Memories of Leming Hall

Back in 2015, longtime Missourian photographer Fred Lynch published a blog about the demolition of Leming Hall on the campus of Southeast Missouri State (then) College.

In April 1972 the decision was made by the Board of Regents, at the recommendation of a 12-member committee, to raze Leming, which had been housing female students since the early 1900s. In its place the college would construct a new, $3 million student union building.

If anyone objected to the razing of Leming, I was unable to find any evidence of it in the Missourian in the days following the announcement. What I did find were two front-page articles sharing memories of some of the women who lived in the dormitory.

Published April 20, 1972, in the Southeast Missourian:

RAZE HALL FOR STUDENT UNION

Leming Hall, a fixture on the State College campus for 67 years, will be razed and a $3 million student union building erected on the site.

State College regents took the action Wednesday and directed a 12-member committee -- six students and six faculty members -- be appointed to work with Pearce and Pearce Inc. of St. Louis, architects, to determine facilities of the new student center.

Leming Hall shortly after it was constructed in 1905. The image is from the 1907 Industrial Supplement. (Southeast Missourian archive)

Leming Hall was built by a group of Cape Girardeau businessmen and opened in 1905 as a private investment. It is on the southeast corner of Normal and Henderson. A companion structure, Albert Hall, almost identical in appearance and layout, was built by the same group. On the opposite side of the hill fronting the college, it was razed to make way for present Dearmont Quadrangle.

Simultaneous with the board meeting Wednesday, Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton's office notified the college of approval of an interest subsidy grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Dr. Mark F. Scully, college president, said the grant will pay the difference between a 3% interest rate and the price at which the college markets revenue bonds to help build the structure when bonds are offered for sale.

It is expected, the college said, that this interest subsidy would be up to $85,176 a year during the 40-year period of the life of the bonds.

For a number of years students have been paying $5 per semester toward the construction of a student union. Dr. Scully reported student contributions now amount to $608,000. College funds for the building amount to $500,000, a total of $1,108,000.

The remainder of the cost will be borne by the revenue bonds, to be retired from earnings in the student union.

Dr. Scully said he hoped construction of the student center would be underway within the next year. It is doubtful, he said, that students will be housed next year in Leming Hall, a women's dormitory. They can be absorbed elsewhere on campus, he said.

The college president said Leming Hall is in a poor state of repair and it is estimated that it would require $350,000 to put it in modern condition. It houses 120 women students.

The Leming Hall site was unanimously recommended to the board by a committee headed by M.G. Lorberg, head of the speech department. Members included faculty members, administrators, students and a member of the architectural firm, Dr. Scully said.

Published May 2, 1972, in the Southeast Missourian:

Leming Hall ... destined for graveyard of progress. (Southeast Missourian archive)

THREE GENERATIONS OF FORMER OCCUPANTS BID FOND FAREWELL TO LEMING HALL

By SALLY WRIGHT BROWN
Missourian staff writer

Through the wooden doors of Leming Hall they've come and gone, these past 67 years.

Three generations of mothers, daughters and grandmothers who let their black cotton stockings, war-rationed nylons and bobby socks of the '40s and '50s and mod body suits drip dry on shower rods.

Three musical generations who swayed to "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and today's sweet-sour sound of guitars and drums.

And three generations of goodnight kisses on a moonlit front porch during which the limestone marble walls kept their secret.

After an admirable career as the first women's dormitory on the State College campus -- affectionately referred to as the "chicken coup" in earlier days -- Leming is destined for the graveyard of progress. It will come crumbling down, a student union building to take its familiar corner.

But the demise of the hall, completed in 1905, won't erase what Leming has meant to many area residents who once held midnight gab sessions on Corridor 50, clambered through a window after hours or romanced in the front parlor under the watchful eye of Aunt Fannie Stubblefield.

Built by a group of independent business men -- Louis Houck, Leon J. Albert and M.E. Leming -- the hall was purchased by the college on May 8, 1912, for approximately $85,000. Through the years Mrs. Lawson (thought to be the first head resident), Mrs. Lulu L. Eicholtz (1922-1933), Mrs. Fannie A. Stubblefield (1933-1950), Mrs. Haidee Stepp (1951-1960) and Mrs. Nell L. Beall (1960- ) have taken some 100 young women annually under wing as housemothers.

The years have taken little toll on the somewhat formal charm of the building. Spirea bushes bloom in its tree-filled yard and there is a well-tended flower garden in the rear. Old green park benches scattered about the lawn are still well-occupied weekend evenings, Cupid tells us, and inside the high ceilings and dark wood mantles in the parlors add a touch of the Victorian.

The building is old, no doubt about that, but it has aged gracefully, accepting minor nicks in its woodwork and cracks in its plaster as an old man might accept gray hair and a slight limp, without losing the inner luster created by the generations of women who have called Leming home.

"Leming was great fun," recalls Mrs. M.G. Lorberg, 1648 Ridgeway. "I remember when we'd be called to Aunt Fan's inner sanctum for tea -- that was when she wanted to find out something." Huddled beneath 25-watt hall lights in curlers and robe, furiously studying for an exam and lowering laundry bags from the windows to waiting beaus below who had gallantly come to provide midnight snacks of hamburgers were a memorable part of life at Leming for her.

Bob Carnahan of Rolla, now president of the Missouri Real Estate Board, at one time here with Navy V-12, was one of Aunt Fan's favorites, says Mrs. Kenneth Knox, 1611 Scivally. "She'd often invite him over to dinner and afterward he'd sing -- just like Bing Crosby."

For Mrs. Roland B. Estes, 1434 Bessie, Leming was her first experience living away from home. "It was always a sociable group and the hall had such comfortable old rooms," she muses.

The dormitory cook, Carrie Beal, stands out in the mind of Miss Hattie L. Eicholz, 1802 Broadway. "One of her specialties was banana cream pie with real whipped cream," she remembers. Dinners at Leming were an occasion on Wednesday nights -- date nights -- says Miss Eicholtz.

Closing hours were much earlier then and being late was a "real offense," Miss Eicholtz relates. "I remember once in a while a girl would get permission to come to town on the late Frisco train. The door had the loudest of bells and if anyone was late, legally or otherwise, we all knew about it."

Sorry to see the hall where her mother was housemother more than 10 years go, Miss Eicholtz says "there were trickles of tears when I heard the news."

"I guess there wasn't much talent in the piano line when I lived at Leming," laughs Mrs. Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., 635 Sylvan Lane, "because often after dinner I'd play the piano and Betty Cooper Hearnes (the governor's wife) would sing."

For Mrs. Limbaugh, Leming brings back memories of the end of World War II and welcoming soldiers home in 1946; of the many "midnight feeds" after lights, Saturday afternoon record sessions and cutthroat bridge games. And it was during her tenure at Leming that mischievous vandals set the old grandfather clock askew.

"Aunt Fan always called us her 'little dears,'" recalls Mrs. Limbaugh, noting each year Feb. 14, Aunt Fan's birthday, was a major dorm celebration.

"Aunt Fan was marvelous -- a real diplomat. She knew everything and cracked the whip but knew how to do it."

"I think I was the only one who loved the food," she muses. "Those chicken and dressing dinners and bean soup on Saturdays -- I've been wanting the recipes ever since."

Leming, says Mrs. Melvin C. Kasten, 1209 Sailer Circle, had a "family atmosphere" about it. "Aunt Fan always expected her little dears to act like ladies. I hate to see the building go -- we had a great allegiance to Corridor 50."

"Aunt Fan could tell what we were up to before we knew it ourselves," recalls Miss Bertie Cleino, 219 N. Frederick St., now director of placement at the college. "She was a good student of human nature."

Girls would gather in Mrs. Stubblefield's room Sunday mornings to read the funny papers, Miss Cleino said, adding "I knew it (the dormitory) would go sometime, but a lot of old memories are going with it."

Published May 4, 1972, in the Southeast Missourian:

FOND MEMORIES OF LEMING HALL LASTING

By SALLY WRIGHT BROWN
Missourian staff writer

The reputation of Leming Hall doesn't end at the corner of Normal and Henderson, the site where the stately old building has served as "chicken coup" for an estimated 7,000 young women the past 67 years.

Its reach goes far beyond the high-ceilinged downstairs parlors with their dark wood mantles. It goes far beyond memories of midnight serenades and Saturday afternoon record sessions and tender promises made on the front porch under a harvest Moon.

The grandmothers and mothers who have lined the steps of the building, first women's dormitory on the State College campus to be clicked into posterity for the Sagamore, the college yearbook, have taken the reputation of Leming to all corners of the world. And many have sent their daughters back to Cape Girardeau and Leming Hall, hoping one day they too, will be able to think back upon the rambling limestone marble building as home.

But, victim of progress, Leming has been tagged to come down. Old and in a state of disrepair, its place will be taken by a modern student union building designed to serve all students at the college.

"Home -- that's what I try to make Leming for my girls," says Mrs. Nell L. Beall, housekeeper there 12 years. "I learn each girl's name and make an effort to learn something about her. That way we try to make Leming more than just a place to sleep."

There's a "sentimental attachment" to the old dormitory, she believes, noting girls from England and Hawaii have lived at Leming because their mothers did.

"The necessity of crawling out windows is a thing of the past," she says, explaining new, more liberal rules. "But I've heard stories about those windows," she chuckles.

During her years at Leming the biggest change Mrs. Beall has noticed is in clothing. "When I first came girls wore spike heels and fur coats to football games -- now pantsuits are the thing to wear." And campus dress was not nearly as casual as it is now -- "and the mini was unheard of.

"We used to live in an age of beauty -- now we live in an age of comfort," Mrs. Beall remarks, noting even though Leming is not air conditioned it is still a popular place to live. "We have to make way for progress, though," she admits. "It's the American way."

Mrs. Beall wishes some of the stone in the building could be incorporated into the union. "It would give the new building some sentiment -- a bit of tradition," she says.

Current Leming Hall residents are loyal to their college home. "I'm really sad the building has to go," says Miss Jerri Graff of St. Louis. "We have a close relationship as a whole; Leming is more like a family than a dorm."

A resident of Leming three years, Miss Graff wrote a poem expressing her feelings about what Leming has meant to her and other young women.

"Long ago a house was built
now enchantingly old, and we
only have memories of a place called home.

Intensely warm, with a beauty
of its own, never will its
charm be destroyed for going down in history as a
place we called home.

Here grew many friendships,
where all memories of our
college days are kept.

Long after we're gone we'll al-
ways remember Leming
Hall."

Leming is home -- and it looks like it," comments Miss Glenda Carracker of Cobden, Illinois. "We have carpets and old furniture that have been through some years of use. When I come in, the pressure is off -- just like at home."

"I don't have a family to run home to," comments Miss Marsha Inman, whose family resides in Costa Rica. "To me, Leming has gotten to be home."

"Leming is special as far as getting to know everyone is concerned," adds Miss Debbie Sharon of Hartfield. "There's not a room that I can't walk into and know the residents."

When Leming closes its doors for the last time -- possibly this spring -- what Mrs. Beal says she'll feel will probably hold true for the thousands of other women who have enjoyed the comradeship of the "chicken coop."

"Giving up Leming," sighs Mrs. Beall, "is like giving up an old friend."

Crites and Sailer Construction Co. won the contract to take down Leming Hall on a bid of $16,500. Demolition began in October 1972.

Here are a few other views of Leming Hall through the years.

Leming Hall, 1920s. (Southeast Missourian archive)

Leming Hall, 1950s. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Leming Hall, 1957. (Donald Kremer Photography ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

A 1972 artist's drawing of the Student Union Building, which replaced Leming Hall. (Southeast Missourian archive)