The opening of the newly renovated Sayles Café in early 2024 brought new vitality to a space at the very heart of the Carleton experience. After its latest reinvention, here’s a brief look at some of the many lives of Sayles.
1910
Dedicated on January 26, 1910, the Sayles-Hill Gymnasium was named after the parents of professor and Class of 1900 graduate Fred B. Hill and his wife, Deborah Sayles. Generations of first-year students were convinced, as the lore goes, that the building architect’s name was inscribed on the cornerstone: A.D. MCMIX.
1910–1964
From 1910 until 1964, Sayles-Hill was home to a gymnasium complex complete with a pool, running track, boxing and gymnastics equipment, and a basketball court. Used for class registration, dances, Winter Festival events, and concerts, it also briefly hosted indoor baseball games.
1913
A locus of campus life, Sayles was also a hub for the greater community. It was home to the first Minnesota state high school basketball championship in 1913 and hosted the tournament for a decade afterward.
In 1913, the Minnesota State Dairymen’s Association Banquet was held at Sayles-Hill, and on October 30, 1917, it commemorated Dairy Day, putting on an Institute for Dairymen, a daylong event that opened with a milking demonstration on the Carleton Farm and ended in Sayles with events including a keynote by the president of the National Dairy Council and a violin solo by one Howard Amland.
1964
After the 1964 opening of the new Men’s Gymnasium (now known as West Gym), a multi-use facility that is home to Carleton’s swimming, diving, volleyball, and basketball teams, the Sayles natatorium fell into disuse—although the pool was occasionally used for artistic expression, from student performances to graffiti sessions.
In 1978, new plans for a renovated Sayles were shared and, given the space’s intended use as a dining facility and campus center, the revised architecture was rendered in cake. The new space reopened in 1979.
1979
After a comprehensive remodel that turned Sayles-Hill into the new campus center and dining facility, the snack bar was renamed in 1979 after a concept developed by economist Thorstein Veblen, Class of 1880. Suggested by Jack El-Hai ’79, the café’s moniker for nearly a decade was Conspicuous Consumption.
In 1979, a group of students dubbed the Gang of Three (later amended to the Gang of At Least Three and Not Over 1,600) swiped a painting of James Strong, Carleton’s first president, from Laird Hall and replaced it with a velvet Elvis painting. It agreed to return the painting on one condition: the College had to name Sayles’s pinball area in honor of a Carl who went on to become a member of the Monkees. In March 1980, the space was officially dubbed the Peter Tork Memorial Pinball Area, a name that stuck until at least 2006. “It was one of the singular, highest honors I’ve ever received,” Tork recalled in 1987. “When I heard about the news I practically collapsed in gratitude.”
1990
Throughout the 1990s, as today, Sayles was at the center of student activism and awareness-building. In 1990, students folded paper to make cranes, an international peace symbol. And in 1995, having reached a goal of 1,000 birds, the cranes were sent to Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu.
2024
In early 2024, yet another vision for Sayles emerged, with the aim of updating and expanding Sayles Café. Opened just after winter break, the new café has a fresh new look, a reconfigured walk-in service area, more food preparation equipment and space, a relocated coffee bar, more seating in the balcony area, and new ordering kiosks.