Fire Eats a Five-Story Dormitory at the Pullman College
A brick residence hall at the Washington Agricultural College burns to the shell, taking $3,000 of students' clothing and furniture with it — and the editor cannot resist a word about the building's own bad design.
On Wednesday of last week the dormitory of the Pullman agricultural college was destroyed by fire. It was a five-story brick costing $22,000. Three thousand dollars worth of furniture and clothing belonging to the students was destroyed. The building was poorly planned and, while it was quite a loss to the state, it is to be hoped that the new one to be built will be upon a more convenient model. Even for healthy lads there is no reason in having to climb five stories for a night's rest, to say nothing of the growing young women.
“The building was poorly planned and, while it was quite a loss to the state, it is to be hoped that the new one to be built will be upon a more convenient model.”
The "Pullman agricultural college" is today's Washington State University, and the burned dormitory was among the first residential buildings on a campus that now houses thousands of students. Then as now, the fight over student housing came down to cost, construction and who has to climb the stairs. The editor's aside about "the growing young women" is a reminder that coeducation itself was still a fresh and debated experiment in 1897.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.