By Finding aid prepared by Elizabeth Nielsen and Rachel Lilley.
Title: Coed Cottage Records, 1956-1984
ID: MSS Coed
Primary Creator: Coed Cottage (Oregon State College)
Extent: 4.5 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The records are organized into two series: 1. Organizational Records, 1956-1984; 2. Scrapbooks, 1956-1984.
Date Acquired: 00/00/1985
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Coed Cottage Records were created by residents of the Coed Cottage, a women's cooperative established at Oregon State College in 1956. The collection consists predominantly of annual scrapbooks with photographs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera documenting the residents and their activities. The collection also includes correspondence, the cooperative's constitution and house rules, a membership ledger and mailing list, and meeting minutes for the house's Executive Council and house meetings. The Coed Cottage closed in 1984.
Items from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.
The Coed Cottage Records document the residents and activities of the Coed Cottage women's cooperative at Oregon State University. The Records consist predominantly of 24 scrapbooks for individual academic years from 1956-1957 through 1983-1984; the only years not represented by a scrapbook are 1976-1977, 1977-1978, and 1979-1980. The scrapbooks include photographs, clippings, and ephemera. The photographs include formal group portraits and many snapshots of the residents as well as the organization’s programs and activities. The records also include a membership book; house meeting minutes; a constitution, procedures, and house rules; and additional photographs, primarily film negatives.
Items from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.
In 1924, Dean of Women Kate Jameson called for a “cooperative cottage for self-supporting girls who wish to live cheaper than they could in a sorority or even in a hall.” It should have come as little surprise, given that while at the University of Montana, Jameson had established just such a cooperative cottage; similar cooperatives were also in place at larger universities such as the Universities of Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota. In operation, cooperative cottages were run “similarly to the O.A.C. practice house,” with a house mother responsible for the “welfare of the girls.” However, because no cook was employed, at least in early cooperative, expenses were lower; additionally, it was argued, girls living on farms could bring to the cottage excess fruits and vegetables not needed at home, “at no great expense to their parents.”
According to a Barometer article published on January 5, 1949, the first women’s cooperative was organized by five women in 1935. This initial co-op was so successful that by 1936 there were three girls’ cooperative houses at OAC. Early cooperative houses were furnished with what little funds could be raised with the assistance of mother’s clubs and “interested faculty members;” in one of the early houses girls slept on mattresses on the floor until they could raise money for bed frames. Thankfully, in 1937, Jameson secured a $2000 loan from the State Board of Higher Education to improve living conditions in women’s cooperative houses.
By 1942, there were eight women’s cooperatives on campus, with a total membership of 207 women, and in 1943, the cooperative houses were incorporated as business name Co-Resident Women, Inc. This allowed for ownership of the properties that had previously been rented by the cooperatives. The Co-Resident Women purchased their first property in 1944, and by 1949 they owned three: Heather Rae, Collamore, and the KVK cooperative house on SW 10th.
By 1949, cooperative houses had full time cooks on staff, and each home had a hostess-manager in charge of collecting fees, determining menus, buying supplies, and acting as a house mother. Co-op residents were required to do a certain amount of manual labor around the house each day, with each girl assigned a task that would take between 30 and 45 minutes. Each house individually elected its own officers and house managers. The Co-op Council, comprised of three members from each cooperative, determined policies for all houses incorporated under Co-Resident Women Inc.
In 1956, Oregon State University purchased the vacant residence at 33 NW 26th; the Co-op Cottage was established at that location in September of that year. Constructed in 1926, the building had formerly housed the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and very little construction was necessary to make it a fit living space for the 40 women who resided there. At its establishment, the following officers were elected: Donna Font (President), Dee Pannel (Vice President), Janet Peansall (Secretary/Treasurer), Alice Schanno and Ellen Kan (Study Proctors). Additional officials elected that year included a Work Manager (Florence Endo), Inter-Hall Council Representative (Linda Mallory), Scholarship Chair (Jean Holsnagel, Intramural Chair (Dee Campbell), Song Leader (Judy Dalton), Social Chair (Irene Bringmann), and Fire Chief (Martha Files). In 1957, the name was changed to the Coed Cottage.
In 1984, due to “falling interest in cooperative living and the need for additional office space,” the Coed Cottage was officially closed and the building was converted into administrative offices for the College of Oceanography. As a tribute to its former residents, President John Byrne and Dean Caldwell of the College of Oceanography dedicated the neighboring azalea garden as a memorial. One former resident of note was Darlene Olson Hooley, a resident of the co-op in the early 1960s, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 5th district of Oregon from 1997-2009.
More Extent Information: 2300 photographs and 165 color negatives; 10 boxes, including 08 oversize boxes
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Acquisition Note: The records were transferred to the Archives in 1985.
Related Materials: The University Housing and Dining Services Records (RG 145) document the administration of housing and residence life programs at OSU. The Special Collections and Archives Research Center also holds materials documenting several OSU cooperative houses including the Azalea House Records (MSS Azalea), the Avery Lodge Records (MSS Avery), the Campus Club Alumni Collection (MSS CampusClub), the Dixon Lodge Records (MSS Dixon), the Kupono Cooperative House Scrapbook (MSS Kupono), the Oxford House Records (MSS Oxford), and the Maple Manor Cooperative House Records (MSS MapleManor).
Preferred Citation: Coed Cottage Records (MSS Coed), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Processing Information: The majority of the photographs in the scrapbook for 1969/1970 were loose, and were removed to a separate folder in Box 02. Most of these loose photographs had hand-written numbers on the back; these numbers were transcribed into the space where the photograph had been. Numbers were assigned to those photographs without them, and that number was transcribed on the appropriate page of the scrapbook.
Finding Aid Revision History: This finding aid replaces the preliminary, collection-level guide published in 2008; it reflects current arrangement and description best practices, and incorporates additional biographical information and an expanded description of the collection contents.
Coed Cottage (Oregon State College)
Coed Cottage (Oregon State University)
Coed Cottage (Oregon State College)
Coed Cottage (Oregon State University)
College students--Oregon--Corvallis--Social life and customs.
Housing, Cooperative--Oregon--Corvallis.
Oregon State College--Student housing.
Oregon State College--Students.
Oregon State University--Student housing.
Student activities--Oregon--Corvallis.
University History
Women--Oregon--Corvallis--Societies and clubs.
Film negatives.
Photographic prints.
Scrapbooks.