McMillan Hall: The Oldest Building on Campus

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McMillan Hall is a residence hall for college students located on the campus of Whitworth University. Mac, as it is more famously known among students and alums, is the oldest building on the Whitworth campus. Constructed in 1914, Mac Hall "combines a rich history, beautiful architecture, and the amenities of a modern residence hall. With its distinctive dormers, steeply pitched roof and brown brick, McMillan Hall is a showcase of the Whitworth campus."

Its location is close to the athletic facilities, Weyerhaeuser Hall,Westminster Hall, Ballard Hall and the Chapel,. This particular dormitory is currently an all-male hall, consisting of four floors. There are living areas and a variety of room sizes, making it unique among the other halls on campus. Most of the other dormitories have double rooms but McMillan consists of singles, doubles, triples, quads, as well as rooms with lofts.

Its origins began in 1912, when the Presbyterians of the Spokane community developed their plan to convince Whitworth trustees to relocate the college from Tacoma to land north of downtown Spokane. After approving the move to Spokane, trustees planned the first building on campus. Originally named the Young Ladies Dormitory, the building was dedicated on August 26, 1914. The building also housed classrooms and offices for the few faculty and administrators.

In 1924, the dormitory was renamed after Reverend Hugh McMillan. Instrumental in assisting the move to Spokane from Tacoma in 1914, McMillan had proven to be an invaluable member of the board of trustees.

Over the years, this hall has served many purposes. Including: the chapel, the library, classrooms, the basement even doubled as a biology laboratory and dining hall for a time. Eventually McMillan Hall would serve as an all-male dormitory and as such it earned a reputation for having some of the richest traditions on campus. These traditions often became synonymous with Whitworth traditions.

One famous tradition involved the ice bucket challenge in where new Mac residents had to sit in a trough of ice water until they could tell a joke that got the initiators to laugh. In recent years, initiation morphed into Traditiation. At the end of Traditiation, students in Mac and other dorms compete in a Yell Off, where incoming freshmen sing and perform songs to their peers. Another event during Traditiation is known as All Tied Up, everyone gets dressed up and goes to dinner in the HUB. All Tied Up serves as a way for students from different halls to meet each other. Residents from Ballard and MAC (BMAC) often team up with residents from Warren. Other traditions include Milk and Cookies with Ballard, Mac men go over to Ballard and have milk and cookies with the Ballard women and socialize.

McMillan Hall has its own logo. In 1986, a yellow smiley face was printed onto the hall's sweatshirts. Ever since, the men of Mac, colloquially known as "Mac Men", have painted the same smiley face outside the entrance of their hall. The smiley face is still there today.

Mac Hall remains one of the most sought-after dorms at Whitworth to this day.