Class of 1984 and 1985 graduates Tom Sliker, Jed Seay, Alan Shealy and Tommy Johnson stood on the back porch of Preston College Sunday and remembered the memories they made and pranks they pulled when they lived in the residence hall.
For these four graduates, coming back to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their beloved residence hall was a no-brainer.
Coming back together made it even better.
“We’re like brothers. We’re like family,” Johnson, a former Preston College president, said. “I stay in contact more with people from Preston than people I graduated with in my class.”
The friends shared stories about dropping each other in the reflection pool for birthdays, parties on the basketball court with the Women’s Quad and playing a stereo out the window.
The four former students met each other on the first day they moved into Preston, but they’ve noticed a lot of changes since then.
When they first moved in, Preston was known as the “Roach Motel.” There was no air-conditioning, and they remember waking up in the middle of the night to Palmetto bugs crawling on them.
Preston College was built during the Great Depression using $300,000 from the New Deal administration. It was built around the same time as the original Williams-Brice Stadium, Sims College and McKissick Museum. Back then, Russell House and Thomas Cooper Library didn't exist, and the fountain was a football field.
It started out as an all-male, all-white dorm, but now it's much more diverse. Its 145 rooms originally held 290 men.
Throughout its history, Preston has been the home to 75 classes of students, including football and basketball teams and members of the ROTC. Preston was the first dorm to have a live-in faculty member and was known for having the first experiment in hall government.
“In some ways, Preston becomes to us a window into the university. You can see just through that building so many transformations,” Preston College faculty principal Bobby Donaldson said. “The building, in some ways, shows the dramatic changes of the university.”
According to Donaldson, Preston is currently the only residence college in the state.
“I think it’s wonderful all the improvements they’ve made,” Johnson said. “College is just different now. We had to be a lot more creative with things to do.”
On Sunday, alumni and current students alike gathered in their former or current home to share memories of what it was like when they lived there. Donaldson said it was a way to “not only to celebrate the history, but also to remember the legacy of the students who have lived there before.”
Among these former residents were Bill and Trish Eccles, the first faculty in residence. Bill Eccles moved into the residence hall in Jan. 1965, which will be 50 years at the beginning of next year. When he and Trish married in 1967, it was the first place they lived as a couple.
“I think it’s fun that people come back and identify with the residence hall, and that’s interesting in itself,” Trish Eccles said.
“Without the identification, without Preston as a place, you just live in a dorm ... but this one had an identity,” Bill Eccles added.
When the Eccleses lived in Preston, the hall government was just beginning to form. Bill Eccles primarily worked as an advisor for the forming student government.
The Eccleses also started Wednesday night “Yak Snak,” which provided residents with Cokes, homemade cookies and guest speakers. The first guest speaker was a former Miss South Carolina, and the university president, deans, faculty, community members and coaches followed.
The Eccleses also got to catch up with some of the students they knew when they lived at the dorm.
“One of the benefits of being a faculty member is you live a little vicariously through the lives of some of the kids that you touch one way or another over the years,” Bill Eccles said.
The Eccleses were excited about the opportunity to return to Preston to celebrate so many years of history.
“It’s an excuse to have a party,” Bill Eccles said. “75 is really pretty good for a building ... It’s a good celebration. 75 is a good number.”