Sweatshirts reading 'University of Dayton 1850' mislead the readers. The historically correct claim would be 'St. Mary's College 1850, St. Mary's Institute 1871 and University of Dayton 1920.'

The first SMC class was made up of just 14 Catholic boys. Within 50 years, registration jumped to more than 1,000 students. Women first registered in 1935, with a class of 27. Thirteen years later, UD welcomed 2,525 students to the school'1,409 being veterans of WWII.

The university's past 112 years have been defined by construction, tradition and innovation. Just as it is with any community, its members rely on records and tales to learn about the past and shed light on the present.

St. Mary's Hall

Although administration and staff occupy St. Mary's Hall now, it used to be one of the students' favorite spots on campus. In fact, it was the campus.

Erected in 1870, St. Mary's was the tallest building in the city of Dayton. It was the first one used by St. Mary's Institute, but it is not the oldest building'its predecessors are Zehler and Liberty Hall. Dorm rooms, recreational rooms, a cafeteria and classrooms were all under one roof.

In 1913, St. Mary's Hall ensured positive press for the college. It served as a shelter for nearly 600 city residents during the great flood. The school extended students' Easter Break to house the refugees.

In the mid 1960s, St. Mary's Hall was the setting for another crisis that had a less heart-warming plot. UD students joined college students' call for change across the country by staging a coup d'etat.

They barricaded then-President Rev. Raymond Roesch and Dean of Students Margaret Howland in St. Mary's Hall and requested more control over their academic schedules. A group of faculty met with three student leaders to avoid police involvement.

'I had one guy in class and he was such a nice guy,' the Rev. Norbert Burns, religion professor, said. 'But we sat down and he immediately said, 'Shut up, you pig.''

Administration compromised with the students and once again, just as it had been nearly 100 years before, St. Mary's Hall was the first building to witness change in students' college lifestyles.

The Ghetto

Barbecues when it's warm and snowball fights when it's cold. Best friends in the next bed and classmates next door. A responsible landlord and a year's rent around $3,000. UD's administration may be right: the south student neighborhood hardly matches historical pictures of a ghetto.

While the exact time and reason behind naming the student neighborhood the 'Ghetto' is unknown, everyone has their own guess at the origin of the affectionate nickname and the administration's fight against it. Bro. Raymond Fitz, retired UD president, said the neighborhood was called the Ghetto since he came to work at the school in 1969.

'I suspect that the neighborhood got its name because absentee land owners let properties run down with student maltreatment,' Fitz said in a recent e-mail.

Brandon Artis, senior sociology major, said he heard a different story. He said NCR owned the land and housed its workers there in order to ensure they lived nearby and had no excuse for missing work. Alumni have told Artis they used to see the workers walking home from their jobs around 5 p.m.

'I guess it was kind of the slums of the city,' Artis said.

Thomas Columbus, assistant director of publications at UD, agrees there was a time NCR owned the land. But he does not think students would have considered it slums.

The land belonged to the Patterson family until the mid 1870s when the family divided it into suburban housing lots instead of continuing their milling business. John Patterson built the NCR factory on the remaining land.

'John Patterson is credited with vastly improving the area by building these houses a century ago,' Columbus wrote in a recent e-mail.

He speculated other ways the Ghetto could have acquired its name. Separated from campus by a railroad embankment and Frank Z's barbed wire fence, Columbus said he sees how UD students could have felt 'walled off from the rest of the world.'

Just as there is no specific moment in history when the student's proudly named their neighborhood, no one can pinpoint the day UD administrators began the fight against the name 'Ghetto' either. Burns said he was involved in one of the many efforts to rename the housing. His committee in the 1960s was unsuccessful at changing the name to the 'Village.'

The Ghetto's title remains a tug-of-war between administration and students and a current campaign promotes calling it the South Student Neighborhood. But name is irrelevant in UD's attachment to its unique housing. As described by Teri Rizvi, associate vice president of public relations at UD, it is and always will be 'one of UD's strongest selling points. It's a place where you make friends for life' It is unique.'

The Darkside

According to a 2005 security assessment found on SGA's Web site, the Darkside's name comes from a time when that neighborhood did not have adequate lighting.

The report from Security Management Consultants noted that students still associate the Darkside with a lack of lighting, even though the assessment found that there is now adequate lighting in both neighborhoods. The report suggested 'a strong campaign needs to be implemented to rename this community to something more appropriate to current conditions.'

Marycrest

Built in 1963, Marycrest was the university's first female dorm. Before its construction, female students were housed either in a hotel downtown or with university-certified landlords.

It was named in honor of the Virgin Mary and in light of the fact that it rests on the crest of a hill.

According to Dr. Paul Morman, professor and former dean of arts and sciences, women had a curfew for the first couple years. They had to be in by 11 p.m. on the weekdays and 1 a.m. on the weekend.

The presence of the open office in the lobby of Marycrest is explained by the fact that women initially could not let men come up to their rooms. Instead, a man had to come to that partition and the receptionist would use the intercom to contact the resident. She would then have to come down to see her visitor.

Albert Emmanuel Hall and Miriam Hall

According to Morman, two halls were named after Jewish benefactors to the school.

Albert Emmanuel was named in honor of a benefactor of that name who donated the money to have a library built so the school could be accredited.

Since the library has moved to Roesch, Albert Emmanuel has served as an office building for the school.

Miriam Hall was named after Miriam Rosenthal, an important Dayton area philanthropist in the 1960s.

Within the last five years

Kennedy Union Field is a relatively new field on campus. Tennis courts stretched across the space before the summer of 2003.

Stuart Field, now the playing fields for UD intramurals, used to be home to the varsity baseball team. The school moved the players to the new field at Edwin C. Moses Boulevard and I-75 near the UD Arena in the summer of 2003.

UD approved the $9 million construction of ArtStreet in April 2003. Its designers described it as 'a little of the French Quarter, the Left Bank and downtown Chicago.'

Also in 2003, the addition of Marianist Hall moved the bookstore from the first floor of Chaminade Hall, the post office from where the Heritage Center is located today and opened a learning space and sandwich shop for students.

According to Morman, the hall was named in honor of the Marianist Order, who donated $10 million to the university's last capital campaign.

Sources:

www.flyernews.com

Hallowed Memories ' a Chronological History of the University of Dayton (1850-1950), compiled

by Brother Edward. H. Knust.