Detailed white-crown molding frames the ceiling beams. Double French doors are along every wall leading onto a covered veranda and antique furniture fills the room.
This is Mynders Hall — it’s like stepping into a southern antebellum home from the turn of the century as soon as you walk through the doors.
For more than 100 years, this living room has been the playground for generations of Tigers, but that will all come to an end at the close of this semester.
The University of Memphis is closing the dorm for students at the end of this semester.
Jeromy Clear, a junior economics major who got the chance to live in Mynders this academic year, said he’s sad they are closing the dorm.
“I love living here,” Clear said. “People who live here are friendlier than other places in campus.”
Mynders Hall was one of the first three buildings that were built in 1912, when the University started as West Tennessee Normal School. The first president of the school, Seymour Mynders, named the building after his daughter, Elizabeth, who died in Jan. 1912. The dorm is shaped as an “E” in her honor. Even though Elizabeth never visited the residence hall, students have claimed that they have seen her in their rooms. She’s thought to be a nice ghost who is only wants students to maintain their studies.
When Mynders was first built, it was an all women’s dorm and stayed that way until fall 2014. The dorm was closed after the spring 2013 semester and the plan was not to reopen it. After a portion of Richardson Tower had to be closed, they lacked enough students housing. To accommodate the housing needs, they reopened the dorm for all students for fall 2014 and spring 2015. In fall 2015, Centennial Place, the new dorms located off Patterson St. and Norriswood Ave., will open and there will be no need for Mynders Hall.
“We do not anticipate needing the additional rooms in the fall 2015 semester,” said Peter Groenendyk the Director of Residence Life at the university.
Centennial Place will replace Richardson Towers and offer a more attractive living space. Centennial will also have additional security, better technology access, and group and private study space.
“I don’t want them to close Mynders,” said Asia Clark, a junior criminal justice major who lives and works at Mynders Hall. “I think they should do something with the building because it is a great place to live.”
Clark loves living in Mynders because “it’s more like an apartment not a dorm.”
There are no current plans for Mynders set in stone, but if enrollment continues to grow the dorm could be reopened in fall 2016.
“It is very possible that if enrollment continues to grow, it will be utilized in the fall 2016 as a residence hall again,” Groenendyk said.
Resident Advisor at Mynders Hall, Aoife Whiteacre, loves the cozy feeling you get while being in the dorm.
“There is so much tradition in the building,” Whiteacre said. “It feels like home away from home.”
“When you live in Mynders you become family,” Whiteacre continued. “The living room is where everyone hangs out, does homework, and eats.”
There will be space set aside in Centennial Place for students from Mynders who want to continue living together. The space is limited and if it is not filled it will be opened to all residents in late Feb. 2015.
Mynders Hall may have seen its last live-in students. The historic "E" shaped dormitory will close at the end of this semester--much to the disappointment to those who live there. Once an all women's living space, Mynders housed its first male students in the 2014 fall semester. Aoife Whiteacre, 20-year-old psychology senior and a resident assistant in Mynders, stands in front of a portrait of Elisabeth Mynders, daughter to The University of Memphis's first president. Some say Mynders' ghost roams the halls. (Photo by Jonathan A Capriel)
