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Then – May 1925

Two young women in the early 1900s

By 1911 ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder’s women had decided the time was right for a major campus building of their own, one with parlors, bedrooms, a dining room and a gymnasium. To raise money, the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Women’s League planned a spring festival called May Fete.

The event, held until 1925, was at heart about music and dancing. As this photograph from the ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Heritage Museum attests, it was also an occasion for creative costuming, often with a fairy-tale theme — here, Snow White.

Auto shows, operettas, weight-guessing games and various other amusements helped raise money. Illuminated boats drifted on Varsity Lake.

A World War I construction ban and rising costs scuttled plans for the new building. The League instead put the $15,000 it raised toward Macky Auditorium’s pipe organ.

In 1925 the Fete gave way to an annual dance. A large residence hall for women was finally built in 1934. You’d know it as Sewall Hall.