Dining at Trinity

Early Dining at Trinity

For a substantial period of time during the early years of Trinity College (at that time known as Washington College), there were no dining facilities onsite. During the College's first year, students were required to find room and board in nearby houses that were approved by the school. Students slept and ate in these boarding houses and were then expected to go to campus for their classes.

From the 1830s until around 1845, a student organization called the “Franklin Club” existed as a way to help provide food for students. Roughly 12 students rented a building across the way from the College for the purpose of dining and living and hired a steward to “superintend” the cooking.

The Dining Room in the basement of Seabury Hall, circa 1890-1899. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

In the 1870s, plans were in place to build a dining hall with the construction of Trinity’s new campus. Students, though generally upset about the move from the original campus in downtown Hartford, were excited about the prospect of a large dining hall, one that potentially resembled the likes of those seen at Oxford in England. Unfortunately, due to budgeting issues, the dining hall was cut from the list of buildings to be constructed first on the new campus. Students instead were forced to rely primarily on local Hartford eateries for their food. Nearby places like “Mother’s Bacon” and the “Clinton Lunch” were staples of Trinity students’ dining experiences.

In 1878, the trustees reluctantly agreed to build a College Commons in the basement of Seabury Hall that would provide meals for students. The dining hall was staffed with waiters and run by J.H. Bolton, Jr. A committee of five was chosen from the senior class to mediate student complaints and requests regarding the food. The Trinity Tablet praised its construction, describing the furnishings and ash woodwork as possessing, “a very substantial and beautiful style.” However, the food was subpar according to students, and many of them turned to alternatives despite the low price of meals in the Commons, including making their own meals in the dorms. Students used two-burner gas stoves to cook meat and vegetables that they had brought from home and then stored in the janitor's cellar. Other students turned to the more expensive alternative of eating out for meals. “Eating/Dining” clubs also formed as student organizations for members to eat in town together throughout the year. In February 1897, the class of 1899 formed the Sophomore Dining Club and their meals of choice were found at places like Heublein’s and Merrill’s.

Dining Sites

Stickney Commons and Dining Hall, 1905. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

Over the years, there have been many dining locations on Trinity’s campus. In addition to College Commons installed in the basement of Seabury in 1878, in the early 1900s, a building named “Stickney Hall,” located where McCook Hall now stands, was used as a dining structure. The Trinity Tablet reported on the construction of Stickney Hall with much anticipation for its completion: “A temporary wooden structure has been erected over the foundations for the gateway, which will contain the kitchen, as well as rooms for the steward and servants. In the cellar below are permanently placed two heating boilers, and a cooking boiler which last will remain, as well as the temporary edifice, until the erection of the great dining hall. Let us hope that our generous alumni will hasten that day.” Once construction was finished, the undergraduate students hired a steward to service the dining hall, although this plan met some issues when students began to enter the hall to eat without paying the necessary fee in cash. The steward, Mr. Stickney, complained that he could not run the dining hall without these fees being paid and a meeting was held which determined that students behind on payments would be barred from Stickney Hall.

Cook Hall, completed in 1931, contained a dining hall used by students for a number of years. Designed by architects McKimm, Mead, and White, it contained a dining hall and kitchen along with dormitories. President Remsen Ogilby, who authorized several construction projects during his term at Trinity, stated in a 1930 issue of the Trinity Tripod that “There will be a small breakfast room where quick breakfast can be served to a frenzied undergraduate who has to make chapel, or a more leisurely breakfast for a lazy one who has no classes until 10:20 a.m.” The space was intended to accommodate a range of events like the Faculty-Freshman dinner, as well as smaller and more casual gatherings of students.

Hamlin Hall, completed in 1932, was originally called the Commons, and later dedicated to Albert C. Hamlin of the class of 1887. The hall was the location of student socials, hops, and dinners. Haight Dining Hall, located inside Ogilby Hall, was also a dining location for students. The hall was dedicated to Frederick Everest Haight, a Trinity class of 1887 graduate and trustee of the College, on December 10, 1941.

Mather Hall in 1960. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

The dining location known as The Cave has existed in some form on campus since the 1940s, originally located in the basement of Hamlin Hall. It remained there until the building of Mather Hall in 1960, which then contained both the Cave and the school’s main dining hall. In 1975, the Board of Trustees voted to approve a 77 by 30 foot expansion of Mather Hall as a solution to overcrowding problems at peak meal times. The expansion was completed in November of the same year and cost a total of about $500,000.

The Bistro after 1992 renovations. Photo credit: Trinity College Bulletin, 1992

The summer of 1992 saw several updates to the dining facilities at Mather Hall, including renovations to the dining room and serving stations. That same year, the Bistro opened as a relaxed dining space following the renovation of the Koeppel Center’s cafeteria as a collaborative project between Trinity and Marriott Dining Services. The Bistro was designed to be a more welcoming dining space quite different from the traditional cafeteria; upon its opening, the Trinity Tripod reported that the new Bistro was “a place with a restaurant atmosphere” complete with an elegant dining room: “The tables are now covered with gold, printed cloths, some have umbrellas spread above them. A small glass vase rests in the center of each table, holding the week's arrangement of fresh golden flowers garnished with dried wildflowers, Swedish holly and pampas grass.” The Bistro also introduced a carry-out option for students to avoid waiting in long lines, which fulfilled many students' hopes for a smoother dining experience.

Mather Dining Hall after 2023 renovations. Photo credit: Trinity Tripod, 09-12-2023

By the late 1990s, Trinity's three main dining sites were Mather Dining Hall, the Cave, and the Bistro. In 2023, Mather Dining Hall and the Cave underwent extensive renovations in order to provide a broader range of healthy food options for students, including a new performance kitchen; an allergen awareness kitchen which avoids the use of nine major food allergens; an all-access meal plan which allows unlimited meals in Mather and meal exchanges and dining dollars for use in the Cave and the Bistro; a virtual kitchen where orders may be placed online and picked up in food lockers; the use of QR codes for ordering meals; and extended dining hours in Mather.

Paying for Dining

In the late 1800s, meals at the dining hall located in Seabury Hall cost $4.50 per week. The dining hall itself was managed by students who formed a “Dining Hall Committee” or “Dining Hall Association,” which made suggestions about how money was collected, when meals were served, and who the steward was.

Over time, meal plans offered for students became more varied. The 1966 meal plan, for example, allowed upperclassmen to choose from three options: 18 meals per week for $450 per year, 20 meals per week for $520 per year, and a third that would allow them to simply buy their meals at the established rate found at Mather Dining Hall.

Contemporary meal plans have offered students a variety of options in both the number of meals included as well as location, with prices varying by plan type. Participation in a meal plan is mandatory for all residential students. Those students who live off campus or who participate in an authorized eating club are not required to purchase a meal plan.

The price of a meal plan as of 2023 was between $2,500 to $3,000 per semester.