Citation: Girls' Dormitory of Baldwin-Wallace College Berea, Ohio (Cleveland, OH: Wilbur Watson & Associates, n.d.).
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The new Girls' Dormitory authorized by the Board of Trustees and as approved by e Executive Committee consists of an L shaped building, 175 feet in length by 40 feet wide with an "L," 40 feet by 40 feet at the south end, four stories and basement in height.
The location selected is the southeast corner of the south quadrangle of the north campus. Space is left for a duplicate of this building immediately to the north, to be built sometime in the future, which will then complete the east side of this quadrangle.
The present proposed building will accommodate 158 girls. The rooms are of two types; one type, consisting of practically one-half of the rooms, will accommodate two beds with study table, dressing tables, clothes closets, etc. The other type will accommodate two girls whose beds would be in the dormitory on the fourth floor or can be used for single bed with all other facilities for single occupancy. The dormitory on the fourth floor will accommodate 42 girls in addition to a number of single rooms. The basement will accommodate a cafeteria and dining room capable of seating at least 200 at one sitting, together with the necessary kitchen, kitchen storage, toilet room and laundry.
The first floor will contain the Dean's suite, consisting of an office, study room, bed room and private toilet and also a large and a small reception room.
Construction
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The building will be of the fireproof and noncombustible type, with stone and stucco exterior walls, fireproof steel frame, brick and tile partitions, etc. The design will be simple and inexpensive, but permanent and economical to maintain.
Architecture
The type of architecture harmonizes with the buildings already constructed with just enough difference to accentuate the fact that this building is a residence building, this feature being brought out by the use of the half timber and stucco gables and the dormer windows.
Citation: A. Wesley Roehm, ed., Grindstone (Berea, OH: Baldwin-Wallace College, 1928), p. 209.
On Founder's Day, October 17, 1927, ground was broken for Baldwin-Wallace's $200,000 Dormitory for Women. President Wishart of Wooster delivered the address following an academic procession from the South Campus.
The dormitory, a four-story building and accommodating 130 women students, will face on the North Campus. The rear will overlook Beech Street. There will be a dining room capable of seating 200 persons, besides the private guest dining rooms. The first floor will contain the Dean's suite of rooms, men's guest room, social rooms, and 16 student rooms. The second floor, and also the third, will contain women's guest rooms and student rooms. A large open-air dormitory on the fourth floor will serve as a sleeping room for those who prefer to have only study rooms on the second and third floor. The other type of student rooms will provide for sleeping quarters. The dormitory will be occupied in September of 1928.
Financial aid has been solicited of alumni, former students, and friends of the College. It was announced that of the $200,000 required for the project, $72,000 has already been obtained.
One of the first buildings to arrive during those growing years was The Emma Lang Hall.
Built in 1928, the women’s dorm which serves as home to 175 girls was named in honor of the wife of a B-W trustee, George C. Lang. George, who ran a furniture and undertaking business on Lorain Ave., and his wife not only donated money to B-W, but also to the Methodist Children’s Home making possible the building of the George C. Lang Cottage in 1938.
The Tudor style dorm was given minor renovation in 1940. The dining room ceiling was replaced and the parlor and front halls were redecorated. The parlor was furnished by Mrs. S.A. Wilson and named in memory of Baldwin Institute’s first president, Rev. Holden Dwight and his sister Catherine.
Citation: Updated B-W History, n.d.
Lang Hall was dedicated at 1 :30 in the afternoon on October 13, 1928, one year after the groundbreaking. It would be used as a women's dormitory, which was greatly needed at that time. Wilber J. Watson and Associates, of Cleveland, were the architects, while R. S. Ursprung of Berea was the general contractor. The hall, located on Beech Street near Bagley in the north quadrangle, was large enough to accommodate 130 women. It was modern and displayed a home-like atmosphere with its design and 9 furnishings. The hall is an "L" shaped building, 175 feet in
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length by 40 feet wide. It was four stories and a basement. The basement contained a cafeteria and dining room large enough to accommodate 200 people at the same time. The first floor contained the Dean's suite, now used by the hall director. Each floor also contained bathroom and laundry facilities. The building was constructed of fireproof and non-combustible materials. The exterior walls were stone and stucco, with a fireproof steel frame and brick and tile partitions.
The cost for the project was $206,000 of which $104,528 was pledged by 412 contributors. The contributors included trustees, faculty, alumni, and the local sororities and the class of 1928 with gift amounts ranging from one $1,000 to $25,000. At the time of its opening, however, one half still remained unpaid.
The hall was named in honor of Mrs. Emma Stocker Lang, graduate of Baldwin Wallace and wife of a B-W trustee. She was a notable business owner, contributor to the Methodist Church, Methodist Children's Home, Baldwin-Wallace College, and member of the Methodist Hall of Fame for Philanthropy.
Lang Hall is still used today as a women's residence hall and the cafeteria in the basement of the hall serves north campus students.
Lang Hall - No building on B-W is more closely identified with its namesake than Lang. When she donated money to the school to build the hall, Emma Lang stipulated that she wanted the building to serve exclusively as a female-only residence hall.
Lang's ghost is said to haunt this hall to this day, and residents and staff members have noted that she seems to have a bit of a temper. After her death, her spirit remained on the fourth floor of the hall, where she spends her time in her rocking chair. She also helps the Resident Assistants out by rattling heaters in rooms whore a male is hanging out after visitation hours and reportedly presses on men's chests. Members of the Lang' dining hall staff have reported that the unexplained activities have made their way down from the fourth floor to the basement. Dishes, utensils and other items have been rattled around or thrown to the floor by the unseen specter.
Linda Short, a staff member in Residence Life and North Campus Area Coordinator, attended B-W during the mid-1960s. She was an RA during her time at the College, and has said that she experienced another spirit in Lang.
During the summer, Mrs. Short and her fellow RAs were prepping Lang for the upcoming school year. After opening all the windows and pulling back the curtains, the group decided to sit outside Lang and relax.
The RAs "noticed a young woman walking slowly down the second floor hallway," Short said.
The group watched her walk through each of the rooms. Assuming it was a just another member of the group, Mrs. Short and her colleagues wondered aloud where their friend Julio was. When Julio answered their question, however, the group was puzzled.
When the group looked back up, the girl they had all seen had disappeared.
''The building...was locked from the outside, and no one was ever found in the building that night," Mrs. Short said.
"This spirit was strangely like Philura Gould Baldwin," she said.
Citation: Updated B-W History, n.d.
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Ernsthausen Hall was dedicated on October 19, 1961 , the Baldwin-Wallace Annual Founder's Day and 115th Birthday of the college. The hall was the eighth new facility built under Dr. Bonds, was built to provide residence facilities for 216 men. The building, located at the comer of Maple (Tressel) and Center Streets, was built at a cost of $900,000. The architects for the Colonial Style building were Heine, Crider, and Williamson. The building was constructed by the Hoelzel-Martini Company. The groundbreaking and laying of the cornerstone was conducted on Founder's Day of 1960.
The east wing was named in honor of John F. Ernsthausen, who had been a Baldwin-Wallace Trustee and counselor since 1946. He had given valuable support and leadership to the Ohio Methodism and the Berea children's Home and other church activities, as well as church and community activities in Norwalk, Ohio. He earned the national Horatio Alger Award in 1959 for his outstanding business career as founder and President of Norwalk Truck Lines.
The west wing was named in honor of Mrs. Doris E. Ernsthausen. Along with her husband, she was an important benefactor of Baldwin-Wallace College. She also had an interest in young people and provided for her church and community.
The hall consists of four sections; Ernsthausen Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, and Southeast. The two-story building has a lounge in each section on the first floor and a chapter room for fraternities and sororities on the second floor, as well as bathroom facilities on each floor. The east and west wings are separated by a courtyard and walkway. The hall is presently the home to the Phi Mu and Alpha Zi Delta sororities, and Sigma Phi Epsilon and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternities. Independent men and women also live on the first floor of the east wing.
Ernsthausen Hall – Prior to its full-scale renovation in 2003, Ernsthausen was the home to several of the Greek organizations on campus, Phi Mu [sic].
The legend goes that prior to the building's renovation, a girl who was about to be appointed as the sorority’s president was killed in a car accident. After this happened, residents of E-Hause and sorority members reported suspicious activity, including a breeze blowing down a hallway without any windows that was so strong it would blow flyers and papers taped to the walls. At one point, there was a shocking laic of three-floating heads in Phi Mu’s chapter room.
Citation: Updated B-W History, n.d.
Located at 296 Beech Street, the Ethel Tudor Management Home was used by the Home-Economics department of B-W for its home management course. Every six to eight weeks a new group of senior home economics majors moved into the house and took over the management of the house. The program was under the direction of Mrs. Ruth Bauer a Home Economics Professor. Four or five girls occupied the house at the same time and took turns being hostess, cook, waitress, housemaid, and "project girl". The roles included planning, preparation, and serving of all meals, entertaining, house work and furniture remodeling. The girls were to live on .75 cents to $1.10 per day.
The original management house was opened in 1914. The house management house was relocated to Beech Street when the original house was removed to make room for Ritter Liberate. The house was named in honor of Ethel Tudor who was the head of the Home Economics department from 1916 until 1944. The dedication of the house was held during the Alumni Weekend in June of 1961. The house has been used by the college as the Safety and Security Building since 1991.
