Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Montgomery Library Restroom
Time for a little useless break from my usual theology discussions. (This post was inspired by “Two Sinks” on my friend Roger’s blog.)
One of the bathrooms in the Montgomery library at Westminster (PA) seminary is marked unisex (for use by either gender). It has multiple stalls in it…and a lock on the entrance door. It occurred to me, will there ever be a time when more than one stall would be used? If you know that the bathroom can be used by either sex, you’re going to lock that door behind you every time.
My questions really is…was an Arminian architect hired to design that bathroom???
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February 26th, 2005 at 12:48 pm
Actually, if I remember correctly, that bathroom in the Andreas addition was initially a mens’ bathroom (pretty sure it was men’s anyway) , but they converted it (=changed the sign) about 6 mo after the center opened.
I remember having some of the same thoughts after it changed. “Why didn’t they just keep it as it was?” I wondered.
And as you may be aware, there were lots of other architectural problems in that addition… (e.g. there were supposed to be bookshelves where all the carrells are).
February 26th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
Actually, Justin, I wasn’t aware of either of those. You have provided valuable background material that will aid our understanding of this perplexing mystery. I know that I will not rest…yea, I will not parse another Hebrew weak verb nor will I digest another Bavinck chapter…until this is conclusively solved.
Karyn’s theory is that at the time the bathroom was built, there were very few female students at the seminary, but with the increase there was a need to provide more bathrooms for them, but the top floor addition only had the one.
On a personal level, I’m a little creeped every time I go in there. Like, what if a woman had already gone in but didn’t lock the door behind her? More than once I’ve made a quick duck down to see if any female looking feet are to be seen under any of the stall walls.
February 26th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
I get weirded out by unisex bathroons, so if I’m over in the seminary library I usually go to the trouble of walking to one of the clearly marked men’s rooms.
February 26th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
So Joel, do you think that we now have a basis on which to blame all of evangelicalism’s current disputes over gender issues on the 2nd floor bathroom at the Westminster Seminary library?
Goodness, knows, WTS has been accussed of theological crimes on less evidence than that!
February 27th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
I defintely have felt creeped out by that bathroom. It is so big to just be in there by yourself. It also seems like somewhat of a waste of space, but then again maybe they are making up for the second floor men’s one. Or… maybe they are trying to be sensitive to the claustrophobes and agoraphobes respctively. We are pretty darn progressive after all.
February 27th, 2005 at 7:18 pm
Yeah, Ben…I’ll bet Princeton Seminary doesn’t have great big unisex bathrooms. Ol’ J. Gresham could always outprogress those progressives!
March 4th, 2005 at 11:18 am
Unisex, multi-stall bathroom.
I’m weirded out.
March 4th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
Seems to be the consensus, Roger. Since I wrote this, I’ve had it confirmed to me that it was built as a men’s room. It was only after the annex to the library (in which it is located) was opened that someone realized there was no women’s room on that whole floor.
March 5th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
Personally, I think those restrooms in the Library are great. You can lock yourself in and then do cartwheels if you want to. Next to the Student Lounge in Machen Hall and the Craig Room in the Library Annex, those restrooms are my favorite architectural feature on campus.
March 5th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
Great thinking, Kyle! I think I’ll take my mp3 player in there and dance to a Britney Spears song…just to say I did it.
May 9th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
[...] tudent computer lab and the Westminster Hebrew Institute. This is also the site of the now infamous unisex bathrooms.
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May 10th, 2005 at 9:02 am
Okay, who wants to do cartwheels in the bathroom? That means putting your hands on the floor–not something I do in a public bathroom.
Maybe if a family was visiting the library they could make use of multiple stalls. Perhaps a parents and a couple of kids?
As ackward as the multi-stall unisex bathroom is, at least it locks. I visited a friend at a secular college at the end of my freshman year. Each dorm floor was coed and had two bathrooms–one for each gender. They were typical college bathrooms–stalls, urinals, sinks, corporate shower area.
The catch was that on weekends in the evening, they were all coed. The reason being that they didn’t want drunk students having to go too far to find a bathroom. So basically he told me, go to the bathroom before dinner and then wait until the next morning or you take your chances. And definitely no evening showers!