Fjelstad Hall
Fjelstad Hall was built on Concordia’s campus in the late 1930s as a new women’s dormitory. One of the most attractive buildings on the college grounds, it provided female students comfortable accommodations and supervision while they were away from home. Though periodically remodeled and updated, the dormitory was used consistently for female campus housing until 2014.
Named in the honor of Helga Fjelstad who served thirty-three years as a matron of the college, Fjelstad Hall sits on the northern end of Concordia’s campus. [1] Constructed in 1938, the building was designed by William Ingemann of Globe Building as a women’s dormitory that included many comforts of home for its residents. Features included individual wardrobes for each girl, kitchenettes, an off-campus girls’ club room, laundry room, pressing room and shampoo room. Constructed in English Gothic Tudor style, the building was faced with a Mankato limestone from a local quarry. [2]
The original dormitory furnishings were purchased by the Concordia Women’s League, a group of female faculty and faculty wives who furnished multiple buildings on campus. Fjelstad was designed to house 131 women in sixty-three double rooms and five single rooms on three floors, along with accommodations for the Dean of Women and the house head. [3]
The rooms in Fjelstad were arranged near two common rooms, today called the main lounge and Frida Nilsen Lounge, allowing women to socialize with those living around them in a single-sex environment. In addition, the common rooms were located near the main public entry so that students would be under supervision. This layout was common for women’s dormitories in the 1920s and can be seen in the design of older residence halls at women’s universities such as Toll Hall at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Before the 1920s, women at colleges had often lived in cottages or suites on campus, with much less emphasis on the difference between public and private spaces. This layout was deemed the best until around the 1920s when the design of women’s dormitories shifted to having many smaller, cubicle-like rooms that lined either side of a hallway without private common rooms to adjoin them. There was a rising fear that close relationships between women would turn into homosexual relations between the residents. [4] Fjelstad follows the newer layout, which encouraged only supervised social interaction between residents in public common rooms.
Similar to other universities at the time, house heads regulated residents’ behavior and manners. House heads were responsible for making sure that students were not engaging in inappropriate behaviors with the opposite sex, enforcing curfew times, and essentially acting in loco parentis. [5] A hall council consisting of five students also assisted in making sure that all was in order in the dorm. Towards the 1970s dormitory house heads or “housemothers” were phased out of colleges across the country and were often replaced with married graduate students who were only a few years older than the residents. Because of the narrower age gap, restrictions placed on the students often loosened in comparison to when they were supervised by house heads. [6] This national trend was evident at Concordia, whose shift started during 1969-1972, when Dean of Women Dorothy Olson worked to relax the rules placed on female students such as curfew times. [7] The trend continued in 1974, when the college began to hire staff with master’s degrees to the reformed position of Hall Director, which replaced House Head. Later, in 1977, residence hall student staff roles were reformed to create positions such as Resident Assistant and Director’s Assistant. The reworking of policies and the Hall Director and Resident Assistant positions reflected a shift in residence life management. The roles of residence life staff moved from acting in place of parental authority towards a philosophy of creating a living environment in which students could adjust to college and develop as individuals. [8] Shifts in residence life philosophy have continued into the twenty-first century at Concordia. In the 2014-2015 academic year, the College ended its policy that had restricted intervisitation between the sexes in dormitories after certain hours. [9]
As the building faced the test of time, certain improvements needed to be made in order to keep up with the demands of students and modern safety codes. In 1984, Fjelstad Hall was approved for a partial remodel. An entire remodel was estimated at a price of $2.5 million, so the college settled on an estimated $600,000 partial remodel. Included in this remodel was the installation of a new heating system, new plumbing, fireproofing of doors and stairwells, and insulating various parts of the building. These remodels kept the building attractive to the women who would potentially reside in it, although the cost of the remodels affected the price of living in the building. [10]
Due to decreased college enrollment, the building was not occupied during the 2014-2015 year. In the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years Fjelstad transitioned from a women’s dormitory to a building which housed faculty offices and some classes while Concordia’s science center was renovated. [11]
Authors: Katelyn Mitchell and Hans Frank
Footnotes
[1] “Fjelstad Unperturbed By Naming New Dormitory In Her Honor,” Concordian, Oct. 30, 1937, pg. 3; Concordia College Archives Online, “Lights Out At 10:00 PM: Life In Concordia’s First Dormitories,” Concordia College Archives, n.d., Accessed Apr. 20, 2016, http://concordiacollegearchives.weebly.com/lights-out-at-1000-life-in-concordiarsquos-first-dormito-ries.html.
[2] William M. Ingemann, “The Planning of Fjelstad Hall,” Concordia Record, 1937, 19.
[3] “Women’s League to Equip Rooms in Fjelstad Hall,” Concordian, Apr. 16, 1937, 3.
[4] Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, “Designing for the Genders: Curricula and Architecture at Scripps College and the California Institute of Technology,” Pacific Historical Review 54, no. 4 (Nov. 1985): 451-453.
[5] James K. Sunshine, “Memories of Oberlin College in the 1940’s,” Oberlin Heritage Center, n.d., accessed Apr. 20, 2016, http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/cms/files/File/Sun- shine.pdf.
[6] Marylin Bender, “House Mothers Being Phased Out of Dormitory Life: Replacements Are Young Married Couples in 20s,” Nashua Telegraph, Oct. 29, 1969, 17.
[7] Morrie Lanning, “Celebrating Legacies,” 1998, Dorothy Helen Olsen, Biography Files Collection, Concordia College Archives. Male student curfews ended in 1920 [Concordia College Record 1919-1920 (Moorhead: Concordia College, 1920), 11].
[8] “1981-1882 Residence Life Student Staff Handbook,” 1981, FF 1a, Box 2, Residence Hall Handbooks 1981-1986, Auxiliary Services, Record Group 24; Housing, Series 4; Residential Life Handbooks, Subseries 2, Concordia College Archives, 7-8.
[9] Aubrey Schield, “Visitation Restrictions Eliminated,” Concordian, Jan. 22, 2014, 1.
[10] JoNelle Toriseva, “Fjelstad Facelift Approved,” Concordian, Feb. 10, 1984, 1.
[11] Hans Peter, “Fjelstad’s Future: Dorm Repurposed For Coming School Year,” Concordian, Mar. 26, 2014, 1.