was removed to the Chapel basement in 1918 19, and the Art Department moved to Mary Lyon Hall in the same year, When the attic of the north wing was opened and finished as a studio. The building was renovated in 1930: the east wing rooms were rearranged, new electric fixtures installed, floors refinished, the entire building re- painted, and 1500 Ibs. of succotint used on the walls. In the upstairs assembly room, the woodwork around the arch and the “fancy plaster ornamentation in the corners” were removed. Mary Lyon Hall was th oroughly renovated and slightly changed in 1982-83. At that time, an elevator, offices and semi- nar rooms were added, the lower stair hall was widened, and several of the rooms were named, including the Woolley Room, through a gift from Mabel Tingley Woolley W1925; the Larcom Room, named in honor of Lucy Larcom and made possible through a gift from her great grand niece Lois Larcom Horn W1I928 and her class; The May Room, named in honor of Elizabeth Stoffregen May, Professor of Econom- ics and Dean of the College from 1949 to 1964 and acting president from 196l to 1962; and the Holman Room, giv- en by Phyllis Holman Larsen Moerman WI933 in honor of her mother Ida Hagar Hosmer Holman WI1907.

Page 19 text:

Mrs. Wheaton’s gardens. Each hall had its own name, including Seventh Heaven, Trag- edy, Comedy, Seminary, Eliza, 1933, Purga- tory, Paradise, and Broadway. The infirmary was in one of the ells, and when student rooms replaced the infirmary, that hall was named Tragedy Alley. Old Metcalf was de- molished in phases, beginning in 1932, to make room for the building complex of Met- calf Kilham Hebe and Park Hall. GYMNASIUM ADMISSIONS CENTER (1903): A tem- porary top floor placed on the gym provided music practice rooms. The first swimming tank was in the basement and opened in 1913 (possibly the first swimming pool at any women’s college in the U.S.). In the mid 1930s, all apparatus was removed from the gymnasium and new dressing rooms were arranged. The new swimming pool wing opened in 1936. The pool is 26’x 60’ with a maximum depth of 9’, and has 144 spectator seats. The roof was tiled and used as an outdoor promenade (sundeck) in fall and spring. A locker system and separate dressing room and shower for men were installed in 1937. The building was converted to the Admission Center in 1966, when Clark Recreation Center opened. The Psychol- ogy Department laboratories were located on the second floor until recently. om EES H ye HRP oA Alen es) The Alumnae Association was begun by the class of 1870, during their senior year, and the first meet- ing was held on Graduation Day, July 13, 1870.

Page 21 text:

CHAPIN HALL (1900): The first brick building built at Wheaton, this dormitory was named for Samuel Austin Chapin, brother of Mrs. Wheaton, and a trustee from 1889-1890. The interior was rebuilt in 1934 (repiped, re- wired, replastered, repainted, refloored). In 1986 it ceased to be a dormitory, and became offices for the Center for Work and Learning. HEBE (1884): Mrs. Eliza Baylies Wheaton gave the original lead statue fountain of Hebe to the Seminary for its fiftieth anniversary in 1884. The fountain was placed outside Mary Lyon Hall, be- tween the west wing and Old Metcalf. It was moved in the fall of 1932 to a location in Hebe Court (thus the name of the Parlors and the court- yard). It was repeatedly damaged in attempts to steal the statue, and at one time had an electrical alarm installed inside it. The statue was removed in the 1970s, and restored in 1980 by Fritz Cleary, husband of Hope Kielland Cleary WI944, and fa- ther of Catherine Cleary WI982, who made casts of the original, and reconstructed the statue. The current statue is the bronze casting made by Mr. Cleary. KNAPTON HALL SCIENCE HALL (I9Il): Originally de- signed as a Science and assembly hall. Science Hall was constructed on the site of an apple orchard where stu- dents spent Sundays when not allowed to leave campus. The cornerstone-laying ceremony held for Science Hall was apparently the first such ceremony held at Wheaton. The basement held Botany and Biology labs. The first floor served as a chapel until Cole Chapel was built in 1917, when it was divided into recitation rooms, having been de- signed and built with this in view. The second floor held Physics and Chemistry laboratories and a lecture room with a sloping floor. The third floor was used by the Art Department. When smoking was first allowed at Wheaton in 1932, a temporary smoking room was fitted up in the Science Hall, until a smoking room was established in Hebe Parlors. In 1933 part of the basement was converted into a science library. A wing was added in 194] (opened in 1942) to provide more and modern laboratory space. In 1971, Knapton was rebuilt to create a center for the social sciences. Science Hall was renamed Knapton Hall in honor of Dr. Ernest John Knapton, a member of the history department from 1931 to 1969.