WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
DIXIANA (ELDERHOSTEL CENTER, COLLEGE INN)
St. George, Utah
LOCATION
123 East 100 SouthSt. George, UT 84770
(435)634-2050
HISTORY
In the early years, Dixie Junior College didn't have adequate housing for non-local female students. There were some complaints from girls families and an LDS Stake President in Nevada asked his bishops to not to send girls to Dixie Junior College because of that. Glenn E. Snow (President 1938-1950) began a move to get a girls dormatory constructed. He asked the faculty members in the vocational program to be the leaders in constructing the building. The state would not put money into such a project. All colleges had to pay for their own dormitories. They also enlisted the support from civic clubs such as the Lions and several others both in raising money and working on the buildings. Students in the vocational programs were enlisted to be workers.Community support was organized through a group known as the Dixie Education Association. They came to the rescue to finance the transition period. The officers included William O. Bentley, Orval Hafen, Mathew Bentley, Wilford W. McArthur and B. Glen Smith. They undertook many projects to promote education, including the building of the girls dormitory and acquiring various kinds of equipment and property.
In 1951, Dr. Ellvert H. Himes (President 1951-1954) solicited funds to finish the building. It took three or four years to complete the building which was named Dixiana. When finished it housed 72 girls in a building on 100 South, just a block eEast of the campus.
In 1954, Dixiana was finished and ready for inspection by Governor J. Bracken Lee, who had come down to inform Arthur F. Bruhn (Pesident 1954-1964) that Dixie Junior College doors would have to be closed. After the inspection and learning that Dixiana had been constructed entirely from community funding, and with no dollars from the State, the Governor said, "If this community wants Dixie Junior College that badly, they should have it."
During the 1960-61 school year, President Bruhn began the action to obtain money for the new men's dormitory and a cafeteria along with an extension to Dixiana.
In 1968, a new wing was completed on Dixiana that added room for 27 more students to that facility.
After the college courses and college faculty had moved to the new campus on 700 East, the Dixiana Dormitory was quite a way away. The college purchased a bus to get the girls to the campus. A few years later they built a girls dormitory on the new campus and the Dixiana Dorm became less attractive to students.
When Dr. Douglas D. Alder (President 1986-1993) became president, there were only six girls in Dixiana. It was decided to transfer them to the new dorms and close Dixiana as a dormitory. They considered selling the building, but finally assigned it to the Elderhostel program that was just starting. It was known as the Elderhostel Center and during the 1999-2000 year, attracted over 2,500 retirees to St. George for weeklong courses.
Dixiana, now called the College Inn, has been an outstanding facility for the Elderhostel program which is now named Road Scholars.
PHOTOS
TBDREFERENCES
Dixiana building - Dorm to be put up for saleBy Jean Esplin, The Spectrum, July 10, 1986
https://roadscholar.dixie.edu
https://roadscholar.dixie.edu/location
https://www.roadscholar.org