What was Old Main like in the early years of Macalester? The rules were pretty strict. Drinking was banned, and smoking was only allowed in particular areas. After the admission of women in 1893, there were also many rules based on gender. Women weren’t allowed to step foot in the East Old Main dormitory, and dancing between men and women was strictly prohibited, since college president James Wallace believed that dancing led to “spoonery,” whatever that meant. The small indiscretions of students could easily be blown out of proportion. Faculty often dined with students and also lived nearby, meaning that figures of authority were never too far away. One incident where a female student was spotted exiting the men’s dormitory caused an outcry among administrators until their investigations revealed she had merely been dropping off a book for a classmate.¹

However, students were still able to find ways to get what they wanted. Mac students broke their curfew, disturbed classes, and of course, danced with each other. One night in 1903, several students, men and women, snuck into the chapel to hold a dance. They covered the windows with their coats to obscure their illicit get-together, but still did not dare to turn on the lights, knowing that faculty lived so close by and might realize something was afoot.² President Wallace later denounced the incident as “scandalous and diabolical” once the news had broken to a local newspaper.³ Students were also caught raiding the pantry of the basement refectory, vandalizing classrooms, and committing pranks on one another. Professor Funk remarked in his history that students “enjoyed good-natured fun and indulged in college pranks and innocent abandon as all normal, healthy young men do.”⁴ Despite the formal architecture of Old Main and the stringent rules of the college, students still managed to create a little chaos.