Published: Dec. 1, 2009

sewall hall

To learn more about CU’s history, visit the Heritage Center on the third floor of Old Main. Sewall Hall celebrated its 75th anniversary during Family Weekend in October. 

For decades CU women lived on campus in two tiny cottages on Broadway. Austere by any standard, coeds supplied their own furniture and hired help to carry wood for the stoves that heated their rooms. When the cottages were converted to other uses, women were forced to find housing off-campus. In September 1934 the women’s dormitory, now Sewall Hall, opened and is considered by many to be campus architect Charles Klauder’s masterpiece. The interior contained Chippendale, French Provincial and Early American furnishings. Fireplaces and baby grand pianos added to the ambiance. Over the years, the furniture was replaced with standard university furniture.