Allabach correspondence

Letters of Lucy Allabach Class of 1895

Now Mrs. G. W. Lichty 5700 Woodland Road Desmoins, Iowa

For Miss Alice Hays 526 Alvarado Row

Roble Hall September 30, 1891

Dear Mama:

We are here safe and sound and well and not disappointed as yet, though Roble Hall is in a rather confused state. They are working very hard and soon all will be in order and it is a very nice hall indeed. Our room is a corner one at least twenty foot square with three large wndows, stationary washstand, two iron bedsteads, oak dresser, light wood wardrobe, large table, two straight backed chairs, two rockers, rugs, and what else we can't tell till we are in order. We are being fed at the boy's hall for a day or two. Theirs is larger and rather finer than ours but this is very pretty indeed. The parlor has rough walls, as have all the rooms, painted in delicate shades. Ours is light blue and ecru. The parlor is pale blue and pink. A large long room. At either end is a pretty mantle and by each a pink as well as a blue chair with large ribbon bows. There are two very large monet rugs, in deep electric blue and rose, two pretty tables, a grand piano, lace curtains with china silk draperies, plus table covers, rose bowls, vases, fine pictures, etc. I am too tired to write very well and there is so much to tell.

The studies marked on the schedule I am taking, or at leat it is so for the present. You see it only makes three recitations a day and I guess it won't be too much. If it is I will get permission to change. Things are fully as nice as we expected if any one asks.

With much love to Helen, Papa and yourself I am

Your loving Lucy

We have a partnership letter from Lora. Alice Patterson and Lizzie Carrothers and Minnie has several other letters.

Address Meno Park, Cal. Care L. S. Jr. University

__________O_________

Roble Hall October 11, 1891

Dear Papa, Mama & Helen:

Now what would you do if I had only written one letter home? and that is all I have received from home, just one letter! Now I guess I am just as anxious to hear from home as you are to hear from me.

Everything is very pleasant here and some of the girls seem very nce and most of them are nice girls.

I don't know whether I have told you any about the hall or not. It accomo dates ninety girls and all the rooms are large and have an alcove for the two iron single bed steads and the wardrobe. Here also are mats for each bed but the floor is bare. We have a nice dresser or antique oak, large table, two straight backed and two rocking chairs, stationary wash stand, and they are prepared for electric light and gas. They already have electricity in the boys Hall and we shall soon have it but now we use candle light.

The blankets are soft white ones with blue borders and the mono gram L.S.J.U. in the middle and each girl is allowed three; also three towels, one bath towel, one sheet, and one pillow case a week, and the tables are changed twice a week, all this washing done by the University. We have to take the daily care of our own rooms, but they are swept, wiped up and dusted once a week by the maids.

The table fare is very good and served hot. The variety is some thing to tell abou but not all is good, but enough always to make a very good meal three times a day. We have a chinaman cook who has two assistants, but girls for waiters. The boys have young chinamen waiters and they look so funny in their white coates, cues wound around their heads, and sliding over the polished floor in their queer shoes.

We have a mistress, Miss Leach, who looks after our proprieties, assigns rooms, etc., and a matron whose duty it is to have a general supervision of the house and dining room. She gives out the linen and superintends the girls who clean, etc.

There are no rules over us as yet but there are a few things we are expected to do, like coming in at nine o'clock, be on time at meals, and some other things that most of us would perhaps do any way. We have access to the Stanford vineyard and that is where the girls usually go for their exercise. The grapes are very different from any at home but are quite good. This seems very generous but it is such an immense tract that even five hundred boys and girls could hardly make an impression on them. O, I've just had a bath!. On each floor there are two rooms where is a closet for linen, a large bath room, toilet and sink with hot and cold water fawceett, and granite iron pitchers hanging up so you can take hot water to your room at any time. Next the sink is a dust shaft, and when the rooms are dusted the dust is thrown down there. The halls are broad and light and have a strip of moquet carpet, bordered, on all them. The parlor is large and very nicely furnished, more like a private one and it is about fifty by twenty five feet in size.