Historic Resource Survey Form : Straub Memorial Hall
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Date
2006
Authors
Johnson, Susan
Burk, Melissa
Stoller, Kathryn
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Ellis Lawrence designed the Men’s Dormitory in the Colonial Revival style, the style reserved for his secondary campus
buildings (ie, those not on the Memorial Quadrangle) such as Education West and East. This is also seen in his design work in the
East (possibly Whitman College). This building was one of seventeen of Lawrence’s works to be selected to be shown in an Oregon
AIA exhibit in 1929. Originally, the dormitory was built to be self-sustaining per Oregon’s Enabling Act (1859), which was enacted to
finance new university buildings. Total cost was $375,000 including construction, lands and furnishings. To make the new dormitory
comply with the self-sustaining rule, room rents were raised higher than they had been at its predecessor, Friendly Hall; rooms in
Straub were $36 per term plus $1.00 per day for board.
The new Men’s Dormitory was completed in seven short months in 1928, with six residential units, a central kitchen and dining
room, six additional dining rooms which could be opened to create a large hall, an ice plant, sewing room, linen room, laundry, an
electric engine room and storage rooms in the basement. During WWII women students were moved into half of Straub Hall. In 1946,
temporary housing arrived to handle the 47% increase in students returning from the war. The women were later moved into their own
new dormitory, Carson Hall, in January of 1949.
Description
4 pages
Keywords
history, architecture, cultural resources survey