Kronshage Hall

Building Description

Kronshage Hall is a part of the scenic Lakeshore Area Neighborhood. Erected in response to a severe shortage of inexpensive student housing, the first three houses of the Kronshage group were occupied in the fall of 1938. The other five houses followed in the fall of 1939. With Tripp and Adams Halls, they brought men's dorm space to 1200. Kronshage was the first refectory on campus to adopt the cafeteria style of food service.

History

The committee on dormitories (Don Halverson, Otto Kowalke and Harold Bradley) presented a report in November 1937, which recommended placing the new dorms on the lake-shore to the west of the Van Hise dormitories (as suggested by the 1908 Laird Cret and Peabody general plan), that they should be three stories high, with double rooms comprising houses of forty men each with meeting rooms. Total capacity was recommended at 200 men. Substantial recreational facilities were suggested, for sports and hobbies, since "...destruction, gambling, and drinking become a minimum worry if boys are busy and happy at work and play."

In December 1937, the regents cautiously approved financing for one or two houses for thirty to forty boys at a cost not to exceed $40,000. The following March they approved the plans and arrangements by the state engineer, and now requested bids and contracts on up to eight units. The building committee investigated the idea of prefabricated building units.

The construction was completed in time for the fall semester of 1939, a year after the first three units had been finished. They were full from the first with a total of 640 students, the director of housing saying that the waiting list was as long after the opening as before. Of the five new houses two (Jones and Swenson) were cooperative, though unlike Mack house, refectory meals were required.