The new building in the woods

Ladies' Hall, the new building in the woods northwest of the present Holland Hall, was constructed of lumber taken from the adjacent Northfield schoolhouses in which the college opened in 1875. It was actually St. Olaf's first building, transformed and rebuilt to supplement the living space
available for women students in the Main. Unlike many other private educational institutions of its day, St. Olaf was co-educational from the beginning. Indeed, it was the first co-educational Norwegian-American institution of higher learning.