A Female Student’s Life At Bates

Dormitory rules in the early days by Barbara Adams

It was 1865 when Mary Wheelwright, the first woman to graduate from Bates College in Lewiston, entered the freshman class. In that sole instance the “dormitory question” was solved when she lived with President Cheney’s family. By 1905 the number of young women in the college had increased to fifteen, necessitating a change in accommodating them.

It is interesting to go back to the time of the Maine State Seminary which preceded the college. Girls were educated at the same location and received board and room at what was and is still known as Parker Hall. After 1864, however, the building supplied housing for young men. For many years the young women studying at Bates were so few that the problem of dormitory facilities was not even confronted. Dormitory life for women only dates back to 1895. In 1890 there were only about thirty females in all the classes. They boarded in homes throughout Lewiston and Auburn. Around 1895 President Cheney vacated his house on College Street and gave the use of it to the college for the housing of out-of-town girls. Other young women “from away” secured rooms wherever they could, until in the period of 1903-1904 when the faculty, for the first time, required all girls from out-of-town to reside in the houses provided for them under the care of Dean Caroline Libby. The houses used were Milliken, Cheney, and a new brick building to be completed. The girls made their choice determined by the cost of board. The cost in the new dormitory was $2.76 a week, and in the two smaller houses it was $1.75.

The freshmen girls had rooms on the fourth floor of the new building, with Miss Mary Bartlett, a senior, as proctor. The sophomores and juniors lived on the second and third floors, with proctor Miss Maud Thurston, and later, Miss Daisy Downey. Dean Caroline Libby had her new suite on the third floor. The new building had quarters for

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entertaining. Inside the large reception hall, which accommodated hundreds, were chairs, tables, and a piano. There was also a small adjoining reception room in which the young women could entertain.

Proctors for the Milliken and Cheney Houses were Miss Jessie Pease and Miss Lillian Osgood respectively. The duties of proctors were many, as they had general oversight of the work done by the girls under their supervision. They attended to the signal bells and had many other duties. Each day each of the students had the responsibility of some of the sweeping and dusting, or of tending the telephone, or the door.

Among the rules were the following: rooms were rented by the year, a third of the year’s rent to be paid before the beginning of each term. One dollar additional was charged for each week or fraction of a week for non-compliance unless special arrangements for the delay were made. Young women were required to pay for any breakage of furniture or defacement of rooms. No nails or tacks were to be driven into the walls. Rude or noisy conduct, such as running up and down the stairs, whistling, or shouting names from one floor to another, was strictly forbidden. Study hours were from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., and 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., and during this time the women were refrained from playing musical instruments, talking and laughing in the hallways, telephoning unnecessarily, and visiting each other’s rooms except to study.

A warning was given at 10:00 p.m., and overhead lights were turned out at 10:15 p.m. without special permission to leave them on longer, and lamps were provided for this purpose. A charge of $1.25 was made each term to cover telephones, kitchen, dining room, piano rent, and hospital room and medicines. Each girl had to supply her own pillowcases, blankets, sheets, bed coverings, and towels. Laundering of these items was covered by the room rent. No toilet articles were to be left in the bathrooms. Bathtubs were to be carefully washed and dried after each bath. Young women were requested not to walk in the halls in garments less conventional than wrappers.

In the dining room, a young woman could not have a visitor at her table more than twice during a term. She had to give five hours’ notice and obtain a ticket from the head of her house. Breakfast was ten cents, dinner twenty cents, supper ten cents. Young women were requested not to appear in the dining room in dressing sacks (bathrobes). Each woman was required to bring a napkin ring plainly marked with her name. No rules were located regarding the young women’s association with young men. Perhaps they were too lengthy, but as late as 1948, freshmen were required to make and wear a bib with their name on it and not to talk to any male for a week after arrival.

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