🚀 go-pugleaf

MaryLyon (marylyon@aol.com) wrote:
> Here's a myth(?) I've wondered about since my days at old MHC - are the
> dorms really insulated with hay? This was given as the reason why the
> administration was so against students having candles, hotplates etc in
> their rooms. Always sounded implausible to me, but most students swore it
> was true.
> Mary "clever pseudonym, huh?" Lyon

Yes, it is a clever pseudonym, and I'm jealous you've beat me to it!

Well, last fall we had a small fire (the first in a zillion years not 
caused by a candle or incense -- it was a freak accident:  rain shorted 
out a vcr) here in 1837 "at least it's not as bad as the UMass library" 
Hall.  Subsequently my hero Dave Collette, director of physical 
facilities, came in for a little discussion about all things 
fire-related.  He was emphatic about debunking campus myths, such as the 
legend that the older dorms are insulated with hay and have a 3 or 4 
minute burn time.  None of the dorms have hay in the walls.  Some of them 
are constructed of wood, so they have sprinkler systems.  The idea of the 
short "burn time" apparently was derived from the fact that students used 
to have to complete fire drill evacuations in 3 or 4 minutes, but it 
would take much longer for a building to actually burn to the ground.  
The prohibition of candles and incense is due to the fact that fires 
*are* caused on this campus by candles and incense -- a few weeks ago 
there was a fire that damaged much of the Porter basement, and it was 
caused by a lit candle that was apparently unattended.  (I suppose they 
don't print such news in the _Alumnae Quarterly_, though.)

While I'm visiting the UL group, there's another MHC legend that I'm 
curious about.  Supposedly the person who gave most of the money to build 
1837 Hall was named Hoar, and the trustees didn't want to have a "Hoar 
House" on the campus of a women's school (heck, we already have Clapp 
Labs and Hooker Auditorium, as everyone points out).  So they named the 
new building after the year the college was founded.  Are there legends 
of "Hoar Hall" on other campuses too?  (Or is this in the faq which I've 
yet to read . . .?)

I guess if I have time I'll go ask the archivists.

emily 
(Mary Lyon, guess which alumna's name I take for my signature . . .)