Welcome back, everyone, to Arcadian Mysteries, a mini-series I made on the fly where I get to talk about weird Arcadia University history. Last time we covered The Chat and it’s surprisingly complex history, but this time we’ll be expanding our scope a bit. Today, I’m going to ramble on about parts of campus that were changed, revised, or just no longer around anymore.
A general first place to look for these sort of things is the Gray Towers Castle. As one of the oldest parts of campus (completed way back in 1898), it’s undergone countless renovations and updates over the years. For one, many of the original spaces – bedrooms, ballrooms, and billard rooms, oh my! – were changed in favor of office spaces and dorms. Not to mention, the castle used to have an entire conservatory, before it was deemed too structurally unsound to keep and too expensive to repair.
Basic geography of campus has changed too. While unfounded, I’ve heard that there used to be a variety of ponds on campus, and at least one is confirmed to have existed where Brubaker stands now. Plenty of landscape work and buildings have been put up as well – in the early 1900s, the size of the student body grew rapidly, necessitating more dorms, bigger dining halls, and more classrooms.
Still, I think the most pronounced changes in Arcadia’s history are in the traditions and student body. Beaver College had a rich and vibrant series of ceremonies, histories, and celebrations. The May Day celebrations are some of the most well known, but there’s also things like the Song Contest, Junior Prom Weekend, and Cleanup Day.
Perhaps one of the funniest traditions is that of the Freshman Beanies. All freshman were given hats to wear, which they had to tip to any upperclass student they directly interacted with. The beanies would be worn for the first week of classes until the freshies had won the right to no longer wear them – winning this right ranged from “an upperclassmen tells you that you can” to “win a game of tug-of-war or you have to wear it for another month”. This frankly hilarious tradition continued until the early 70s.
Beyond weird hazing rituals, there’s also a variety of extracurriculars that no longer exist on campus. Granted, many of the just exist in different forms – publications like Periscope and The Beaver Review become groups like Quiddity or any of the many other student-led papers. Groups like the Glee Club become the Cabaret. Not everything was so cleanly transferred over, however. And for an example, we’re going to cover one of my new favorite things I’ve learned about Beaver College – the women’s rifle team.
Yup! Rifling is a very real sport and Beaver College had a very real team for it. Originally formed in the late 30s as a club, it became a fully-realized intercollegiate team in 1937, run and coached by one Linford D. Schober.
These ladies absolutely wrecked shop in competitions. Just a year later in 1938, the team was on a national stage. Eleanor Lum, class of 1940, won the match with an incredibly impressive 598 out of 600 points – and she had no prior rifling experience before Beaver College.
By the late 40s, the Beaver College Women’s Rifle Team was nationally known, placing incredibly high on incredibly competitive championships. The 1948 team was so impressive that the U.S. Marine Corps squad challenged the women to a match – our own U.S. military lost by six points. Unfortunately, Coach Shober retired in the spring of 1953. From there, the sport was temporarily discontinued – and was never brought back.
Still, I think moments like these are important to remember – what we had and what we lost. To me, it serves as a reminder that we can still reach those heights again. Most crucially, it we document these things that we lost, are they truly lost after all?
Emma “Not A History Major, Just A Nerd” Pegram
epegram@arcadia.edu
P.S.: Exciting updates about the Chat!
Last time, I stated that the Chat – or The Chatterbox, as it was known back then – was around since the 50s, or maybe the 40s. I made that guess based on dated pictures, but I recently discovered a tidbit of information that might provide some more clarity on the Chat’s earlier days. It comes from the book A 150-Year History of Beaver College and Arcadia University, a solid go-to for lots of information about Arcadia history (it’s also where I got quite a bit of info for today’s article).
I had skimmed through this book last time for my research, but missed quite a lot. While it doesn’t give specifics, there are references to the old Chatterbox. For example, there a handful of references to the Jenkintown campus, noting that the Chatterbox had been around since at least 1938 and was located in a place called Beaver Hall.
Last time, I also claimed that while there were plans to move the Chatterbox into the Castle, such things never panned out – but I might have been wrong about that. The book claims that the Chatterbox was briefly moved into the Breakfast Room of the Castle, something corroborated by the one picture from the 50s. It was then moved to the east side of campus when more residence halls were built there (probably somewhere in the cluster of the Dilworth-Thomas-Kistler buildings).
I bring this all up partially for my own amusement, but also to show that our knowledge of history is always changing. And sometimes, that information is right under our noses (in a book we didn’t read through all the way).
(Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash)
