About

Land and Legacy

Old Main

Student Housing

Student Unity

Wartime, Veterans, and Community

College communities
are constantly in flux, as students typically remain in school for only four years. However, parts of the physical environment of a college campus might last for centuries.

Not So Set in Stone
looks at the evolution of Macalester College’s campus in order to uncover the design decisions that have led to new buildings, the ways people have interacted with, manipulated, and subverted spaces and places on campus, and how settler colonialism is physically embodied at Macalester.

1874
Charles Macalester dies, leaving behind fund to establish new college
1884
Old Main East Wing opens
1887
Old Main West Wing opens
1907
Wallace Hall opens
1910
Carnegie Hall opens
1917
United States joins World War I
1918
World War I ends
1926
Kirk Hall opens
1941
United States joins World War II
1942
Weyerhaeuser Library (now Weyerhaeuser Hall) opens
1945
World War II ends
1947
Bigelow Hall opens
1947
1952
Student Union opens
1954
The Vietnam War begins
1957
Dayton and Turck Halls open
1962
Dupre Hall opens
1964
Kagin Commons opens
1964
Macalester Stadium opens
1964
Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center and Humanities Building open
1964
Doty Hall opens
1966
Olin Science Hall opens
1969
Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel opens
1969
Macalester Stadium renovated to include housing
1969
Weyerhaeuser Library renovated into Weyerhaeuser Hall
1970
Rice Hall of Science opens
1975
The Vietnam War ends
1988
DeWitt Wallace Library opens
1996
Renovations of newly combined Olin and Rice Halls of Science completed
1997
30 Mac renovated into a residence hall
1997
George Draper Dayton Hall opens
1999
Student Union and Dayton Hall demolished to make room for Campus Center
2001
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center opens
2001
Leonard Center opens
2002
Kagin Commons renovated
2009
Markim Hall opens
2019
Renovations of Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center completed
© 2023 Andie Walker