Davenport House

The first section of the Davenport House residence hall was purchased in 1922 for $17,000, and in 1927-1928 an additional section of the house was acquired for $16,500. [1] It was originally the residence of Eugene Davenport and was located at 807 South Wright Street in Champaign, housing 50 women. As a women's residence hall, it had a "mature cultured woman who is chaperon and social director [and] is an able hostess who also gives individual attention to the students, directing and counseling them in all their interests." [2]

There was also a student council which met weekly in the house mother's parlor. Elected yearly, the council worked with her "for the conduct and cultural atmosphere of the hall, the hall organization, the student activities, and the home-like spirit". Examples of social activities included "teas, dinner guest nights, dances (both formal and informal), scholastic celebrations, holiday parties, fireside gatherings, birthday celebrations, special banquets for festive occasions such as Homecoming, Mother's Day, Dad's Day, etc". [3]

Food service was provided by "trained dietitians" who "furnish[ed] wholesome, well-prepared, balanced menus". Dinner was also a social activity, with "student hostesses presid[ing] at the tables and the others rotat[ing] at intervals so they may widen their acquaintance". Each resident had her own private mailbox with mail delivered twice a day. There was also a central switchboard in the house, with a "buzzer system summon[ing] an occupant to the extension on her floor where she may take her call in a private booth". [4]

Rooms were well-furnished, with "study tables and lamps, curtains, dressers, wardrobes, comfortable mattresses, single cots, and lavatories". Students were expected to bring "personal linens (towels, etc.), bed linens, blankets, dresser scarfs, [sic] couch cover, and other decorative articles" and "window draperies, made of cretonne or other suitable material, may be furnished if desired". It was believed that "the arrangement of her room becomes for the Residence Hall girl an experiment in self-expression". [5]

By 1942 the School of Physical Education had lost 50% of its facilities due to the transformation of Kenny Gym and Kenny Gym Annex into housing for the Naval Training School for Signalmen and the conversion of the West Hall of the Stadium into classroom space for the Navy's Diesel Engine Operator's School. To give the school more room, the University closed Davenport House as a women's dormitory and "assign[ed] it to the Department of Home Economics for use as a practice apartment and the Child Development Study Program".[6]

The building was later torn down and the Illini Union Bookstore now stands in the same spot. If one takes the north-west entrance to the building (to the administrative offices) and walks to the end of the hall where the elevators are and looks to the south, one will find a window and sill preserved from the original building. [7]