Residence halls

The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees recommended to the Board the appointment of a "special committee of five" to look into the construction of a women's dormitory. They suggested the building be erected on Mooreland Campus and be adequate to house 150 women.

In President Boyd Lee Spahr's report to the Board of Trustees, he discusses the possible acquisition of the Shearer Property on the "northwest corner of College and Louther Streets" for the construction of a women's dormitory. A local real estate agent had tipped the college off to the sale of the property for an estimated $18,000. When the college offered the sum to the seller, however, it was declined, and the president explains that the property might not even be desirable as a location for a new women's dormitory.

While the majority of the male population lived in fraternity houses on and off campus, their female counterparts resided in primarily off-campus establishements like Metzger Hall, which were located some blocks away from Dickinson. Due to the lack of housing and the influx of female students, the College began to house its female students in places such as Old West. Such was the case that was described by Sarah Andrews in her interview. Also, at the time there was no Sorority Housing in which they could have meetings and hold social events like the fraternities did. 

    On one of the first pages of the 1896 Microcosm is a picture of the Ladies' Hall, located somewhere on West Pomfret Street in Carlisle. It was purchased by President George E. Reed on May 16, 1893 for $5,000 from Samuel M. Hepburn . Originally it was used to house a local fraternity, Alpha Zeta Phi, but then in 1895 it was turned into a residence for women. The building was called "Ladies' Hall" until February 7, 1905, when it was renamed in honor of John Zacharias Lloyd. He was a recently deceased Methodist clergyman and trustee who bequeathed $10,000 to the College.