The first dedicated dining hall at Brockport

In 1928 a space in the college building (it was just the one building then, standing where Hartwell is today,) was dedicated for use as a cafeteria.  The December 5, 1928 article in the Stylus on the cafeteria noted that this was the first cafeteria in the history of the school!

While in earlier years some students, as well as faculty, had roomed in the building where there were kitchen facilities there was never a cafeteria or dining hall as such. After a terrible dorm fire at Fredonia at the turn of the century students no longer lived on campus, and either boarded in town, or commuted from home. So to have a space right in the building where you could get a hot meal on a cold day, or some coffee or tea, and not have to go out to your boarding house, or eat a cold lunch from home, was a real advancement in campus life!

The Stylus article gave credit to Principal (President) Alfred Thompson for encouraging the project and finding some $2,000 to support it, and to the labor of the Phi Alpha Zeta fraternity members who did a lot of the actual work in renovating the space. Mrs. Mabel Good, a local caterer and cook, was put in charge of the cafeteria, and the decorating was overseen by Miss Yale, a popular art teacher at the school.