A Dive into the Archive: The Quad in the 20th Century
Admissions Fellow Sally Tuszynski ‘20 is spending the summer exploring Barnard’s Digital Collection to share histories of Barnard spaces. This post features The Quad, a Barnard dorm, throughout the twentieth century.
Living in the dorms is an essential aspect of being a Barnard student. Ninety eight percent of students dwell in the thirteen dorms located on and around campus. Some dorms offer corridor style living, with hallways of doubles, triples, and quads as well as a lounge with a fully equipped kitchen on each floor. Other dorms are suite style, and in single and double rooms groups of two to eight students sleep, eat, and socialize together. All first years live in The Quad, which is a corridor style dorm located on the corner of 116th street and Broadway. Afterwards, upperclass students partake in the lottery system where they elect a dorm room or suite depending on their group’s number.
The Quad is a prominent fixture both on campus and within the college’s history. Brooks Hall was the second building build on Barnard’s campus after Milbank’s completion in 1896. Built in 1907 as the first residence hall for students at the college, Brooks Hall is the oldest section of The Quad. At its completion, Brooks contained 97 private rooms with some arranged to be suites, housing a total of 200 students. The first floor acted as a dining room, parlor, reception rooms, and offices. The second through eighth floors housed students, and the ninth floor housed the infirmary, nurses rooms, and the servants quarters. The building was self governing: students voted for a Hall Committee, which consisted of four residents and the Hall mistress, as well as a representative from each floor. Impressively, the building was equipped with an electric elevator service.
Brooks Hall quickly was filled to capacity capacity and Barnard leadership wanted to diversify the student body. Hence, Barnard’s second dorm, Hewitt Hall, was completed by 1925. With the addition of Hewitt Hall one-third of the student body now lived on campus. This infrastructure decreased the large population of Jewish commuter students to make room for more white students from the greater New England region. The building was named after Abram S. Hewitt, the Mayor of New York city from 1887 to 1889 and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Barnard from 1897 to 1903. The building connected to Brooks Hall and included a cafeteria in the basement, which remains as Hewitt Dining Hall to this day, a post office, telephone booths, and single or double rooms equipped with running water. The main attraction was Dean Virginia Gildersleeve’s dwelling space: a duplex apartment with a private entrance and French windows opening onto a terrace located at the north end of the building on the top floor.
Reid Hall was Barnard’s third dorm and is connected to Brooks Hall, situating it parallel to Broadway. Constructed as a part of an expansion program begun in 1958 to increase Barnard’s enrollment to 1500 by 1964, Reid Hall was completed in September of 1961. The building was named after Helen Reid, Barnard alumna and previous member and chairmen of the board of trustees. The year it opened, Reid housed 151 freshman and sophomores in double rooms, complete with modern decor, on floors two through eight. The first floor held two new telephone booths, music and recreation rooms, and a lounge. When the school year began some of the rooms were not yet prepared so students were placed in Brooks Hall temporarily. Once Reid was fully ready in October of 1961 the four temporary rooms in Brooks became rentable spaces for commuter students for $1.75 per night.
Sulzberger is Barnard’s four dorm and connected Reid Hall to Hewitt Hall, finalizing The Quad as an enclosed space. Built in 1988, Sulzberger was originally named Centennial Hall in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Barnard College but was renamed in 1991 after Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, a member of the class of 1914. Floors two through sixteen were built with double and triple rooms and featured a large lounge with a fully equipped kitchen and incinerator chutes. Floor seventeen was built with meeting rooms and large windows to show off the spectacular view. Centennial Hall also featured a new cafe with seats for sixty students, a snack bar which included a popcorn machine, and Kosher food options. A women’s coop was originally intended to be a part of Sulzberger Hall, but it opened in the fall of 1988 on the first floor of Brooks Hall instead.
The photos below show students in all four dorms within The Quad. Through these images, it is evident that the dorms are not just for sleeping but rather provide a robust space for student interaction. Styles and amenities may have changed over time, but learning and growing through living together has been a core element at Barnard College since its inception. Enjoy looking through these images and if you cant’t get enough, head over to the Barnard Digital Archive for more digitized photos, scrapbooks, oral histories, and more.
