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DINING ROOM GIRL KITTY HOFFMAN (CLASS OF 1936) RINGS THE FSCW BELL AT THE HERITAGE DAY CELEBRATION.
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DINING ROOM GIRL ELOUISE S. GREEN JOINS IN SINGING AT THE HERITAGE DAY CELEBRATION. (PHOTO: MICHELE EDMUNDS/FSU PHOTO LAB)
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FSU celebrates its anniversary with first-ever 'Heritage Roadshow"
BY FRAN CONAWAY AND LIBBY FAIRHURST
Marking the 155th anniversary of its founding, Florida State University celebrated Heritage Day on Jan. 27-28 with several events showcasing the university's architecture, precious memorabilia and faculty.
The celebration spotlighted the unveiling and formal dedication of the Suwannee Room, FSU's newly restored dining hall. Meticulously restored to its former architectural glory, the Suwannee Room recently opened for business in the 92-year-old Gothic Revival structure known since 1980 as the William Johnston Building, located on the east side of Landis Green between Ivy Way and Dogwood Way.
In connection with the Suwannee Room dedication, FSU presented its first-ever "Heritage Roadshow." Highlighting the importance of preserving documents and historic items in the wake of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the "Heritage Roadshow" promoted lively conversation by bringing together displays of extraordinary university artifacts and experts on their historic value.
The Suwannee Room unveiling featured a special tribute to the "Dining Hall Girls" -- scholarship students who worked in the facility to finance their education at the former Florida State College for Women (FSCW). The highly selective program, which employed some of the college's most promising young women, began in 1907 and continued until the late 1940s. Twenty-two of the women - graduates of the 1930s and '40s -- attended the tribute.
Saturday's Suwannee Room festivities included the announcement of a major gift for FSU's Heritage Protocol. The Roadshow concept developed from the work of the Heritage Protocol Committee, which aims to identify, locate and catalog the historic treasure trove of artifacts, landmarks, memorabilia, papers and photographs that faculty and students created while on campus.
In fact, according to 1947 alumna and Heritage Protocol co-founder Mary Lou Norwood the group intends to discover and document the historic items, whether currently owned by the university or still in alumni and other hands, for a virtual museum.
The weekend's Heritage Day celebration began Friday, Jan. 27 with the unveiling of a new obelisk, located on Landis Green next to Strozier Library. The marker, created through FSU's unique Master Craftsman Program, recognizes the university's Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professors, recipients of the highest honor the faculty can bestow on a colleague. Known as the Distinguished Professor award until 1981, the prestigious designation was renamed in honor of the late Provost Robert O. Lawton, who died in a 1980 automobile accident while en route to see his first grandson in Huntsville, Ala.
Authorized by the university in 1913 and opened for business the following year, the William Johnston Building's soaring interior was reminiscent of the dining room at Oxford University's Christ College. For more than five decades thereafter the structure was commonly known as the Dining Hall. When first built, it housed all campus food functions -- including a bakery, creamery and cannery -- and also hosted gubernatorial, legislative and public functions.
At one time, a series of arcades connected all FSCW dormitories and the infirmary to the dining facilities, allowing students to reach it during inclement weather. Called the Suwannee Arcade, the eastern portion of the building encompassed the informal dining facility; the western portion contained two grand formal dining rooms with the President's private dining area above and between.
During the World War II years, the William Johnston Building was known as a meeting place of hope in an otherwise dark time. Students donated their ration stamps for troops overseas. After the war, in 1947, the formal dining hall was divided into four cafeterias, and former GIs joined co-eds for meals at the institution that had transitioned from FSCW to FSU.
FSCW's most successful financial aid program was born when President A.A. Murphree suggested that students could wait tables in lieu of paying for room and board. By 1907, an elite corps of Dining Room Girls was doing just that, working three meals a day during the week and two on Sunday. They were among the best-known and most active students and even created their own "sorority," Delta Rho Gamma.
In the late '60s, two decades after the last of the Dining Room Girls worked their final shift, the William Johnston Building had become dilapidated and outmoded. As other, more modern facilities came online, the dining room closed, and the building housed other university functions.
Now, restored to its original grandeur on the historic east side of campus, the Suwannee Room provides a dramatic backdrop to modern food service for students, faculty and staff.
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