Goodhue Dining Hall

From CarlWiki

Goodhue Dining Hall was a dining hall attached to Goodhue Hall. It was in operation from 1962 when Goodhue opened until 1999 when it was closed down in favour of the East Dining Hall. The structure is now known as the Superlounge.

Dining at Goodhue

When it opened in '62, Goodhue dining hall, like the Evans, Gridley, and Burton dining halls was a full service facility. Meals were served family style at set times by uniformed waitrons (waiters and waitresses). Each student was assigned to a dining hall based on her or his place of residence. That made living in Evans, Myers, and Goodhue less desirable since residents were expected to eat all meals in the dining halls on the periphery of campus.

The big difference between Goodhue and the other dining facilities was that waitrons at Goodhue used wheeled carts when setting up tables, serving food, and clearing sets (the groups of tables assigned to waitrons), except for Sunday morning breakfasts, when buffet service was offered. That made service in Goodhue much more efficient (i.e. fewer waitrons per eater) but significantly less elegant, according to traditionalists..

Waitrons in other dining halls were skilled at carrying heavy serving trays (although women in Evans and Gridley were not expeced to carry the trays at shoulder level like the men in Burton).

Dining was segregated by gender in '62. ("Mixed" dining was first allowed for lunch in the mid-'60s.) Men were expected to wear coats and ties and women were expected to wear dresses or skirts and blouses for dinner and for Sunday lunch. Those dress codes did not always add a great deal to the dining elegance since many men had eating ensembles consisting of collared shirt fronts, clip on ties, and sport coats that were quickly donned after strenuous IM sporting events for 6:00 pm dinners.

In those "pre-NNB" times, head waitrons read announcements to diners in the moments after everyone had been seated and before the waitrons served the meals. Rumor had it that the house mothers in Evans and Gridley also asked head waitrons in those dining halls to offer short prayers or moments of thankful silence before meals.

"Mixed" dining became common, students were allowed to choose where to eat meals, and waitron service ended sometime in the tumultuous '70s. Carleton out-sourced the food service and Goodhue's dining hall was open for two meals per day when classes were in session, for lunch and dinner on weekdays and brunch and dinner on weekends. The menu was usually a slightly scaled back version as what was available at Burton Dining Hall or Evans Dining Hall. Due to Goodhue's remote location, the dining hall was used less frequently than the others, and often closed down during Midterm Break, and was usually the first dining hall to cease operations during finals.

The atmosphere at Goodhue Dining Hall was more relaxed and open than at Evans or Burton, due to the comparatively large, open space. Students often moved tables around in order to sit nearer to their friends. Sometimes, entire floors would head downstairs to the dining hall en masse and eat together.

When Goodhue Dining Hall was in operation, it was not handicap accessible. Even though the residence hall itself included an elevator, the dining hall is three steps down from First Goodhue and several steps up from the sidewalk outside. A ramp down those three steps was installed as part of the renovations to turn the dining hall into the Superlounge.