Curator: Mary Eggleston
Fontbonne Residential Life impacts not only the residents in the dorms but the Fontbonne community as a whole. With residential students and staff dedicated to creating a friendly and welcoming campus for everyone, no matter their circumstances or identity, Fontbonne overall can grow and learn together. As the university opened its dormitories to a wider range of students, the community has adapted to the new perspectives and the ever-changing culture around us. Fontbonne Residential Life is committed to creating a positive experience, even if someone isn’t a resident, student, or part of the Fontbonne community altogether.
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Residential Life: St. Joseph's Hall, 1961
Look familiar? As culture and architecture change, so do college campuses. St. Joseph’s Hall has housed residents on campus for over fifty years, and the lobby has changed to fit the needs of those students. In this photograph when the dorm opened in 1961, it’s evident that style and fashion has greatly changed in the past 58 years. Although the famous purple wall and “Welcome to Griffin Nation” has not arrived yet, the St. Joseph’s Hall dormitory has continuously been updated to create a comfortable living experience for each class that comes through.
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Residential Life: History of Southwest Hall, 1969-2000
Whether it be a juniorate, Fontbonne students, or WashU residents, what is now Southwest has seen it all. In the 1960s, the building served as a juniorate, which is a living space for young women studying to become a religious sister. The CSJs no longer needed the space in the 1970s, and Fontbonne residential life was not a prominent need on campus, so Washington University began to rent our residence hall. During the 1970s-90s, the name of the dorm was even changed to Washington Hall for our neighbors across Wydown. The building remained that way until renovations in 2000 created it into what we know today.
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Residential Life: Diverse Friendships & Rising Costs, 1987
It’s a simple wave, a smile in the hallway, and a cheerful hello. Friendships are not hard to come by in the Residence Halls, and in the 1980s Fontbonne Residential Life began to market this. As shown in the photograph on page 10, diversity in the dorms, which leads to opportunities to grow and learn about new perspectives, is a priority. While diverse experiences and community has remained something that is strived for, other aspects have changed. Page 11 shows the price of living on campus in 1988, which was $1600, and has gone up much more since then.
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Residential Life: Male in the Dorms, 1972
In this photograph, taken in 1972, two women and one man study with one another in Medaille Hall. Never before had both genders been photographed together in a living space at Fontbonne, and the picture did not appear in publications until 1996, twenty-five years after the fact.
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Residential Life: Southwest Hall Cornerstone, May 2000
Imagine this, you are a student at Fontbonne in 2000. Instead of smart phones, it’s T-9 texting. Instead of online video games, it’s Pokemon. And instead of Medaille or St. Joseph’s Hall, the newly renovated Southwest is now an option for residents. With the opening of the dormitory, came the cornerstone which contains a Griffin scratch, Pokemon, dollar coin, and many other items that gives insight into life on campus almost 20 years ago. While the campus culture has surely changed, the cornerstone is frozen in time waiting to show the growth of Fontbonne to future Griffins.
