Harris Hall: Making and Breaking "Home" at Emory

Eléanor Raoul, a prominent suffragist who became the first woman to graduate from Emory’s Lamar School of Law in 1920, received a respectful but un-optimistic farewell from the university’s yearbook, The Emory Campus. “It is whispered that she will be the only one to enjoy this distinct honor and privilege,” the editors muse, though they predict that Georgia “will have a real battling Suffragette to reckon with,” and wish her luck in the fight to come.  ^[2]  

Emory’s own gender reckoning would not arrive until 1953, when it became a fully co-ed institution.  ^[3]   Yet even in the intervening decades, women students, faculty, and staff were already reshaping campus into a space they could call their own. The relocation of Wesley Memorial Hospital (now Emory University Hospital) to the Atlanta campus in 1922 brought with it a community of nursing students who would inherit one of the first women’s dormitories, Harris Hall. Group living set a new precedent: “co-eds” (as female-identifying students were called) were no longer solo pioneers, but were instead adopted into a matriarchal system of care which could, at times, be both confining and liberating. This article examines the layered understandings of “home” expressed by Harris Hall, which would come to define the experiences of nursing students and Emory women more broadly in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Women at Emory as a Matter of Convenience.

In 1953, anticipating the arrival of its newly co-ed freshman class, the Emory Office of the Dean of Student Affairs published its first Dooley’s Rib handbook – a pamphlet outlining the expected attire, activities, and comportment of Emory women (Figure 1). It concluded with following assurance:

Emory’s ideals and standards will not change. But you who are among the very first women on Emory’s campus will have the exciting chance to help set the pattern for the Emory of the future. Dooley and his Rib expect you to change things for the better – to add the feminine touch – to help us achieve more rapidly the ideals we have cherished so long.

Dooley's Rib, 1953.  ^[4]  

Clearly the already-established “feminine touch” (that is, the enduring and dedicated care) of Wesley nursing students was not top of mind for the authors of the Rib. Still locked within the confines of traditional women’s work, nurses faded into the background even as their services were desperately sought after in times of war (Figure 2). Simultaneously, they were subject to broader societal pressures to domesticize women’s college experiences, a pattern that would later be criticized by none other than Betty Friedan in her seminal manuscript, The Feminine Mystique:

“Instead of teaching truths to counter the popular prejudices of the past, or critical ways of thinking against which prejudice cannot survive, the sex-directed educator handed girls a sophisticated soup of uncritical prescriptions and presentiments, far more binding on the mind and prejudicial to the future than all the traditional do’s and don’ts.”

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique.  ^[5]  

It was during this time that Harris Hall took center stage. Named for Mrs. Florence Candler Harris, an influential leader and volunteer at Wesley Memorial Hospital, the building served as a living monument to Emory nurses and hospital staff from the time of its dedication in 1929 (Figure 3). Three years prior, students had gathered at Mrs. Harris’ memorial to mourn the loss of “Aunt Florence,” who mentored her students with kindness rather than criticism (compare this with remarks that students received from doctors: one nurse separately recalled being told that she belonged to “the brightest-looking class of girls to be so stupid as I ever saw”).   ^{[6, 7]}  

Mrs. Harris evidently had a hand in planning the residence hall which would one day bear her name. The student recreation room – drawing inspiration from England’s Georgian Period – was decorated with dark floors and paneling, tasteful Chippendale furniture, and a chandelier, all approved by Mrs. Harris herself before her passing (Figures 4, 5). A paragraph excised from the 1929 building dedication states that Mrs. Harris would have been delighted to see the nursing students “dancing and making it a home.”  ^[8]   In this sense, Harris Hall was a final act of matronly generosity, one that seems to have been greatly appreciated by the students Mrs. Harris had mentored. Yet in the following decades, competing concepts of “home” would arrive to complicate the building and the lives of the students residing there.

Architectural and Systemic Impositions on Women's Freedom in Harris Hall.

Harris Hall originally followed a T-shaped plan with a decorative Italian Baroque facade facing Clifton Road. It received an additional wing in 1948 – turning the “T” into an “H” – in response to increased demand for women’s dorm rooms. The renovation brought the building’s occupancy to 250 beds, yet even this would prove far from sufficient when Emory expanded co-ed enrollment in 1953. As a result, the university was compelled to build three new residence halls (Hopkins, Smith, and Thomas) on a plot of land south of Harris. All four buildings were within easy reach of Wesley Memorial Hospital.  ^[9]  

The overall plan of Harris before and after renovation deviates from historical precedent; most dormitories at other universities took an “I,” “U,” or “O” form.  ^[10]   Its double-loaded bedroom corridors, though, fit precisely within the archetype of women’s residence halls. This grouping, with limited access to stairwells, was more common in women’s dorms than men’s because it allowed for increased supervision of students by an in-house matron. In fact, Emory women lived under the scrutiny of at least three authorities: 1) a “Student Assistant,” 2) the student-led House Council, and 3) the advisors, hostesses, and women’s deans on staff.  ^[11]   Students were required to report vacations, overnight visitors, and any outings past 10:30 PM (for first-years, curfew was 8:30 PM). Older students earned their freedom in increments, though activities like drinking, gambling, and hosting a boyfriend for the night were strictly prohibited, regardless of seniority.

Although these rules reflected patriarchal ideals of morality and chastity, the direct enforcers were usually women, not men. The nuances behind this structure go deeper than an internalization of social norms. Emory women were acutely aware of their novelty on campus: one wrong step could lead to the undoing of decades of progress. Any sort of misbehavior, then, was seen as a betrayal of the “family” or “sisterhood,” and advisors went to great pains to prevent such an occurrence, an issue likewise recognized by Friedan in The Feminine Mystique.  ^[12]   Student Assistants were instructed to “help [an advisee] to realise how her acts appear to others whether in her room, in the lobby, in front of the building or wherever she may be.”  ^[13]   An essay from an unknown author – possibly a matron or an older student – chided, “Learn to smile and say ‘Yes, sir’ when you are corrected… I hope all of you girls will have a good attitude because you can not go very far in this world without one.”  ^[14]  

Assumptions about womanhood broken – and not broken – by students' lived experiences of co-ed housing.

Though Harris Hall simulated many elements of domesticity, it was not a perfect illusion. Student nurses did not cook (in fact, this was forbidden in residence halls) and were expected to work between twelve and sixteen hours per week in addition to their classes.  ^{[15, 16]}   The unpredictable demands of the hospital may also have interfered with curfews, particularly if nurses were assigned night duty.

Women also shattered expectations in their enthusiasm for college life (Figure 6). The number of women housed in residence halls nearly doubled between 1955 and 1964. Somewhere in this interval, Harris received another expansion as the university struggled to get Hopkins, Smith, and Thomas off the ground.  ^[17]   In the meantime, students leapt at the chance to influence life at Emory through leadership positions in Student Council, the Women’s Student Association, the Student Body Organization of the School of Nursing, the Emory Christian Association, athletics, Greek life, and more. Such organizations were so popular that a later edition of Dooley’s Rib – probably dating to the 1960s – warned students against catching a case of “join-itis,” reminding them that a ‘C’ average was required to enjoy full social privileges on campus.  ^[18]  

The Harris Hall lounge was large enough to be transformed into an event space when occasion demanded (Figure 7).  ^[19]   While lunches and tea parties were conventional gatherings for women, they also broke down divisions between students, deans, and faculty, and generated ideas for new policies and programming. Informal lectures also took place over lunch in the School of Nursing, inviting Emory alumni into the conversation.  ^[20]   Communal spaces, while perhaps designed for relaxation or frivolous chatter, must be recognized for their role in allowing women’s initiatives to take shape and transcend beyond age and experience level.

Other barriers remained solidly in place. Georgia had yet to desegregate its schools, and though international students were permitted to take classes in the Nursing School by the 1960s, campus social activities still embraced overtly racist themes, among them a Nurses’ “Fiesta” in 1953 and a mock slave auction fundraiser put on by sororities in 1957   ^[21-23]  . Residential architecture also reflected assumptions that women were heterosexual and devoutly Christian. While boyfriends were confined to the parlors and “date booths” of Harris Hall, there were no concerns about housing two women in the same building, even if one was an overnight guest.  ^[24]   The Emory Christian Organization, meanwhile, oversaw the activities of all seven religious groups on campus, including the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation. Its omnipresence is indicative even in the name Dooley’s Rib – a play on the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

Scholarships in the 1950s were also scarce. Nursing students residing in Harris in 1953 were responsible for paying $1270 in tuition and $52.50 in rental fees, equivalent to about $15,500 in today’s terms.  ^[25]   They were also expected to meet stringent health requirements: being underweight was grounds for disqualification, on the assumption that the student would not be able to withstand the rigors of hospital work.  ^[26]   Campus architecture, therefore, reflected a moderately wealthy vision of womanhood. Pamphlets in the 1960s made sure to advertise the ample closet space available in Hopkins, Smith, and Thomas, catering to the assumption that residents would bring more clothing and personal belongings to campus than their male counterparts.  ^[27]  

Harris Hall still occupies prime space on campus, its Baroque articulations and vaulted windows a surprising detour from the glass curtain walls of the surrounding hospital buildings. When viewed from the north, it appears tucked under a massive pedestrian skybridge which features “EMORY” emblazoned on it in bold letters. Harris received yet another renovation by Smith Dalia Architects in 2013, which endeavored to update its program to fit the needs of the modern day. The first-floor offices and recreation rooms have been converted into study rooms, a much-needed ramp has been installed over the staircase in the front vestibule, and the Georgian chandelier is no more. Yet Harris’s historic facade, windows, and narrow hallways persist, and its 5th-floor bedrooms – now with skylights – still accommodate the building’s steep triangular roof (Figures 8, 9). Hopkins, Smith, and Thomas are preserved as well, grouped together under the name “Complex.” Students of all genders live within the residence halls.

Today there are no obvious indications that Harris was once affiliated with the Nursing School, but it has so far defended its real estate on campus, bringing new and old ideas of residential space together under one roof. The approach from campus feels almost like an embrace – the viewer is taken in by an enclosed, inviting courtyard dotted with mature oak trees. Yet one wonders if there will come a time when internal reorganization of Harris is not enough to keep up with evolving concepts of “home.” The famous lounge, nowadays, is quiet. Conversations about gender and inclusivity have instead taken root in classrooms and dedicated spaces like the Center for Women and the Center for LGBT Life, which welcome broader experiences of womanhood that the White, Christian, domestic program of Harris could not – and would not – accommodate in its original form.

For now, though, the building lives on. The endurance of Harris Hall in its many iterations recalls a passage read in honor of its benefactor, Florence Candler Harris, on the occasion of her funeral:

“...there was her walking stick quite as usual – the symbol of her power, – strength in her weakness. Back of that stooping little body with its lame hip flamed an indomitable spirit which never grew old. Age could not and did not touch her. Experience did, life did, sorrow did, love did, loyalty did, but not age. The best the years could do was to blend all of these things into a sweet, strong, powerful sympathy for others. Endowed with such a gift her walking stick became glorified and her weakness turned to strength.”

Speech in memoriam of Florence Candler Harris   ^[28]  .

Harris Hall is Emory’s “walking stick”: the strength in her weakness, and the weakness in her strength. The residence hall is testament to successive re-imaginings of the home as a place of work, of study, of solidarity, of exclusivity, of supervision, of discrimination, and of progress. By studying the experiences of Emory women in Harris, we are reminded that campus spaces can be simultaneously welcoming and restrictive – that, contrary to the Rib’s statement in 1953, we must always expect and fight for a broadening of Emory’s ideals. No historic building should live solely in the past.

Grace Regnier is a recent graduate of Emory University specializing in architecture and engineering. She now works as a coastal planner in Texas.

Keywords: Emory, Student Housing, Gender, Women, Nursing

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