WHEN WE WERE NORMAL
A Historical Augmented Reality Walking Tour
Bathtubs for Bookshelves
LOCATION: SECOND FLOOR HALLWAY NEAR ELEVATOR
While students contested the closing of Miller Hall, accreditation issues forced the university’s hand. The 1966 Report for the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools listed several present and immediate needs for facilities, including faculty office spaces for the History and English departments. Of the 132 faculty members on campus in 1967, 97 were in overcrowded, converted areas or had no office space.
Regardless, the housing demand was much greater than the available space; so much so that lack of housing greatly limited enrollments. Originally designed to house 50 students, Miller Hall held as many as 75 students in 1951. Temporary relief came when Palmer became a women’s dormitory again in 1958 and further relief came with the 1967 opening of Aubuchon Hall.
In 1973 the former dormitory building was converted into faculty offices, but there were no renovations made to the actual building.
While the new office spaces were useful to the professors, the dorm style of the building had its drawbacks. Before the 2011 renovations, professors in Miller Hall made the best of their situation, even using the old bathtubs as storage for their surplus books and office supplies.
While the Jack and Jill bathrooms between suites were practical for a dormitory space, they proved to be obstacles for faculty. Even in 1986, there were only two telephones on each floor and for some faculty members, reaching the phone meant having to pass through a bathroom. If someone neglected to unlock both bathroom doors, they had no access to a phone.
BACK
NEXT
One of the biggest issues with the pre-renovated offices was the lack of individual phone lines in the building. When a phone call would come through to the Miller Hall offices, whoever was close at hand would answer and carry the receiver to the desired faculty member, stretching the gigantic beige cord down the hallway.
While privacy did not exist in a space designed for communal living, the arrangements were not all bad. The need to pass through others’ offices to reach one’s own or to take telephone messages for colleagues meant more social interactions and informalities. With the dormitory designed to feel like home, faculty became more like family than simply colleagues.