After the war, Macalester continued to see widespread change and faced new challenges. With the passage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (a.k.a. the GI Bill), higher education across the nation saw a flood of new students, often veterans, requiring colleges to quickly expand to accommodate larger student bodies.¹ Macalester was no exception, and saw its highest enrollment ever by 1946, welcoming hundreds of new veteran students.² This influx of students overwhelmed the college’s facilities, and creativity was required when it came to housing returning veterans in comparison to the typical college student. For instance, veteran students had to be housed temporarily on cots in the gymnasium while Bigelow Hall was constructed.³

In addition, many returning veterans simply had different needs. Veteran students were often older, and had spouses and young children to accommodate. Funding from the Federal Public Housing Authority made it possible to construct several temporary apartments for both single and married veterans on the south side of campus.⁴ The resulting collection of homes was dubbed “Macville,” and it would come to be a unique community on the Macalester campus for the next few years.