While I congratulate the Murray-Dodge Café on its 50th anniversary, I would like to add a historical perspective. The cafe Rick Christman “dreamed up out of a neglected basement” in 1976 had a precursor and model in the Axe Coffeehouse, same location but seven years earlier. Begun by Archie MacColl ’70 and Brian Langston ’71 in the fall of 1969, it offered music, coffee, tea, pastries, and peanuts, lots of peanuts, on weekend nights. The following year it expanded service to six nights a week, and in the spring of 1971 it opened for lunch, serving as many as a hundred people a day. One of the highlights that spring was catering a lunch meeting for Halcy Bohen, assistant dean of students.
At the end of the year, we had been so successful that the Office of Religious Life decided to reclaim their basement and try to create their own welcoming student space. With a few fits and starts they were ultimately successful.
David Schankler ’71 Axe Coffeehouse supervisor 1970-71
While I congratulate the Murray-Dodge Café on its 50th anniversary, I would like to add a historical perspective. The cafe Rick Christman “dreamed up out of a neglected basement” in 1976 had a precursor and model in the Axe Coffeehouse, same location but seven years earlier. Begun by Archie MacColl ’70 and Brian Langston ’71 in the fall of 1969, it offered music, coffee, tea, pastries, and peanuts, lots of peanuts, on weekend nights. The following year it expanded service to six nights a week, and in the spring of 1971 it opened for lunch, serving as many as a hundred people a day. One of the highlights that spring was catering a lunch meeting for Halcy Bohen, assistant dean of students.
At the end of the year, we had been so successful that the Office of Religious Life decided to reclaim their basement and try to create their own welcoming student space. With a few fits and starts they were ultimately successful.
David Schankler ’71
Axe Coffeehouse supervisor 1970-71