FRILEY HALL

For a quarter of a century following the burning of Old Main no provisions were made for the housing of male students on the campus. The need for action was pointed out in an editorial in the Iowa State Student on September 22, 1919:

The most important question confronting the college and community is the housing of students. Temporary housing will probably work out satisfactory but inconvenience to students will be a serious handicap in getting the right start in their college work.

Though the year is an extraordinary one, as far as college attendance is concerned, it is a well established fact that the Fourth ward has not in the past and probably will not in the future take care of all the students in the way that it should. Even in normal times students have been forced to take rooms up town owing to the scarcity of suitable quarters in the Fourth ward. Rooming a mile and a half from college is a disadvantage that cannot be overlooked. The crowded street cars with unreliable service, the time wasted riding back and forth, the necessity of having two boarding places and many other such draw-backs make living in town hard for students and especially hard for the first year men.

The college cannot depend upon the Fourth ward to house the students properly and the down town district has disadvantages that make it lessen its value as a rooming district. It remains for the college itself to solve the question.

Dormitories for men would be the solution. This system of housing men has proven satisfactory in almost every college in the country. Iowa has just completed a large men’s dormitory and expects to build more. Our own girls’ dormitories have shown that a dormitory under proper supervision is the most satisfactory form of housing students to be had.

There are, of course, many arguments to be advanced against men’s dormitories. The fact that men are rough on property is admitted but if these dormitories are run on a business basis as they should be, these troubles could be easily settled. The management of the dormitory would be the big problem. First year men are usually occupants of dormitories and have some respect for upper-class men. At the Washington State College, upper-class men are picked to have charge of certain sections and no trouble of any sort is experienced.

College authorities feel that dormitories will eventually come. The increase of women students has necessitated the continual building of suitable quarters for them, but when these students are completely taken care of, men’s dormitories will undoubtedly be built.

On February 28, 1923, the same paper again expressed concern:

One of the most evident needs at Ames is housing facilities for the 60 or 70 percent of the men not taken care of by organized houses. Many of them are living in attics, some of which are unfinished and many of which are unsanitary. Others are in rooms that don’t permit of effective study or reasonably good living. Those familiar with the situation will affirm that this statement is not exaggerated. Freshmen men in particular have difficulty in getting located as they should and some go home every year because the housing situation is so acute. These facts are realized by some students, but by comparatively few people over the state. How can they be expected to know when no one tells them?

The state legislature, in 1925, passed a law permitting the borrowing of funds, through the issuing of bonds for the purpose of constructing dormitories at the three state colleges. Iowa State immediately took advantage of this opportunity and began consideration of kinds and possible locations of dormitories, with the emphasis on housing for freshmen. By the fall of 1926 the architect had been selected and the site chosen for the first unit of what would ultimately become Friley Hall as it stands now.¹

Contracts for construction of the first unit of the men’s dormitory were awarded in February 1927² and the building was occupied in the fall of that year.³

This unit was officially named Hughes Hall on May 28, 1936. It retained that name until 1957 when the complex became known as Friley-Hughes Hall. In the mid sixties the Hughes name was dropped and the total structure is now called Friley Hall.

At the end of 1937 a minor remodeling operation in Hughes Hall resulted in dividing two lounges into six student rooms.⁴

The second men’s housing unit constructed was the north section of today’s Friley Hall.

This part was built with the help of a grant from the Public Works Administration. Excavation started in November 1938 under a separate contract. The general construction contract was not executed until January 1939.⁵ The building was occupied in late October of that year.⁶ Acceptance of the contract work was made the following month. Total cost of the project was about $206,000 of which $93,013 came from the federal grant.

Demand for more housing resulted in steps being taken, just a year later, to initiate work to “complete the remaining unit”. In November 1940 President Friley expressed the need to the Board and in January 1941 the architect was instructed to prepare plans for what was to be the east and central section of Friley Hall, although that designation was not applied to the building until May 1942.

Construction started in the summer of 1941 and the building was occupied in July 1942. In June and July of that year Hughes Hall and Friley Hall were completely assigned to navy trainees, who were in control of the buildings for the next three years during World War II.⁷ Women student occupied Hughes Hall in the fall of 1945 for a period of one year, and it was used for married students the following year. From 1947 until 1969 only men were housed in the hall. Beginning in the fall of 1969 some sections were allocated to women.

During 1945 and 1946 additions were being planned for both Hughes Hall and Friley Hall. The proposed new wings appear on a campus map published in the student paper on November 2, 1945. This showed an eastward expansion of Hughes Hall and a southern extension on Friley Hall.

It was 1949 before a final decision was reached and funding arranged. This addition was then limited to a southward and southwest wing on Friley Hall. Contracts for construction were awarded in December 1949. Work started immediately and the building was ready for students in September 1951.

The next unit built connected Friley and Hughes Halls to make a single structure. That section was constructed in 1953-54. Construction began in July 1953 and was completed in time for the fall term of 1954. The next fall Beyer Court and Parking Area was paved under a separate contract with W.A. Klinger Company.

A major remodeling of the toilet rooms in the Hughes Hall section was undertaken in 1961 at a cost of $75,000. Similar improvements were made in other units of the building in 1964 and 1966.

The Food Stores Addition, to provide facilities for all residence halls, was erected in 1964-65.

In 1975 the East Dining Room was extensively remodeled and renovated. H. Summerfield Day, University Architect, prepared the plans and work was done by Boone Construction Company.

A major remodeling of the 1939 unit was made in 1978.