On a chilly February afternoon, warmth and welcome filled the Great Hall as 100 students, alumnae, and staff celebrated Tower Court’s 100th anniversary. Built on the site of College Hall, which had been lost to fire in 1914, the new Gothic building—designed with fire safety in mind—originally housed 194 students and 12 faculty members. Its Great Hall was intended to provide “a suitable space for the more formal and dignified social events and celebrations connected with the College,” wrote Ellen James, the friend of the College whose donation in spring 1914 funded the construction.

At the celebration, the current house presidents welcomed an alumnae panel who shared Tower memories from the late 1940s through the mid-1990s. Retired College biology professor Dorothea “Dot” Widmayer ’52 recalled “sitting on bells” to take phone messages for dorm mates. Marianne Brons Cooley ’81, secretary of Wellesley’s Board of Trustees, laughed about how she and a friend developed a communications code using their window curtains. Georgia Murphy Johnson ’75, the Wellesley College Alumnae Association president, remembered crowding in with friends to watch M.A.S.H. on her floor’s one television. M.J. Pullins ’94, assistant director of classes for the WCAA, recollected candlelit dinners.

The gathering ended with a sparkling cider toast to Tower, a Claflin Bakery cake, and the hope that the edifice will stand for another century of community and conviviality.