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Kristy Ammerman
It’s not uncommon for one to look out of Landon Hall window and see students playing frisbee or football on Adams field at Michigan State University. People playing catch and soccer and young women tanning wouldn’t be a new sight for the ivy covered walls of Landon Hall, either. Standing since 1947, Landon Hall was named after Linda Landon. She was the first female professor at the university, later becoming the librarian in 1891. Known as the “beloved librarian,” Landon helped the then Michigan Agricultural College grow rapidly during her employment. Originally an all-girls dormitory, Lou MacGready resided there from the fall of 1953 to the spring of 1956. During that time, there were three girls to most rooms and a house mother who lived on the first floor. “We had curfews then, too,” MacGready said. “I don’t remember the exact times, but if you weren’t in by curfew, you were locked out of the dorm for the night.” A grand piano resided in the lobby, “After dinner a girlfriend of mine would sing a couple songs. I would play the piano, and she would sing,” she said. MacGready also enjoyed the fountain out front and listening to the marching band on what was then Landon field. Her first year at MSU, MacGready lived in the basement of Landon Hall, where there are only five rooms. Four of them housed three girls and the fifth housed around eight girls. There were community bathrooms, and the one thing she remembers is the dryers. “I remember my clothes were stolen one year. [The dryers] were like pantries with metal rods in them. You’d hang your clothes over the rods, and shut the door. They were warm, and that’s how your clothes dried,” MacGready said. It was also in Landon Hall where MacGready realized that discrimination was around her. “I was in the cafeteria and had no one to eat with. So I sat at a table of black girls, and they were all really surprised I sat with them,” MacGready said. Conversations started up, and the girls realized that they were all from the same area. “The only difference was that the girls’ high school only had one microscope per science classroom, and at my high school, everyone had one.” Which made MacGready think: “Then I realized, all of the colored girls were on the third floor. Nowhere else in the dorm.” Fast forward to 2008. Students still play outside in the warm weather, and what was once Landon field has been renamed Adams field. The band still practices there before Saturday football games, and that is one of sophomore education major Kelly Mahoney’s favorite things about living in Landon hall. And boys are now allowed in the dorm. In fact, it’s co-ed. However, it’s still “kept the old-fashioned feel. It’s so beautiful and nice – it’s not a 10-story building,” Mahoney said. Participating in the Landon Hall government, Mahoney is a first year resident mentor. Her floor is one-half girls and one-half boys, whereas the other floors are either all boys or all girls. No one lives in the basement anymore. Instead, it’s used as a study area and the laundry room is still down there. And, they have dryers now. “The piano in the lobby still gets played a lot, considering it’s a music area,” Mahoney said. “A lot of musicians are over here, or interior design people. It’s a very artsy area.” Landon Hall has many activities for the students, now. Cookie-decorating in the cafeteria, open mic nights and movie nights are frequent events that students attend at this hall. “It’s a pretty hoppin’ place,” said Mahoney. A resident of Landon Hall can still wake up to the Spartan Marching Band warming up on game days, participate in pick-up football games on the now Adams field and enjoy the fountain out front in the warm weather. They’re sights Landon Hall has seen for 67 years, and it will continue to see them for years to come. “The marching band was actually my favorite part of living in Landon,” MacGready said. And Mahoney agreed: “I love watching the band on Saturdays. It’s the best.” Questions? Comments? Contact Kristy Ammerman at ammerma6@msu.edu |
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