![\"memorial-oct15\"](\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/memorial-oct15.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Interest in a Baylor education has never been higher<\/a>, and that has led to the largest student bodies in Baylor history. That, in turn, has caused the university to both build new residential halls (like North Village<\/a>, Brooks Village<\/a>\u00a0and East Village<\/a>) and to update existing halls<\/a>.<\/p>\n But this isn\u2019t the first time Baylor has had this (very welcome) problem.\u00a0The 1920s was also an incredible time of improvement and expansion at Baylor<\/a>. During a time when women had extremely limited rights, Baylor was considered forward-thinking and modern for being co-educational. And as\u00a0\u201chorseless carriages\u201d made transportation across distances easier, Baylor’s\u00a0Central Texas location made it accessible to students from around the state. In a 10-year span, enrollment rose 24 percent — not much lower than the 32 percent increase from 2005-15.<\/p>\n After having to decline admission to prospective female students simply because of a lack of space, President Samuel Palmer Brooks began pushing for a new residence hall for women. The Women\u2019s Missionary Union<\/a>\u00a0pledged its\u00a0support in terms of fundraising and planning, ultimately allowing for a budget of $350,000. The groundbreaking ceremony was held Oct. 11, 1928, and featured an address by Dorothy Scarborough<\/a>, a noted Baylor alumna who then was a well-regarded writer in New York. The residence hall opened\u00a0two years later, with its official dedication ceremony held Oct. 15, 1930; the Lariat<\/em>‘s headline that day called it “the South’s finest dormitory<\/a>.”<\/p>\n