The Alba Bales House, originally known as the Practice House (1923-1936) and later as the Home Management House (1936-1954), was completed in 1923 with a budget of $8,000 for building and $4,000 for equipment (Sixteenth Biennial Report, October, 1922). The building of the house was in direct response to the Vocational Education Act of 1917, popularly referred to as the Smith-Hughes Act. Part of the Act stated that "teachers of home economics under the Smith Hughes Act must, be graduates of a four-year college course in home economics of standard grade and present satisfactory evidence of at least two years practical experience, including a considerable period of home management." To be able to provide the necessary experience, a facility dedicated specifically for demonstration work was needed.
The construction of the Practice House was underway in 1922, and the cornerstone was laid during the Women's Day festivities at the College, on Saturday, October 21 (College and State, December, 1922). Miss Minnie J. Nielson, state superintendent of public instruction, Mrs. Mary Darrow Weible, a 1904 chemistry graduate, Dr. John Lee Coulter, president, and student representatives spoke during the exercises.
Apparently some in the Fargo community raised questions about the practicality of the Practice House, for in mid-June 1923, Alba Bales wrote in the Fargo Daily Tribune answering the question: Is it wise to build so fine and expansive a house for the house practice laboratory of the home economics students? She said: "The girl who has lived in a house that is right, who has had her training in a home that approaches comfortable standards for sheltering the family will be much better able to take care of her house no matter what the type might be and make it the house it ought to be, whether it cost $3,000 or $12,000. You cannot teach standards of shelter in a shack any more than you can teach standards of health in hovels of filth. Train the home economics students of today in the right kind of a house and the home of tomorrow will reflect the result of this training. Women must have the training and assurance which will help them to see that the house is built right for her as a housekeeper and household manager."
Some also raised questions about the house on the NDAC campus, and Alba Bales wrote an article for The Weekly Spectrum in late October, 1923 stating that "The Practice House is strictly a laboratory."
"Students of Home Economics are taught Food and Cookery, Clothing and Textiles, Bacteriology and other classroom sciences in the college laboratories. That this subject may be applied to the all-around business of housekeeping and homemaking, is the reason for a Practice House. Vocational education, with its project methods, has shown us that any project is efficiently carried out in a laboratory which furnishes as nearly as possible, natural environment."
"The aim of the course, as outlined for students in training in the Practice House, is to equip the students with a knowledge that will enable them to assist in building homes founded on sound economic, social and practical standards."
Alba Bales wrote that the house was "of regulation colonial type, arranged for convenience, economy of space and general comfort, for a family of four to six people. The sunroom, facing south, and adjoining the livingroom" said Miss Bales, "is a pleasant type of room for this part of the country. The sunroom was finished with brick inside, with a tiled floor, and furnished to look and seem like a garden. Another feature of the room, as shown on the plan, was as a reception room, which is really the office, where accounts are kept, business of the house transacted, and files arranged. The room is placed so that it is closely connected with both the front and back of the house. It will be equipped with a comfortable chair and table for magazines, for use of the women during a few moments of relaxation.
The cleanup room was specially designed as a suggestion for farm homes. Entering the house from the rear, one would have an opportunity to take off dirty overshoes or wet wraps and to wash one's hands before entering the clean house. The men on a farm would thus have a chance to clean up away from the kitchen before coming into the house.
Upstairs the closets were conveniently arranged to contain bedding, linens, and cleaning supplies. The woman's room had, besides a clothes closet, another closet designed to contain sewing equipment, including machine and pressingboard.
The basement had stationary tubs and an electric washer and ironer. There was a special cold cellar for vegetables and fruits. Boiler-room and coal cellar were entirely separate from the basement rooms" (Fargo Daily Tribune, early June, 1923).
Architectural Information
NDAC architecture Professor Stanley A. Smith was in charge of the architectural plans and construction. The building is two stories with red brick and Colonial Revival in style. The east-facing central door with sidelights is under a projecting wooden portico with wrought iron balustrade and freestanding Tuscan columns, above which three dormers extend from the front gable (National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form, Summer1986, p.5).
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University Archives, 701-231-8914 Published by the University Archives, NDSU Last Updated: 5/19/04 |