Metzger Hall

President William W. Edel reported the inadequate housing situation to the Board of Trustees. The president explained that the lack of housing in Carlisle made it difficult to attract prospective professors. Due to the fact that male students would not occupy the Gibbs House during the next academic year, the college planned to use it to house 20 female students. This change would mean that women students would reside in Metzger Hall, East College, and the Gibbs House.

President Boyd Lee Spahr addressed the issue of housing for women in his report to the Board of Trustees. He proposed the use of East College as a women's dormitory in addition to Metzger Hall, explaining that these two buildings would house 171 women. He also proposed changing the Gibbs House from a women's dormitory to a residence for male students. The Board of Trustees approved this recommendation.

The report of the President of the Board of Trustees detailed the special committee's presentation of June 3, 1945 recommending that the new women's dormitory be constrcuted on Mooreland campus and be "adequate to house at least 125 girls." The report explains that female students resided in Metzger Hall, the Gibbs House for seniors, the Parker House, and in two leased fraternity houses. According to the report, the college did not own Metzger Hall, and the college would need to spend a great deal of money to renovate the sixty-year old building.

Professor Russell I. Thompson strongly urges Board of Trustees President Boyd Lee Spahr to lobby aggressively for the construction of a new women's dormitory, arguing that "Metzger Hall has long since served its purpose." He suggests the building should be sufficient to house 125 to 150 students.

Professor Russell I. Thompson writes in a letter to President Boyd Lee Spahr about his ideas for the future of the college. He suggests the creation of a more specific position for the dean of women, calling the position as it stood then an "anamolous" one. He believes that the dean of women should be more than just a house mother or supervisor of Metzger Hall: instead, the dean should guide all the women of the college.

Dean Ernest A. Vuilleumier reports to the Board of Trustees that the college was operating four separate buildings--Metzger Hall, the Gibbs House, the Parker House, and the Phi Delta Theta House--as women's dormitories. The dean viewed this situation as unsatisfactory and argued for "the very great need for a new dormitory for women." He urged the Board to make plans for the construction of a women's dormitory as soon as possible.

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.

In the "Minutes of the Faculty Meeting of November 11, 1940," the Board of Deans reviewed a case of discipline in which the Phi Delta Theta house hosted a party "without proper chaperonage" followed by a jaunt in an automobile. The two female students who left Carlisle in the automobile received probation for the rest of academic year 1940-41 and were placed under "special regulations" in Metzger Hall. Another student, who did not leave in the automobile, only received probation "until Christmas."

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. 

According to Sara Andrews as explained in her interview, the Metzger Hall council was the established governing body for Metzger House. The council met on a regular basis as a means to address and simultaenously try to resolve any complaints presented by the student body. Dean Meredith often times reached the council in order to receive feedback or help in implementing disciplinatory regulations.