The biting winter winds of January 1896 whipped across campus, inaugurating the New Year. Penn, in the freezing cold, unveiled a new building that straddled the north-south view of College Hall and the Quad. Though the name is familiar, the facility would be largely unrecognizable to students today.
Houston Hall was the nation's first student union, featuring, in its earliest days, a bowling alley, a gymnasium, billiard rooms, smoking rooms and the University's only dining hall, in addition to an indoor swimming pool.
Financed by trustee Henry Howard Houston and his wife Sallie, the building was erected in memoriam of their son, Henry Howard Houston Jr., an 1878 alumnus who died in Rome in the spring of 1879.
The decision to construct a student union was considered a "unique experiment in college education" and a "frank and practical recognition of the importance of the leisure hour," according to the Houston Club's original handbook that was published in 1896. The building was heralded as the "center of all the undergraduate and social activity of the University . [where] no young man who spends his odd moments here for four years will fail to carry away with him something of that excellent quiet dignity."
Even today, more than a century later, Houston Hall is still "the place where everybody is able to come together because it's everybody's place," said Fran Walker, director of the Office of Student Life. "It doesn't belong to a particular school or department or group of students."
Established at nearly the exact same time as the building itself, the Houston Club was the original student government at Penn. Applications to join the club, which had five officer positions, were posted in Houston Hall for all members to review and to potentially contest. The exclusively male club was so "staunchly against the inclusion of women that [its] constitution forbid women to enter certain parts of Houston Hall and mandated that all women be accompanied by a club-member host at all times when they were in Houston Hall," according to the University Archives.
Women eventually received their own club in Bennett Hall in 1926, only three years before the Houston Club was abolished and replaced by the Houston Hall Board.
Bennett Hall, on the land where Fisher-Bennett Hall currently sits, became home to women's activities around the same time that women's athletics commenced. But the separation of sexes in different clubs wasn't that unusual at the time, since "it was an era when men and women largely lived in separate spheres on campus," said Mark Lloyd, director of the University Archives and Record Center.
The first major renovation to Houston Hall occurred in 1939 when the current-day Hall of Flags and Bodek Lounge were added. Some changes to the original edifice had already occurred, including the removal of the athletic facilities and the conversion of the building's basement into the University bookstore.
Houston Hall remained the sole dining facility on campus into the 1950s and even functioned as a mobilization location for troops during World War II.
When Thomas Hauber, who is now the director of the Vice Provost for University Life's facility and administrative services, started working for VPUL in 1973, student dining had just moved out of Houston Hall and into 1920 Commons. The basement of Houston was filled with nothing but meal lockers and a massive ice machine.
Hauber's first project was to build a bar in the basement, intended primarily for graduate students. "The University never had a liquor license, but the [bar] had a license and could serve to those over 21," he said. The popularity of the bar increased the use of the building - but only for those lucky enough to be legal.
The bar, unable to serve a largely underaged student population, only lasted about five years, according to Hauber.
He was also tasked with converting some of the men's bathrooms into co-ed or women's bathrooms. Since Houston Hall started as a male-only club, there was only one women's bathroom in the building as late as the mid-1970s. "I had to go through and remove the urinals and put in more toilets that could be used for both sexes," he said.
After these changes were implemented, the Houston Hall Board began to institute student suggestions and built what became known until the late 1990s as Houston Mall. The Mall, located in the basement where the current Houston Market is today, housed a slew of retail stores and eateries over the years, including all types of fast food and a bagel joint called Skolnik's Bagel Bakery. Sheli Barnett, C'86, recalls eating lunch there with friends every day. "You could always find a friendly face down in the basement," she said. "We used to sit for hours debating politics, sharing ideas, talking about classes and just socializing."
The Houston Mall also offered a variety of services, including Roses Florist, One Hour Film Developing, check cashing, a card shop, a post office and a copy center. There was also a traditional barbershop that was converted into a women's beauty salon as hairstyles changed in the 1970s.
Houston was also home to many student organizations such as the Undergraduate Assembly, Kite and Key, the LGBT Center, the Performing Arts Council, the Student Federal Credit Union and Penn Student Agencies. All of these organizations have since moved outside of Houston Hall, and currently only the Office of Student Life remains in the building. The University's radio station, WXPN, was also launched from Houston Hall.
In 1985, Penn student Barry Prevor and a friend, Tulane student Steve Shore, decided to open a clothing store called Steve & Barry's in Houston Hall's basement. The discount retail venture, none of whose items cost more than $10.98, quickly gained momentum. Today there are over 275 mall-based locations of their franchise nationwide, and just this past year, Steve & Barry's teamed up with Sarah Jessica Parker to create her first apparel line, BITTEN.
Even the Houston Hall of 10 years ago was drastically different than the one students wander through today. While the golden-oak Gothic doors still open to artfully arranged wooden tables and plush leather chairs, Houston Hall underwent major renovations from 1997-2000 that gave the building a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.
According to Walker, "The basement was completely gutted and redone so that Houston Market is in the space that used to be Houston Mall." This was part of the larger Perelman Quadrangle renovations, made possible by donor and Penn trustee Ron Perelman, that resulted in the creation of Wynn Commons.
And while the inside of the building has evolved over the past century, student use has remained the same for the most part. Houston Hall is still a place where students convene, though Hauber noted that technological advances have phased out some old services, such as the Ride Board that students used in the 1970s to coordinate carpools to New York and New Jersey.
It is clear that the building is steeped in tradition, and that memories of Houston run deep for many Penn alumni. Bruce Finsilver, W'67, was in the bookstore in the basement of the building when he learned that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in November 1963. Houston became the backdrop for "a tragic moment that was seared in my being forever," he said.
For Charlie Battista, C'73, Houston Hall was the first place on campus that he set foot. Invited to view Penn during his senior year of high school, Battista says his first impression was that of "walking into a library or a museum, with all the dark wood paneling and fireplaces. It gave me the impression of being at a school with a rich history."
During his first year, he witnessed the changing culture of Houston Hall - reflective of a broader shift in standards of propriety in the nation-at-large. "When we first started as freshmen, we had to wear a jacket and tie for dinner, and there were tablecloths on the tables," he said. But as the year progressed, the dress code was relaxed so that collared shirts alone were sufficient, and by spring, nearly any style of dress was permitted, he said. "Food became self-service and the tablecloths disappeared."
When Battista turned 18, he registered for the draft at the Chaplain's office in Houston Hall. He also watched the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the spring of 1970 on a teletype machine in the building's lobby. "I remember learning about the massacre at Kent State from that teletype machine and feeling like students everywhere were kicked in the stomach by the government," he said. "Houston Hall was the headquarters for the Penn organizers of the Vietnam War [protests]."
But with the new renovations, Battista said he feels that the "original character of the building was compromised," noting that the new, high-tech information desk on the first floor would be more aptly suited for New York's Penn Station than for the oldest student union in the nation, known for its dignified architecture.
But its charm still remains for Marianne Shaughnessy, N'84, who said she spent some time relaxing in the historic building after last year's Homecoming game. "It's fabulous now. I always include Houston Hall on our return tours," said Shaughnessy, who is chair of the Greater Baltimore Penn Club.
But with campus expansion, both eastward and westward, Hauber is concerned that the building's utility as a student hub will decline. "Students don't come down to this section of town as much," he said. In addition, members of the Penn community have a growing number of options, on and off campus, for dining, socializing and studying, making Houston Hall less central in students' lives. The building is no longer a late-night hot spot, now closing at 1 a.m. instead of 3 a.m., as it used to.
That said, between noon and 1 p.m. on any given weekday, Houston is still bustling with harried students, many of whom do not stop to think about over a century of history that surrounds them.
