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Is FSU knocking down Smith and Kellum Halls?

Dr. Nole

Ultimate Seminole Insider
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Sep 13, 2002
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Is this true? If so, when?

I ask because I stayed in both in '81 and '82 (freshman and sophomore yrs)....if they are knocking them down I'd love if someone local in Tally could get a brick(or piece of a bricks) from each site for me.

When they knocked the Conradi Bldg down (the Biology Bldg) I was able to get a piece of a brick from that as spent a lot of time in there.

Thx
 
it is in the 5 year plan for them to come down.

Noooooooooo!

I considered it a right of passage to be forced to spend a year in an unconditioned Smith Hell. Those of you who did not submit to this torture are not proper Seminoles in my book.
 
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Yes.....they are just finishing up two new dorms now and when Dorman and Devany are gone they will build two more.
 
Noooooooooo!

I considered it a right of passage to be forced to spend a year in an unconditioned Smith Hell. Those of you who did not submit to this torture are not proper Seminoles in my book.

You got that right tribe....when were you there? No A/C when I was a freshman at Smith Hall.
 
Great, knock down dorms where you were forced to interact with kids and have a real dorm experience and erect individual, apartment style, spoiled kid dorms.
 
Dorman and Deviney will be taken down soon.
New dorm will be built on that site.
Kellum Hall is going to be imploded that will be cool to see.
Then Smith will go away.
I have visited quite a few campuses with my daughter in the past year and FSU has some catching up to do housing wise.
For example she is going to Alabama in the fall the only community bathroom style dorm left there is across from sorority row.
The student union at FSU is awful.
Also the Gunter Bldg at the corner of Woodword and Tennessee will be torn down and replaced soon.
 
Noooooooooo!

I considered it a right of passage to be forced to spend a year in an unconditioned Smith Hell. Those of you who did not submit to this torture are not proper Seminoles in my book.

Cash Hall was mentioned earlier; I had a room there 1984-1985

Had a room in Smith in 1986-1987. Funny I don't recall the AC situation. The worst thing I remember is this Cricket from Hell. My room was near ground level on the front side right where the road curves around, right where the building walls come together in an "L-shape". I guess there were shrubs or something growing outside. But somehow or other this cricket had made its way up to the area of my window seal and taken residence I guess to advertise for a mate or something. For a period of time when I'd try to go to bed, the cricket would start raising holy hell. I know "crickets" chirping is supposed to represent silence in message board parlance. But this dam cricket was ready to wake the dead! When I'd get up and approach the window seal, he'd shut the hell up and I couldn't figure out his location. I'd go back to bed, pull up the covers, roll over.....


And the dadgum Crickett would let loose with

CHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP !

I get up, ready to locate him, near the window seal, and the dam demon from hell would clam up again!

I don't know what he did but somehow he found a spot that worked as a natural megaphone
 
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I have visited quite a few campuses with my daughter in the past year and FSU has some catching up to do housing wise.
For example she is going to Alabama in the fall the only community bathroom style dorm left there is across from sorority row..

WTH.......you're telling me these kids have their own bathroom nowadays????
 
My kid just spent his first year at FSU in Wildwood Hall. Newer, suite style. Near Doak.You and roommate share bathroom with the 2 guys next door. Yes it had AC. It wasnt luxe but it wasnt Smith or Kellum either. Thank God. They should keep at least one of these as a lowest cost option for students wanting it. I lived in Osceola Hall from 1981-1983. Those are fancy apts now, I think.
 
Kids today couldn't live dorm life like we did back in '72 in Cawthon Hall. No AC, no TV in the room, no phone in the room, and sharing a communal bathroom.
 
Dorman and Deviney will be taken down soon.
New dorm will be built on that site.
Kellum Hall is going to be imploded that will be cool to see.
Then Smith will go away.
I have visited quite a few campuses with my daughter in the past year and FSU has some catching up to do housing wise.
For example she is going to Alabama in the fall the only community bathroom style dorm left there is across from sorority row.

The student union at FSU is awful.
Also the Gunter Bldg at the corner of Woodword and Tennessee will be torn down and replaced soon.

We don't believe you.

You're going to have to provide pictures of your daughter to confirm this story...
 
I survived Smith during my first year at FSU, the 82-83 school year. First night there it was brutally hot; I went down & slept in the air-conditioned lobby. A couple of others had the same bright idea. 2nd night it was even hotter; I went back down to the lobby & it was damn near wall to wall with people sleeping on the floor.
Had some good times there & made some good friends; most I've lost touch with, a few I still talk to every now & then.
Also spent part of a year in Cash, while waiting for my frat house to be rebuilt after it got burned down.
 
Great, knock down dorms where you were forced to interact with kids and have a real dorm experience and erect individual, apartment style, spoiled kid dorms.

Part of the problem currently is FSU and UF are competing with UCF in a big way. UCF has a newer campus and is killing it on the amenities side. My cousin (much younger) got into FSU, UF, and UCF and picked UCF. Same thing with a couple of my nieces so far. They all said FSU has the most beautiful campus but the extras aren't as good. The latest pair just graduated from high school with an AA from the local college. One got into UF and UCF (but did not get into FSU) and even with both of her parents being UF alumni she opted for UCF because she likes it better.
 
My kid just spent his first year at FSU in Wildwood Hall. Newer, suite style. Near Doak.You and roommate share bathroom with the 2 guys next door. Yes it had AC. It wasnt luxe but it wasnt Smith or Kellum either. Thank God. They should keep at least one of these as a lowest cost option for students wanting it. I lived in Osceola Hall from 1981-1983. Those are fancy apts now, I think.
I think the problem is that Smith and Kellum cost an arm and a leg to maintain or would probably be cost prohibitive in the long run to remodel. I had a friend that lived in Kellum that I would visit and that place was a straight up dump.
 
Weren't the "study" rooms near the elevators on each floor in Smith also air conditioned? (Like the lobby)
 
Weren't the "study" rooms near the elevators on each floor in Smith also air conditioned? (Like the lobby)

Yes, they were when I was there in the early 80s. However, during the first week or two of school they were used as "overflow" housing - late enrollees/transfers in who had not yet been assigned to a dorm room were using them (they'd put bunk beds in them; iirc they had no shelving or drawer space, they just basically lived out of suitcase until the school figured out where to place them for the school year).
 
Noooooooooo!

I considered it a right of passage to be forced to spend a year in an unconditioned Smith Hell. Those of you who did not submit to this torture are not proper Seminoles in my book.

Did my time in Shit Hall in 85.....no ac.
Good riddance!!
 
Damn you Smith Hall hooligans and your shenanigans of pulling the fire alarms during finals week. Salley Hall represent!

Fire alarm wars between Smith and Kellum were insane. I spent first semester in '94 at Smith. No AC, huge fans in the hall...those nasty showers. My roommate was a pretty militant Afro-American and hated having a "white" roommate -- even though I kept trying to convince him I was Peruvian and my people have been getting f-ed by the man for centuries. Got so bad that I pretty much spent November up through finals sleeping on various couches and empty beds at the fraternity. Transferred to Salley in the Spring.
 
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we had a florida prepaid dorm account for our kid. It paid for 2 semesters in a dorm but if I remember correctly the only dorms it fully covered the cost of at fsu were smith, kellum and salley. I didn't even want to live in Smith, Kellum or Salley in 1981! So we just paid a small difference and our kid got into his first choice dorm which was Wildwood. As dorm life goes, he loved it and became close friends with his roommate, 2 suitemates and a guy across the hall. However he is looking forward to moving into an apt this fall. If people want to go to UCF or UNF because their dorms are cooler and UNF has a lazy river or what have you, then so be it. See ya! I think FSU's dorm choices are pretty much on par with most other schools. (Granted we didn't look at UNF or UCF or FGCU which as the 'new' schools have the 'new cool' dorms.) Our kid didn't want to go to those schools regardless. Funny I think the nicest dorms we saw of the schools we toured were at Georgia Southern (that was a potential soccer school for him). On the campus tour they really kept touting the dorms....not much talk about the rest of the campus or academics but they were trying to sell you on the dorm quality by golly!
 
This thread brings back memories--and some laughs as well. My freshman year of '69-70 was in Kellum, and I had a blast. Lots of fun people around, and I don't recall AC issues (maybe it was a cool spring quarter). I do recall difficulties in keeping it warm enough in the winter, but being a Tampa boy, I kinda dug that as well.

And I remember Salley has being new and THE place to be. My, how times have changed.
 
Part of the problem currently is FSU and UF are competing with UCF in a big way. UCF has a newer campus and is killing it on the amenities side. My cousin (much younger) got into FSU, UF, and UCF and picked UCF. Same thing with a couple of my nieces so far. They all said FSU has the most beautiful campus but the extras aren't as good. The latest pair just graduated from high school with an AA from the local college. One got into UF and UCF (but did not get into FSU) and even with both of her parents being UF alumni she opted for UCF because she likes it better.

They are not competing with UCF. UCF is still primarily made up of students from Orlando and students who could not get into UF and FSU. It's campus is butt ugly too. Scrub pine trees and palmettos and no shade. It's still primarily a commuter school although that has changed a lot lately.
 
UCF, FGCU, and UNF accept everyone. You can take all mainstream classes (ie no ap/honors, etc) and have a 2.9 GPA and you're in.
Son's good buddy was a marginal student/just under 3.0 and he got in to all 3. He decided to go to FGCU. He was so unhappy at FGCU despite the cool dorms and all the cool wetlands and lakes on campus that they're selling that after 1 semester that he withdrew and now attends Santa Fe Community College here in Gville.
 
They are not competing with UCF. UCF is still primarily made up of students from Orlando and students who could not get into UF and FSU. It's campus is butt ugly too. Scrub pine trees and palmettos and no shade. It's still primarily a commuter school although that has changed a lot lately.
Agree with you surfnole. When our kid was a junior in HS, we were in Orlando and we said while we're here we ought to visit UCF and set up a campus tour. We drove through the campus, our kid said no way was he going there, and that was the end of that. Honestly, I had the same feeling. It just doesn't have a college feel at all.
 
I loved my time in Kellum nearly 30 years ago. Maybe since I didn't grow up with granite countertops and my own bathroom I didn't know any better but it was fine for me.

After a year I was ready to get out, but living in a dorm freshman year was a rite of passage for me. I can still feel the excitement and nervousness of that first year away from home...meeting so many new people, so many new experiences. Good times.
 
Makes me sad. I spent a lot of time there with friends. I lived at the Kiwanis House (corner of Copeland and Pensacola), part of the Southern Scholarship Foundation.
 
I lived in Kellum for freshman/sophomore years starting in Fall 1980. I had no problem with it. Rooms were big, had A/C. Most of my classes were in the Love Bldg and the Pub (greatest pizza) was across the street. That was 30 years ago so it probably is time for something new.
 
Smith Hall was such a dump but it sounds like I had it better than most because at least it had AC when I lived there. Definitely time to knock that piece of crap down and build something newer.
 
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