Cornelliana ‘Meet You at the Straight!’: Beloved Student Union Celebrates a Century Stories You May Like Collegetown 101: How Ezra’s University Shaped a Neighborhood Cornell Cinema Still Lights Up the Silver Screen Once Upon a Time, Canines Cavorted on the Hill—Even in Class Built during the Jazz Age, the campus landmark was designed ‘for all activities other than the athletic and the academic’ Throughout the 2025–26 academic year, the University is celebrating the Straight's centennial—and Cornellians is joining in the festivities with a series of stories (plus a few articles from our backlist), trivia quizzes, photo features, and more! Please enjoy our coverage of: Visual quiz • Willard Straight 1901 biography • The Stump • Straight Cookies • Willard & Dorothy's love letters By Joe Wilensky For a century, Willard Straight Hall has served as a Cornellian gathering place—home to the grand Memorial Room; Okenshields and the Ivy Room; art galleries and a theater; cozy meeting spots and tucked-away study spaces; an elegantly furnished library; and so much more. The building occupies an oversized place in many alums’ memories—whether it’s the legendary Straight Cookies or the free popcorn at the welcome desk, songs sung in the Ivy Room, a late-night movie at Cornell Cinema, a treat from the Straight Scoop or Cascadeli, or hours spent hanging out with friends. The Memorial Room, a decade after the Straight’s opening. The sprawling Gothic-style building opened its doors 100 years ago this fall as one of the nation’s first student unions. It was an immediate hit: as the Cornell Alumni News observed at the time, it became “essentially the center of undergraduate life … designed to care for all activities other than the athletic and the academic.” Its main entrance has long been a popular gathering spot, giving rise to the decades-spanning refrain: “Meet you at the Straight!” The sprawling Gothic-style building opened its doors 100 years ago this fall as one of the nation’s first student unions. The celebration of the building’s centennial, which kicked off in September, comprises activities throughout the 2025–26 academic year, with the signature event set for November 21. The Straight was built as a magnificent memorial to Willard Straight 1901, who was just 38 when he died of influenza while serving in an administrative role in Paris toward the end of World War I. It was donated by his widow, Dorothy Whitney Straight Elmhirst. Early phases of construction ... ... and the building taking shape months later. Straight—who is credited with founding the precursors to both Dragon Day and Slope Day—had always wanted to enrich the student experience on the Hill. In his will, he directed Dorothy to do with his estate “such thing or things for Cornell University as she may think most fitting and useful to make the same a more human place.” At the time, outside of Greek life, there was little provision for social activities on campus, and scant spaces that brought students together—not yet even a central cafeteria. A classic postcard view. After researching the social centers at colleges like Stanford and Berkeley, Dorothy used Willard’s estate and some of her own money to fund the $1.3 million project (around $25 million in today's dollars). The University of Toronto’s then-new Hart House—and its Great Hall—served as a particular architectural inspiration. Drawn up by the New York firm of Delano and Aldrich, the building’s design was presented to trustees in 1922. In his will, Willard directed Dorothy to do with his estate “such thing or things for Cornell University as she may think most fitting and useful to make the same a more human place.” As Morris Bishop 1914, PhD 1926, wrote in A History of Cornell: “The plans, and the scale of the proposal, were breathtaking.” Following a year and a half of construction—which necessitated clearing several faculty residences from the site—the Straight opened on November 18, 1925. “After holding its mounting curiosity in leash for months, practically all undergraduate Cornell swarmed in to inspect and enjoy the magnificent building,” the Alumni News reported. While the stately elms have vanished from nearby Central Avenue, the Wee Stinky Glen still flows through the adjacent rock garden. Gushed the Ithaca Journal-News: “The edifice surpasses the most enthusiastic expectations. “No one appears able to find words to express sufficient admiration or seems able to comprehend the grandeur of the memorial to the distinguished Cornellian.” The main entrance was dominated by a soaring cathedral window, its expansive slate roof dotted by dormers and small, stout chimneys. No one appears able to find words to express sufficient admiration or seems able to comprehend the grandeur of the memorial to the distinguished Cornellian. The Ithaca Journal-News Locally quarried “Llenroc” stone made up much of the structure, while Indiana limestone was used for the trimmings and window casements. Quartersawn oak graced much of the interior spaces, and five types of flooring materials were used throughout. The interior’s vast halls reflected the lavish styling of the Jazz Age, and murals depicting Straight’s career and ideals decorated the lobby. (The murals were by noted artist Ezra Winter; his assistant on the project, Alison Kingsbury, would go on to marry Bishop.) Silent film clips include scenes of a Senior Week ball in 1929, Hotel Ezra Cornell in 1936, and more. The Straight offered meeting spaces, banquet facilities, a library, formal dining rooms, a cafeteria, tea rooms, a soda fountain, student activities offices, a billiard room, a barber shop, 15 guest bedrooms, and two dormitory suites for visiting groups. A theater, adorned with murals depicting characters from Shakespeare and the Greek classics, offered a new performance space for the Dramatic Club. The interior’s vast halls reflected the lavish styling of the Jazz Age, and murals depicting Straight’s career and ideals decorated the lobby. An inscription over the great stone fireplace in the Memorial Room (originally the men’s lounge) included excerpts from a letter Straight had written to his eldest son, Whitney. Penned from France shortly before his death, it includes such sentiments as: “The respect of your fellows is worth more than applause”; “Make up your own mind, but respect the opinions of others”; and “Hold your head high and keep your mind open ... You can always learn.” Stories You May Like Collegetown 101: How Ezra’s University Shaped a Neighborhood Cornell Cinema Still Lights Up the Silver Screen Dorothy—who had met her second husband, Leonard Elmhirst 1921, during the building’s planning process—spoke at the dedication, held in December 1925. The Browsing Library in the 1930s. She stressed her hope that the building would play a role in “cementing really great friendships … between men and women, between faculty and students, between men of all groups, races and nationalities.” She continued: “The formative factor in [Willard’s] own life was his contact with people, a group of relationships through which his personality progressively expanded. It is our hope that the [student] union may in some measure re-create life in these terms for others.” Immediately upon opening, the new facility seemed to do just that. Dining in style in the Memorial Room. “Students basked in its elegance,” Bishop wrote, “dined in its formal dining rooms, fed in its cafeteria, danced, worked, read, and dozed.” The Straight also became a magnet for alumni. “Words of mine cannot paint its stately architecture, nor glow adequately with the warmth and beauty of its interior decoration and furnishings, nor describe properly the practical perfection which has been attained in its arrangement,” Oscar Fernbach 1895 wrote in the Alumni News. “As I sit under its hospitable roof, and watch the youngsters who are deriving the benefit of its installation, I beam with delight.” Words of mine cannot paint its stately architecture, nor glow adequately with the warmth and beauty of its interior decoration and furnishings, nor describe properly the practical perfection which has been attained in its arrangement. Oscar Fernbach 1895, in the Alumni News Reunion was first held at the Straight in 1926, and it became a popular location for conferences and conventions. For decades, the building hosted Hotel Ezra Cornell, until the Statler Inn opened in 1950. In the Straight’s earliest years, most facilities were divided by gender, and women even used a separate entrance on the building’s south side (indicated by the engraved flower that remains over the doorway). Midcentury students lounge on the Slope. But most spaces, including the cafeteria and all dining rooms, soon became coed. In his 1933 essay “I’d Send My Son to Cornell,” E.B. White 1921 offered praise for the building—noting that it “offers the comforts of home to everybody, and the fraternities are beginning to feel the way speakeasies felt after repeal: that there is nothing to be exclusive about any more.” Over the years, the Straight continued to adapt to student needs and societal changes. Straight Snapshots Breaking bread in the Ivy Room, 1947. Wikimedia CommonsA 1940 postcard depicts the terrace one level lower than today. The terrace in the 1970s. The lobby murals (with a vintage plant display). The Memorial Room hosting a career fair in the 1970s ... ... and a beef cattle show in 1984. Diners—and a canine companion—in the Ivy Room. A 50th birthday cake in 1975. The famed welcome desk in the 1970s. Regular movie showings began in 1936; two years later, what had been the upper terrace was enclosed, creating a passageway and adding lounges and rooms dedicated to music and art. Craft shops and creative spaces flourished. During World War II, the Memorial Room became a dining hall for Navy student officers, and the lower terrace was enclosed to create the Army Mess Hall. (That eatery became the Ivy Room—which later moved to a different space—and is now Okenshields.) During World War II, the Memorial Room became a dining hall for Navy student officers, and the lower terrace was enclosed to create the Army Mess Hall. The Cornell Radio Guild (which began broadcasting as WVBR in 1946) constructed its first studio in the Straight in 1940, and continued operating from the building until 1972. Among the Straight’s most memorable events, of course, was the student takeover that began on April 19, 1969: during Parents’ Weekend, members of Cornell’s Afro-American Society and others occupied the building for 36 hours to protest racial issues on campus, garnering national attention. In 1974, Central Avenue was still open to traffic. And during that same era, the Straight’s omnipresence in student life began to lessen. In 1967, Noyes Community Center opened on West Campus, followed by additional student unions and eateries in the ensuing decades—vastly expanding the social, dining, and event space options on the Hill. But the Straight remains a beloved building, located at the heart of central campus. It still houses the offices of the dean of students, campus activities, and Greek life, and hosts events throughout the year. The annual Hotelie event in 1940, and the entrance in the 1970s. Since a refurbishment in 1989, its theater has been Cornell Cinema’s permanent home. In advance of her class’s 60th Reunion as well as the building’s centennial, Alice Katz Berglas ’66 has been putting together a digital scrapbook about the Straight—soliciting recollections from Cornellians of the ’50s and ’60s who spent countless hours there. “What stunned me was how differently the Straight impacted so many people,” she says. “Each has a memory.” What stunned me was how differently the Straight impacted so many people. Each has a memory. Alice Katz Berglas ’66 There are funny stories, she says, like the time a greased pig was let loose in the Ivy Room. Then there are poignant tales, and anecdotes about growing up. “One person remembered being overwhelmed—that the first time he walked through the Straight’s doors, he had the sense that he was truly at an Ivy League school,” Berglas says. “And so many people wrote about this exodus that happened at nine o’clock every night, when they left the library and went there. The Straight was the place to be.” Top: The Straight within a year of its opening. (All photos and video courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated.) Published October 1, 2025 What are your most vivid memories of the Straight? Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. 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