Students gathered in a McCormick Road dormitory room, ca. 1952
Photograph of students gathered in a McCormick Road dormitory room, ca. 1952 Ralph R. Thompson, photographer U.Va. Visual History Collection
The construction of the McCormick Road dormitory complexes marked a westward expansion of the University across Emmett Street. Much like residents of the suburbs, students living on McCormick Road traveled from their residences to Central Grounds “downtown” for classes and meetings with faculty members.
Eggers and Higgins, the successor firm of Jefferson Memorial architect John Russell Pope, planned ten dormitories organized in pairs around a central courtyard. President Darden intended the new residences as places for first and second year students to cultivate good study habits and become familiar with the University before moving on to the Lawn or into a fraternity or boarding house.
A student in a McCormick Road dormitory room, ca. 1952
Photograph of a student in a McCormick Road dormitory room, ca. 1952 Ralph R. Thompson, photographer U.Va. Visual History Collection
A student in a Mary Munford dormitory room, ca. 1952
Photograph of a student in a Mary Munford dormitory room, ca. 1952 Ralph R. Thompson, photographer Roberta Hollingsworth Gwathmey Papers (MSS 12772)
Eggers and Higgins also designed Mary Munford Hall, the first women’s dormitory at the University. Secluded from the predominately male campus at the northwest corner of grounds, Munford Hall was carefully planned with specific spaces for female students’ studying and socializing needs with significant input by the Dean of Women, Roberta Hollingsworth.
Students gathered in a Mary Munford kitchen, ca. 1952
Photograph of students gathered in a Mary Munford kitchen, ca. 1952 Ralph R. Thompson, photographer Roberta Hollingsworth Gwathmey Papers (MSS 12772)
Munford Hall and McCormick Road Dorm ground floor comparison
Comparison of ground floor plans of Mary Munford Hall and McCormick Road Dormitories Typical Unit Compiled from MSS 6848-p and RG-31/1/2:47.051
While Munford Hall and each McCormick Road dormitory shared similar appearances and capacities, their interiors could not have been more different. The bare-bones McCormick Road dorms crammed male students into narrow hallways and small bedrooms with little common space. In contrast, Munford Hall offered female students well-furnished rooms for sleeping, meeting, studying, socializing, and attending to domestic duties like ironing, cooking, and sewing—under the supervision of a housemother who lived in an apartment on the ground floor of the dorm.
The McCormick Road Dormitories Quadrangle, 1949
Rendering of the McCormick Road Dormitories Quadrangle, 1949 Eggers and Higgins, architects; rendering by R.F. Eggers (MSS 6838)
Munford Hall article in Alumni News, 1951
“Women’s Dorm Nears Completion” from Alumni News, 1951 (LH1 .V6 A5 v40 Oct 1951)