Here and There at Tufts

Doane, Lewis

1907

West Hall

 

West Hall, the fourth building to be erected by the College, was opened to students in 1872. It is a four-storied brick structure, divided in the middle into what are practically two halls. At first the Divinity School occupied the western end, but since the opening of Miner and Paige Halls in 1892, the entire building containing thirty-three suites, has been used as a dormitory.

West is perhaps the favorite dormitory of the Hill. On the front is the greensward of the Campus; toward the west, a clear sweep over the " Rez " to the valley beyond and the ragged range of hills that fringe the sky; to the rear, Middlesex Fells and sleepy old Medford drowsing in the sun of a warm spring day; and to the east, Malden and Everett, with the brown monotony of the clay pits on this side and the blue of the sea beyond. It is an ideal location.

Many and varied are the associations connected with old West. It was here in the later '70's that Professor Dolbear set up the transmitter of one of his first telephones, the receiver of which was placed in Room I, Ballou, and the listeners were regaled with a cornet solo played nearly three hundred feet away. Here generations of Tufts men have lived their brief four years, perhaps in the very rooms their fathers occupied before them. Here still linger the traditions of historic " rough houses " and " hoodangs " of by-gone days. Today the life in the old dormitory is much the same, and the pleasantest memories of many a young man are linked with the high, ungainly rooms and the bleak, wind-swept hallways of West.

H. J. S.

 
Description
  • Here and There at Tufts, was published by the class of 1909 as an early form of a yearbook. The text includes photographs and histories of academic buildings, dormitories, former deans and presidents, classrooms, fraternities, athletic teams, and student organizations.
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