Bench honors Mac Hall on Linfield campus
Story by Starla Porter, McMinnville N-R/News-Register June 30, 2023. Brothers Watson photo by Rusty Rae, McMinnville N-R/News-Register. Other photos by Wildcatville May 27, 2023.
Bricks
from the walls of the venerable Mac Hall, razed to make room for Linfield
University’s new science complex, were used to make a bench that memorializes
the longtime men’s dorm.
People
strolling along Linfield Avenue through the campus will notice the bench just
behind the sign that says “W.M. Keck,” the name of the science center.
An
attached plaque tells about the history of Mac Hall, which was built and opened
in 1937 to serve the growing student body. It remained a dorm for more than 60
years, then was used as the center of campus technology.
The
plaque says the dorm “was named Mac Hall to honor those who helped McMinnville
College (Linfield’s original name) endure, as well as the town that graciously
supported the college. It was home to thousands of students and helped create
lifelong memories for generations of Linfield Wildcats.”
Linfield
plans to add a time capsule to the bench, as well. The bench and plaque are
centerpiece to a landscaped plaza with lavender, conifer and grasses, and a
pair of large picnic tables
Mac
Hall was torn down in 2021 to make room for a new building that opened this
February as part of the science complex. Adjacent Graf and Murdock halls were
extensively remodeled in conjunction with the project.
Don
Watson of McMinnville, a 1971 Linfield graduate, was part of a committee that
met in the fall of 2021 to discuss whether and how to memorialize the old dorm.
Members quickly decided the first question — a resounding yes, Watson said —
and soon agreed on the second, a bench made from reclaimed brick.
“It’s
appropriate for sure to honor Mac Hall,” Watson said, adding that he likes the
look of the completed bench.
Watson
has special memories of Mac Hall. He lived there in 1967 as a freshman before
joining the Delta Psi Delta fraternity and moving into the frat house.
He
recalled looking out his first-floor window at students playing tennis on the
courts that once stood just east of Mac Hall. A math major, he also recalled
stepping across the hall to ask for assistance from upperclassmen who lived
there.
“Each
floor had a TV room, and I remember going in there to watch,” he said, although
he doesn’t recall whether it was “Star Trek” or other shows popular at the
time.
Watson,
who came to Linfield from Salem, isn’t the only member of his family who lived
in Mac Hall. His younger brother, David, followed him and lived in the same
room before graduating in 1976.
Their
father also lived in Mac, moving there in 1941. He left Linfield to go to war,
but returned to finish his degree afterward, graduating in 1948.
Even
his mother, Thelma Adams Watson, roomed in Mac Hall. “During the war, there
weren’t many fellows on campus, so it became a residence for women,” Watson
explained. “Mom lived there before she graduated in 1944.”
Watson
himself chose Linfield because of his parents and because of the school’s
American Baptist Church affiliation.
In
addition, as a fifth-grader, he had met the late Win Dolan when the physics
professor taught a star gazing class at a Baptist church camp. “Years later, I
took his astronomy class at Linfield,” he said.
The
only member of Watson’s immediate family who didn’t live in Mac Hall is his
wife, Linda.
They
were dating while he was studying at Linfield and she was at Oregon College of
Education, now Western Oregon University. “We agreed that we wouldn’t get
married until one of us graduated and found a job,” he recalled.
After
Linda Watson received her degree and started teaching in Amity, he said, he had
to put his money where his mouth was. The newlyweds moved into an apartment at
College and Cowls streets, in an old house owned by the late Elmer Fricke — one
of Watson’s main professors in the math department.
Today,
Watson often relives his Mac Hall and Linfield memories with friends in a men’s
group at the McMinnville First Baptist Church. He said he will do the same when
he visits the memorial bench on campus.
“It
will be a good place to sit and ponder history,” he said.
Photo: Brothers Don and Davis Watson visit the
bench memorializing Mac Hall on the Linfield
University campus, where both lived as students. Their father and mother also
lived in the dorm, built in 1937. Mac Hall was razed in 2021 to make room for
the new building that’s part of the W.M. Keck Science Center, next to the
bench. (Rusty Rae, McMinnville N-R/News-Register)
………………………
Text on bench: One side - PRESERVING LINFIELD'S HISTORY. Obverse - MAC HALL 1937-2022. The early years of what was then called Linfield College were tenuous. A residence hall built in 1937 was named Mac Hall to the town that graciously supported the college. It was home to and create lifelong memories for generations of Linfield Wildcats.
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