In the beginning, College
Hall was the dormitory, administration building, gym, recitation
hall and library -- all in one. In 1918, the N.J.C. Library consisted
of about a dozen books sent over from Rutgers. The Class of '22
remembers when little openings in the doors of their bedrooms on
the third floor were used by the matron "to keep us on the straight
and narrow." The back porch provided whatever physical education
the students had. Chapel services were held in the largest classroom
to the left as you enter from the main entrance. And the first
Yule Log was burned on the hearth in the wide hall by the winding
stair.
In Dean Mabel Smith Douglass' recollections of the
early days of the College, this spacious house which was first
rented from the Carpender estate and then purchased with a generous
gift from benefactor James Neilson "mothered practically all
the activities of the school."
As the College grew in size and student body, classrooms,
library, and chapel were located in their own buildings; the
large, solidly built, mid-19th century brownstone residence became
the business hub with the offices of the Dean and her administrative
colleagues on its three floors.
Despite the growth of Douglass in the ensuing six
decades, there remains a strong sense of the founding vitality,
adventure and purpose with the portraits of seven past deans
and the bustle of today's students throughout the halls and offices.
Somewhat hidden from the traffic on George Street
by its original stand of giant pine trees, College Hall still
commands the bluff on which it was built overlooking the City
of New Brunswick and the valley of the Raritan River. |
