If these walls could talk: »
Many have shared same spot on Smith Hall’s third floor
Ripon College’s original campus buildings have been witness to a variety of functions over the years. The now stately office of the vice president of advancement on the third floor of Smith Hall (formerly known as Middle Hall) is on the same spot that numerous alumni once called their Ripon home. Sam Dougan ’48 of Tucson, Ariz., was housed in that space for a time. “There was a study room and two bedrooms off of it,” Sam recalls. “We had a couple of upper classmen from Oconto or Oconto Falls. They had a smelt run there every year. They would bring back a huge washtub of smelt, and we would have a big beer party.” This was during “Hell Week,” and Sam recalls a lot of fraternity antics such as another washtub in the basement filled with “hot” liquid spiked with Tabasco sauce that they had to hold in their mouths. They would eat smelt and drink beer afterward. “The next morning there was the smell of stale beer and smelt, and we had to clean the place up,” he says. He also recalls everyone disassembling their beds once a year and creating hurdle races in the attic of Smith – but he is too polite to detail the specifics, he says. In the spring, he recalls, they climbed out the dormer windows and sunbathed on the roof. “And that crazy Evan Olson (’50 of Omaha, Neb.) would do a somersault off the roof,” Sam says. Olson doesn’t recall going off the roof, but he does recall a snafu when he first arrived at Smith Hall. “They didn’t have room for me, so they put a drape across one of the dormers in the sleeping quarters and put in a bed and a dresser. I lived up there for at least a semester!”
A few years later, James B. Landwehr ’56 of Glendale, Wis., was housed in the same space and fondly recalls “life at Smith Hall with a randy bunch.” He said the rooms then were designed to have two sleeping areas with a double bunk and clothes rack, and a study area. One of the rooms lost its sleeping area to make way for an exit to the fire escape. “The guys who were assigned got together and they took the room on the back side of the building next to the fire escape for a sleeping room,” he says. “Everyone slept there except me. I worked at Schneider’s Restaurant and had to be there at 5 in the morning. I slept in one of the sleeping rooms on the west. Then we had the big corner room for our recreation. They called it a study room, but I can’t remember doing much studying there. None of us really studied very hard, I don’t remember, but we were brilliant. “The study room was to ‘die’ in in an emergency, like being overly involved with beer or whatever. We took good care of the room – we always flipped our cigarette butts out into the hall. There were black spots all over the floor. I’m surprised we didn’t burn the place down.” Jim Thayer ’54, Bill Donaldson ’54 and the late Frank Bonfiglio ’56 were among the group who shared space there together. Thayer fondly recalls Bonfiglio and his affectionate Italian family from Milwaukee. Bonfiglio got into a bit of trouble when he participated in a prank at Lawrence University. He and accomplices painted their library columns Ripon red. Thayer, as student council president, was called in to President Clark Kuebler’s office and asked to deliver a check to Lawrence to cover damages.
Many transformations The second building constructed on the Ripon College campus, Smith Hall has gone through a series of name changes and served a variety of purposes throughout the years. Originally called Middle College, the building housed women students, classrooms, meeting rooms and the commons. It became a men’s residence hall after the completion of Bartlett Cottage in 1888. Before World War II, it was the house of Delta Sigma Psi fraternity (later Sigma Alpha Epsilon). In 1909, Middle College was renamed Smith Hall in honor of the generous Smith family. After the war and until the building of the Quads, it housed Delta Sigma Psi and Omega Chi (later Sigma Chi).
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RIPON College
On Jan. 7, 1931, the interior of the building was consumed by fire. Rebuilding began immediately. The remodeled Smith Hall became the main administrative building in 1958 and was later renamed Middle Hall. It housed the office of the president and the dean of faculty until the College renovated the Carnegie Building in 2006. Now renamed Smith Hall, the building houses the offices of the vice president for advancement and vice president for finance, as well as offices for marketing and communications, financial aid, alumni and parent relations, and the department of communication. The duplicating department and business office are on the bottom floor. b