Fitzhugh Stories

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Help Us Save 100 Years of History

Tell Us All Your Favorite Story from Fitzhugh Hall

Belhaven's Fitzhugh Hall

Fitzhugh Hall—If these walls could talk, the stories they would tell. In this modern digital age of websites, Facebook and blogs the walls can talk, through the stories of students, faculty and staff who lived their lives around this 100-year-old building on Peachtree Street.

Tell us how Fitzhugh Hall played a role in your life. Whether Fitzhugh represents work or play, here’s your chance to tell the world your memories in Fitzhugh and its significance. Did you propose on its steps or just read on them? Was it a place of sanctuary away from the chaos or was it the center of your social life?  Was Fitzhugh your residence hall or office space?

Below, tell us your personal story about the impact Fitzhugh Hall had on you.

 

1,241 thoughts on “Fitzhugh Stories”

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  22. Library are the best part for studies. Whenever i want to studies, I go to the library, It gives you a feeling of studying which you don’t realize anywhere, btw nice place. thiết kế logo đẹp

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  28. here is an interesting article i met my future wife ann on her first day on campus
    ou first date was to the mississippi state fair on
    october 6 1957. we dated throughout our collefe years
    i gave her an engagement ring in the fitzhugh palor
    christmas 1961. she lived on the third floor of
    fitzhugh.

  29. nice saying by kalsey I got to know my now best friend and her family on the Fitzhugh steps during Welcome Week. We talked for a very long time and it was so much fun. I’ll always remember that time.http://skywaycapital.com/

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  33. I lived in Fitzhugh during my sophomore year (1967-68.) I arrived that Fall from Miami, Florida earlier than my roommate, Barbara (McGhan) Porter and was in our new huge room unpacking when Miss Bess paid me a visit. She wanted to know if I would accompany her each evening that year as she made her rounds through Fitzhugh to make sure all the doors were locked . I told her that I might be able to do that, but that my roommate, Barb, who had not yet arrived, might also want to her her! I suggested that Miss Bess check with HER! Of course, that’s what Miss Bess did and so for the next 9 months, (almost 300 nights) my sweet, helpful roommate would stop what she was doing in order to walk with Miss Bess to check the doors. I suppose it was Barb’s job to protect Miss Bess from anyone who might object to her locking up! Anyway, Barb, I owe you! Thanks a lot!

  35. I lived in Fitzhugh dorm my sophmore year. I fondly remember my room there
    on the second floor, the wonderful high ceilings and the windows, and especially sitting on those grand steps overlooking the lagoon. I did alot of thinking around that lagoon. I worked for the Dean of Women, Miss Bess, and would
    sit behind that big desk and answer the phone. I still remember Miss Bess tellling me, “Remember, Bobbie, you are the voice of Belhaven!” Everyday around noon, Miss Bess would go into her parlor and watch Days of Our lives. She would invite me to join her, which I did. This grand building should never be torn down. It is so full of memories and holds such a place in my heart and all those who were blessed to attend Belhaven. I am praying along with many others that she will be able to be saved.

  36. I learned to dance in the basement in 1998-99. I have fond memories of “swing nights” with friends, and the girls trying to do complex moves without hitting the low ceilings! One of those girls passed away the next year, and when I think of her, I see her dancing in Fitzhugh.

  37. I was blessed to live in Fitzhugh when it was a dormitory for two years. The first year there was a cloister of beauties who lived above the first floor lobby (and above Miss Bess’s living quarters!) and we designated ourselves as the Theata Phi Beta’s – we are not to ever reveal the meaning of that designation! We had a Mother Superior, and the rest of us – about 7 – were just the nuns/sisters of this cloister. Someone set up a card table in the hallway with a 500 piece puzzle of “a close-up of the Three Bears”. It was a big, round brown circle. I don’t think it was ever finished while I lived there.
    My best memory and most significant happening was on the night of Belhaven Convocation. I had been under conviction all summer long, but all of that came to a head that night when I felt very discouraged and angry with myself for some stupid choices I had made my freshman year. My roommate was out that evening and as I lay in bed trying to go to sleep, sadness covered over me and I said in my heart and mind, “I don’t want to keep living if I keep making such horrible decisions for my own life. In a very real way, I sensed Jesus standing by my bed in the darkness and He said to me, ” Why don’t you give your life to me?” I handed over my life to him, and in 46+ years I have never looked back. I have never had doubts of my real salvation in all those years. Jesus DID take my life and in the way only He can he made it new. My poor roommate returned later to find me sobbing (in great relief and a sense of newness) wondering what on earth was going on. The next day I went to consult with Dr. Norm Harper who was on the Bible Staff that year and he had the privilege of telling me that he believed I had been “born again”. I had been a faithful church attender all my 19 years, but finally I understood the power of the concept of being born again.
    The next year my roommate was elected President of Fitzhugh Dorm, and we had a huge room behind Miss Bess’s living quarters in another cloister setting. That was my last year at Belhaven as I graduated that next summer. Most of my memories of Belhaven take place in that dear building. My husband and I are sending a donation to help with the rebuilding of what has become a holy place to me.

  38. Twinkie Moore 1968-1971
    I lived in Fitzhugh my sophomore year and it was great because most of my classes were in the basement in the Home Ec dept and Art Dept.
    Miss Bess was great and took such great care of all of us. She could handle almost anything.
    The mucis of the 70’s was a lot of hard rock and of course we kept our radios and stereos on all of the time. One evening Miss Bess knocked on my door and asked if I could move my stero because my music was coming into her quaters via the plumbing. She said while I enjoy all types of music I prefer to listen to them separately not together. We had a laugh and I moved my music to the other side of the room.
    I hope that we can save Fitzhugh because of all the memories held in those walls.

  39. I lived in Fitzhugh my sophomore year of 1975-1976. I had loved living in Helen White my freshman year and the many adventures I had there. The fun continued in Fitzhugh. At the time 2 bedrooms were connected by a bathroom. Peggy and Mary Ellen were the suite mates to Dale and I. One day I walked in from class and opened my closet door. I let out a blood curdling scream. Peggy had placed locust shells all over my clothes. I thought they were roaches. I was glad to find out that wasn’t the case.

  40. Although I never lived in Fitzhugh, my first visit there was as a freshman in 1965 when we girls had to present ourselves to Miss Bess wearing hats and gloves before attending church. I did have art with Miss Moffat and home economics classes with Miss Beachamp and Mrs. Harmon in the basement. I loved that old building.

  41. I was a sophomore living in Fitzhugh in 1997-98, the last year it was a dorm before being converted to office space.

    I remember going around taking pictures of all the artwork in other rooms, dating back to when girls could paint their rooms. There was the pink & purple room, and the Noah’s Ark scene painted on the radiator. I wish there was a way to post pictures. 🙂

    One thing I missed after my sohomore year was the coffee shop in the basement; it had been either remodeled or closed after the building was converted.

  42. Fitzhugh hall was my home during my last 2 years at Belhaven from 1991-1993. I have very fond memories of late night talks with my fellow dorm-mates, study sessions in the computer room, fun at the coffee shop–all within Fitzhugh’s halls.

    Reading through the entries, its clear that Fitzhugh Hall means alot to Belhaven. I pray that it can be saved but if its God’s will and it cannot be, the memories stay with us all. We are reminded that Belhaven is more than just its buildings–its the students, faculty, staff and alumni that are its heart.

  43. Pingback: Saving Fitzhugh Hall – Video Tour | Inside Belhaven

  44. During the school year 1970 – 1971 Fitzhugh Hll was my sophomore dorm. My room was on the first floor of residences next to the stairwell, the pay phone and the fridge overlooking Helen White
    (my freshman dorm) ,the “circle”and the “bowl” which looked beautiful in the snow that year. Most of us on my wing used the back stairwell and hardly ever “signed out/in because it was so convient. I loved the hardwood floors, the high ceilings and even the weekly room “inspections”.

    Even tho I loved living in Helen White my fondest memories are of living in Fitzhugh Hall. My firsy view of the Belhaven Campus as a prosspective student was of the”lagoon” Preston Hall & Fitzhugh Hall. And when I saw Lancaster Hall, Helen White and the Fine Arts I decided that I wanted to go to Belhaven. At the time the student body was less than 700 students which appealed to me since I wanted to go to small school.

    I could go on forever about my fondness for both Belhaven and Fitzhugh Hall but I can not think of any one memory – there are so many. I shall keep and treasure them all.

  45. In the fall of 1977, I moved into Fitzhugh Hall as a sophmore at Belhaven College. Having already spent my freshman year in Helen White, fondly called ‘the House of the Screaming Virgins’, I was excited about moving up to the ‘upper classmen’s dorm’. I loved it’s ornate columns, welcoming front steps and romantic balcony that faced the lagoon. So many memories that the next 3 years brought me, are etched on my heart forever. It grabbed my heart when I heard the story of Fitzhugh Hall’s decline and possible demolition. It sounds pretty hopeless but bleaker tasks have been accomplished. We rebuild after hurricanes and other natural disasters, better and ready for another 100 years. I hope we can save at least the essence of her. I will share one of thousands of my memories of Fitzhugh Hall. I met my now husband, Tim Irby at Belhaven my Freshman year. We began dating soon after and when I moved over to Fitzhugh Hall, I lived on the second floor, corner room, facing the big magnolia tree. We had no bell system, like in Helen White, to call you when you had a visitor in the lobby, so when Tim came over, he pitched small rocks up to my window, calling me down. I knew there had to be a better system so I attached a bell to my blinds cord, cut one end, tied a knot and ran the excess out my window for Tim to grab and ring instead of throwing rocks at my window. It worked. For those three years, that is how my husband would call me down to meet him. …I still have the bell.

  46. I lived in Fitzhugh during the 1965-66 and 1966-67 school years. One funny memory is of bouncing a “super ball” from the first floor stairwell landing to the basement floor below. It bounced all the way back up and broke the globe of the light fixture on the ceiling of the 2nd floor (3 floors). I was horrified and terrified! To her credit, Miss Bess simply laughed and called the maintenance man to repair the light.

  47. Many SGA meetings and events happened in Fitzhugh. We worked in, relaxed in, and socialized in the Coffee Shoppe that our SGA built. I have many memories of Fitzhugh and it will always be a special building. Of all the changes that have happened at Belhaven over the years, Preston and Fitzhugh and the Lagoon have always stayed relatively the same. Great memories, wonderful place.

  48. i met my future wife ann on her first day on campus
    ou first date was to the mississippi state fair on
    october 6 1957. we dated throughout our collefe years
    i gave her an engagement ring in the fitzhugh palor
    christmas 1961. she lived on the third floor of
    fitzhugh.
    every night at 10pm i would meet her for a visit in
    the basement of fitzhugh. we graduated and were
    married in 1961. we just celebrated 50 years of
    marriage. fitzhugh holds a lot of wonderful
    memories for us. i pray fitzhugh can be saved

  49. I got to know my now best friend and her family on the Fitzhugh steps during Welcome Week. We talked for a very long time and it was so much fun. I’ll always remember that time!

  50. all the times i went to the math lab, even though i had nothing to study, and just goofed off with the student tutors for several hours.

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