I’m getting ready to feed a bunch of people over here so this seems as good a time as any to break out this article about the expansion of the dining hall from the November 1939 issue of the Owl Magazine. Note that everyone who lived on campus could now fit into the commons!
I also had squirreled away this great image of the student waiters. It’s not dated and there aren’t a lot of clues but I found it with other things from the late 1930s and I’m prepared to believe that:
There aren’t very many photographs of the original room that I can show you for comparison but I do have a couple at hand. This first one is from 1920:
Baker College Dining Hall interior, Rice Institute
The next one is pretty fuzzy but it’s also very early. It’s dated 1912 and believe it or not I can recognize several individuals, both students and faculty. There were already bitter complaints about the quality of the food.
Rice Institute Commons, dining area
Bonus: This is the inside of the walls during the 2011 renovation of the commons. The piece in the middle seems to be part of the original building.
