{"id":3658,"date":"2015-08-10T17:15:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T21:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/about\/news\/?p=3658"},"modified":"2015-08-10T17:15:27","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T21:15:27","slug":"lewis-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/lewis-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hall"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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On August 10, 1965, Notre Dame dedicated its first dormitory built specifically for female students. \u00a0Lewis Hall was originally built as a residence\u00a0for the religious women pursuing\u00a0advanced degrees at Notre Dame, accommodating 143 nuns, all in private rooms. \u00a0It would later open to include female lay graduate students\u00a0as the number of religious declined. \u00a0In 1975, Lewis was converted to a residence for undergraduate women and\u00a0the single rooms were turned into doubles.<\/p>\n

\"GPHR
Architectural sketch of Lewis Hall by Ellerbe Architects, c1962.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Holy Cross Sisters Mary Frances Jerome (MA in Greek Literature) and Mary Lucretia (MS in Chemistry) were the first two women to earn degrees at Notre Dame in 1917. \u00a0The formal establishment of the Summer School Program in 1918 and the Graduate School in 1932 brought thousands of women to Notre Dame from across the country. \u00a0Since most did not live locally, they did\u00a0their coursework over the summer sessions, dragging out the time needed to complete their bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees.<\/p>\n
\"GPHR<\/a>
Lewis Hall exterior with female students, 1965.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On April 28, 1962, University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh announced a million dollar\u00a0donation from the Frank J. Lewis Foundation for the construction of a dormitory for these women to\u00a0live on campus year-round and earn their degrees. \u00a0As such, they could earn a masters degree in 15 months rather than over five summer sessions. \u00a0Hesburgh said, “the new hall will accelerate the graduate training of the devoted women who constitute the heart of Catholic education in America” [Notre Dame Press Releases<\/em>, April 1962<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"GPHR
A female student studying in her private room in Lewis Hall, 1965.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago business man Frank J. Lewis unfortunately had passed away in 1960 before he could see his foundation fund Lewis Hall. \u00a0Before they were married, his future wife Julia founded the Illinois Club for Catholic Women in 1919, which was “a home for young Catholic business women away from home and in modest circumstances.” \u00a0The couple was extremely active in philanthropic work throughout Chicago and “their outstanding contributions toward the development of Catholic higher education [was] so great as to have earned them the title of Godfather and Godmother to Loyola University, DePaul University, Lewis College at Lockport, Illinois, and others.” \u00a0Frank believed that “God gives a man money so that he will share it with others”\u00a0[UDIS 99\/15].<\/p>\n

\"GPHR
Lewis Hall Dedication, 1965\/0810. Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, Mundelein College President Sister Mary Ann Ida Gannon, and Mrs. Julia Lewis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a move to eventually\u00a0make space\u00a0for all women undergraduate students who chose to live on campus, Lewis Hall’s resident profile changed in the fall of 1975. \u00a0The graduate students were moved to Badin Hall for the year in\u00a0the anticipation of the opening of the Grace O’Hara graduate student apartments in 1976. \u00a0The undergraduate women living in Badin Hall since opening to women in the fall of 1972 were moved to Lewis Hall in the interim. \u00a0Badin Hall returned to house undergraduate women after this one year shuffle.<\/p>\n

\"GPHS
A group of Notre Dame female students in a\u00a0Lewis Hall\u00a0lounge, Fall 1967.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the move initially upset students all around, Notre Dame saw it as the best option available\u00a0to facilitate the graduate and ever-increasing undergraduate women,\u00a0without further displacing the on-campus male students.<\/p>\n

Even though\u00a0graduate students are often overlooked on campus, Lewis Hall plays a very important role in the history of coeducation at Notre Dame.<\/p>\n


\nSources:
\nNotre Dame: \u00a0A Magazine<\/a><\/em>, Fall 1965<\/a>
\nNotre Dame Press Releases
\nObserver
\n<\/a><\/em>UDIS 99\/15
\nUDIS 256\/22
\nGPHR
\nGPHS<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>

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On August 10, 1965, Notre Dame dedicated its first dormitory built specifically for female students. \u00a0Lewis Hall was originally built as a residence\u00a0for the religious women pursuing\u00a0advanced degrees at Notre Dame, accommodating 143 nuns, all in private rooms. \u00a0It would later open to include female lay graduate students\u00a0as the number of religious declined. \u00a0In 1975, … Continue reading “Lewis Hall”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":4187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,26,48,74,83],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nd-history","tag-buildings-and-grounds","tag-coeducation","tag-lewis-hall","tag-student-life","tag-women"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-28 08:50:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/ndarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}