The first Hall of Residence opened at 116th Street and Broadway in 1907, following the College’s move from a brownstone at 343 Madison Avenue to Morningside Heights in 1892. Designed by New York-based architect Charles Rich, it was constructed “in accordance with the general plan of the existing academic buildings, of red overburned brick, Indiana limestone, and terra cotta, after the style of architecture of Henry II.” The building consisted of 97 private rooms; corner rooms could rent out the adjacent bathroom and make it a private bath for an extra $100. Rooms had a fixed rate for the year; a single room ranged from $140-$180 for the academic year, which, with inflation, translates to an average of $3650. There was a Hall Mistress and five residents comprising the Hall Committee, which acted as RAs, in essence, with the Mistress appointed by the Dean of the College.
Brooks had servants, who were paid to make beds and provide general upkeep of each room. Meals were eaten in the dining hall at set times; meals sent to one’s room were an extra charge. The 1928 Residence guide boasted that the dorm “is lighted throughout with electricity, heated by steam, and equipped with an electric passenger elevator.” (In that same residence guide, it was noted that “All rooms save No. 202 have hot and cold running water.” Sounds like someone got shafted!) As enrollment increased, it was decided that another dorm needed to be erected to house the growing student body. Hewitt was the next dorm to be constructed on campus. Designed by McKim, Mead, & White, the same architects who did Low Library at Columbia, it “joins the westerly end of Brooks Hall and extends along Claremont Avenue.” There was a post office on the first floor, two large dining rooms at street level, and 223 dorm rooms with “outside exposure” and “are eight and one-half feet wide and sixteen feet long, with ceilings nine feet high.” The architectural style is described as “Renaissance” in the 1929 Residence Guide, and “in harmony with the surrounding buildings,” not to mention the “two elevators of the latest type.” In other words, prime real estate. |
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