Stewart Community

Name

For many years, this building was called Stewart Hall, in 1992 it was renamed the Stewart Community.  Informally, most individuals still refer to it by its first name. 

Namesake: May Stewart

May Stewart was born in Bowers Harbor, Michigan in 1890. Growing up in the remote northwest corner of Michigan’s lower peninsula, Stewart learned to appreciate both the charms of rural life as the unique challenges of rural education, something she would dedicate her life to meeting. After receiving degrees from the University of Chicago, Stewart worked as an educator in Michigan, including serving as a county superintendent in her home Charlevoix County.   

In 1926, Stewart accepted a teaching position at Oshkosh State Normal School in, appropriately, the Rural Education program. It was not long before she became the director of the program.  In this role she prepared students for teaching in the often combined-grade and small classrooms of rural communities.   She continued her study of the field, taking courses from Universities across the country and traveling abroad to observe rural education in three continents. 

During her time on campus, she became active in American Association of University Women (A.A.U.W), and a charter member of the Oshkosh chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma society of female educators.

Facts

Completion Date: 1965

Original Purpose of Building: Women’s dormitory.

Current Use: A coed, first year living environment.

History

Stewart Hall, built in 1965 along with its sister dormitory, Evans Hall next door.  The pair shared a identical floor plans that featured two adjoining cubes.  A formal dedication to the halls and was held in December of 1965, although students had moved into the buildings earlier in the fall. 

Over the years, Stewart Hall experimented with different approaches to housing students and was even closed in 1973 for a year due to low enrollment.  In 1985, the University proposed to the Gamma Phi Beta sorority that they house members in one wing of the hall but this was rejected by the sorority.  Renovations began in 1992 to transform Stewart into an apartment-like complex renamed the Stewart Community featuring mostly single rooms.  Larger closets,  furniture, refrigerators and microwaves differentiated the rooms from the others across campus. The residence was now coed housing only upperclass students.

Stewart Hall participated in many activities over the years.  For many years an all-women's dorm, the hall often participated in coed campus events paired with the mens-only Fletcher Hall. The dorm’s Cider Jug Street Dance once involved the closing the adjacent section of Lincoln St. Later, the Stewart/Evans County Fair and other events have attempted to bring the halls together in a unique community. 

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