Dormitories of the 1920s and 30s

In 1921, with students returning after serving in World War I and the enrollment booming, Princeton could accommodate barely half of its student body in on-campus housing. The ideal of the Oxbridge residential university, extolled by Wilson, West, and such Trustees as Moses Taylor Pyne, still eluded Princeton (despite the surge in dormitory construction that had begun in 1896 with the erection of Blair Hall).

With the war over, President Hibben turned immediately to address the urgent need for dormitories. In the decade beginning in 1921, Princeton constructed nine new dormitories, all in the Collegiate Gothic style. This flurry of building added more than 500 rooms for undergraduates and brought the percentage of students living off-campus to less than fifteen percent.

Most of the dormitories from this period were clustered on the flat ground between Blair Hall and University Place, the area of campus now known as the 'Junior Slums'. This land had been the site of the Pennsylvania Railroad station, but, in 1918, the station and tracks had been torn up and the Dinky station moved south to its current location.

The university had big plans for this large parcel of land. As early as 1908, Ralph Adams Cram had targeted this area for future dormitory development and following the war, the university began to implement his plans.

The first and largest of the post-war dormitories was Pyne,
a four-story, U-shaped building with room for 177 students.
Completed in 1922, Pyne would be the least ornamented of the group, the need for speedy completion outweighing the need for exterior detailing. According to Cram's master plan, Pyne --the southernmost of the proposed dormitory group -- was built first, with later structures progressing north toward Blair Arch. The following year saw the opening of 1905-Henry
and 1904-Foulke,
which formed the campus's new "western wall" along University Place. Donated primarily by those classes as memorials to classmates killed in the war, these two dormitories were designed by the firm of Zantzinger, Borie, and Medary in Princeton's conventional Collegiate Gothic style.

With more time and money than had been available for Pyne, this architectural firm lavishly embellished both structures; the archway
connecting the two buildings and the Henry Tower are both notable for their detailed stone carving. As with many other buildings funded by single classes, these dormitories contained special rooms reserved for gatherings of the sponsoring class.

Charles Z. Klauder, virtual house architect for the University between the wars, designed the other three dorms built west of Blair and Little. Laughlin and 1901 Halls,
completed in 1925, together with Henry and Foulke, created a large and attractive quadrangle. The view north from the southern entrance of this quadrangle is one of the best on the campus, with Blair Tower framed by the long sweep of dormitories on either side. Elaborate landscaping and iron gates also made this entrance particularly picturesque.

The last dormitory in this complex, Lockhart,
continued the boundary wall effect of Foulke and Henry, running north, parallel to University Place. This location placed Lockhart squarely at the western terminus of one of main axes on the campus, McCosh Walk, which ran east-west from Washington Road through the Tiger Gateway
between Blair and Little. To acknowledge and maintain the continuity of this main axis, Klauder incorporated into his design for Lockhart a large arch that is off-center in the building but in line with McCosh Walk. (VIEW)

The three other interwar dormitories -- all Klauder designs -- filled in existing spaces on the campus or were attached to existing buildings. For example, 1903
and Walker,
finished in 1930, were linked to Cuyler and Patton; indeed, the western wall of the 1903 courtyard doubles as the rear wall of Cuyler. The four buildings in this group created an intimate series of interlocking courtyards, arches, and pathways.

The final piece in the dormitory jigsaw puzzle was Joline,
completed in 1933. The last classically Collegiate Gothic dormitory built on the campus, Joline fulfilled the University's long-held desire to create a large, contiguous quadrangle connecting Blair and Campbell. But for three decades, the Halsted Observatory,
stood in the way. By 1930, however, Halsted had outlived its utility. It was torn down and Joline was erected on the spot. Klauder's primary objective was to create a seamless link between Blair and Campbell, and if Joline lacked originality, that reflected the constraints of the site more than anything.

The completion of Joline marked the end of the great interwar construction boom. Even as work proceeded on Joline in 1932, the Daily Princetonian had reported that the Depression had halted the university's building program. For the first time in a decade, no ground would be broken during the college year. In fact, it was not one, but fourteen more years until Princeton broke ground again.