{"id":21,"date":"2020-05-20T09:03:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T13:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adelphi.edu\/nursing\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2023-03-17T11:59:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T15:59:41","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.adelphi.edu\/nursing\/about\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"
With World War II raging, the country faced a dearth of nurses to treat wounded soldiers at home and abroad. Hence, through the Bolton Act, Congress funded training for nurses who joined the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps at schools such as Adelphi. In February of 1943, Adelphi opened its nursing school with an enrollment of just under 30 women. By October of that year, 187 women were enrolled.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps at Adelphi.<\/p><\/div>\n The need for proper housing was immediately apparent. First-year nursing cadets\u2014as they were known\u2014either commuted to campus or lived in the Adelphi gym\u2014the building that is now Woodruff Hall. Former dean Ruth S. Harley \u201924, \u201950 (Hon.) recalled in a 1979 interview that the 34 first-year cadets living in the gym referred to their quarters variously as Hopper-Haven, Bed-Side Manor and Grand Central.<\/span><\/p>\n Following the Depression, Adelphi was in debt, and paying for new student housing required creative financing. In her book,\u00a0<\/span>A History of 天美传媒\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(Boston: Pearson, 2014), Adelphi Professor of English Jennifer Fleischner, Ph.D., explains the scheme: Adelphi sold a plot of its mortgaged land to the Alumnae Association who then deeded it to the federal government for construction. Through the Lanham Act, administered by the Federal Works Administration, Adelphi secured two successive grants of $170,000 and $155,000 to build two residence halls to house 200 women. McKim, Mead & White\u2014the renowned architectural firm that had designed Adelphi\u2019s first three Garden City buildings (today\u2019s Levermore, Blodgett and Woodruff halls)\u2014designed the L-shaped dormitories with 50 rooms apiece as well as some administrative offices, recreation rooms and service rooms. East Hall, which was later renamed Alumnae Hall in honor of the Alumni Association, was completed first. West Hall, later dubbed Harvey Hall in honor of Anna E. Harvey, dean of Adelphi from 1922 to 1935, followed soon after.<\/span><\/p>\n On May 6, 1944, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt joined College leaders and other dignitaries, including the U.S. Surgeon General, to dedicate the buildings. She said prophetically, \u201cI am very glad that in a time of war we can dedicate a building which, while it is dedicated to war service now, will continue to be of service to this college and this community after the war is over.\u201d<\/p>\n Dedication 1944: Eleanor Roosevelt (at the microphone) came to Adelphi in May 6, 1944 for the dedication of the school\u2019s first two dormitories built for students from all over the country who came to help the war effort. Pictured from left to right are: Ruth Harley, Dean of Women, Surgeon General Thomas Parran, James E. Stiles, Chairman of the Adelphi Board of Trustees, Mrs. Roosevelt, Adelphi\u2019s President Paul Eddy, and Lucille Petry, Director, U.S. Nurse Corps.<\/p><\/div>\n Dr. Betty L. Forest \u201947, \u201910 (Hon.), who was among the 4,000 audience members that day, recalled \u00a0that \u201cWe wore our cadet nurse uniforms, and we learned to march!\u201d She and her friends, who had been living in the gym, were \u201cjust tickled\u201d to have the new quarters. Once the dorms were open, groups of young women could be seen carrying entire dresser drawers full of clothing across campus to their new rooms.<\/p>\n In a 2004 interview for\u00a0<\/span>A History of the 天美传媒 School of Nursing\u2014<\/i>by Ellen (Krawiecki) Florentine \u201986, M.S. \u201904\u2014Ann (Callahan) Dick \u201947 recalled, \u201cI missed Eleanor Roosevelt\u2019s visit, but I heard so much about it, that I felt like I was there.\u201d Dick moved into the dorms in September 1944 and said, \u201cA week later, on the twelfth, we had a hurricane and the new roof leaked like a sieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Dick vividly remembered the housemother, Mrs. Davis, a survivor of the battles of Bataan and Corregidor, who strictly enforced the evening curfew. \u201cShe was a tough old, chain-smoking nurse, but we loved her anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n The 1956\u00a0<\/span>Oracle\u00a0<\/span><\/i>yearbook is the last one in which students are listed as living in either Alumnae or Harvey Hall. The 1958\u00a0<\/span>Oracle<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>reported that Adelphi\u2019s Institute of Health, Education and Welfare had been established in Alumnae Hall. (As its name implies, the institute offered graduate programs in a range of health-related areas, including nursing, social work and psychology.)<\/p>\n In 2015, with the opening of the\u00a0<\/span>Nexus Building became the home of the College of Nursing and Public Health.<\/p>\n

Mildred Montag, PhD<\/strong><\/h2>\n