William B. Mitchell
William B. Mitchell
Mitchell Hall snack bar, 1960s
Mitchell Hall, 1960s
Mitchell Hall, 1976
Students suntan at Mitchell Hall, May 1983
Biography
William B. Mitchell was born May 14, 1843, in Wilkinsburg, PA. His parents were H.Z. Mitchell and Elizabeth (Cannon) Mitchell, the sister of Jane Grey Swisshelm, another prominent early resident of St. Cloud. He moved to St. Cloud in 1857 at the age of 14, where he attended home school with a private teacher. At the age of 16, he worked as a surveyor. He then worked in the printing office for Swisshelm's St. Cloud newpaper, The Visitor. In 1864, he purchased that newspaper which had been renamed the St. Cloud Democrat. Mitchell then renamed the newspaper again to the St. Cloud Journal-Press.
In 1865,Mitchell was apointed the receiver of the land office in St. Cloud by US Presidents Lincoln, by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878, and by President Chester Arthur in 1882. In 1877, Mitchell became a member of the Minnesota State Normal School Board and served as St. Cloud State's resident director until 1901. In 1892, he sold the newspaper and worked in real estate. He died on December 5, 1930, in St. Cloud and buried in the city's North Star Cemetery.
William B. Mitchell Hall (1958)
Construction began in the fall of 1956 and was built in two phases. It was the first new campus dormitory constructed in over 40 years, the first since Shoemaker Hall. At a cost of $1.4 million, the first (and main part of the building) opened in the fall of 1958, while the north addition opened a year later. The 12 x 16 foot rooms were designed to house 400 female students. Through spring 1980, it was the last residence hall to be segregated by sex. In the fall of that same year, Mitchell Hall became co-ed.
To honor William B. Mitchell's service to St. Cloud State as well as to acknowledge the site where the family home stood, the State College Board on May 13, 1957 authorized that the building be named the William B. Mitchell Hall.
For more information, see the individual profile for Mitchell Hall on the University Archives’ website.