Slinga Da Ink and Demolished Buildings

From the Archives…

 I Want to Go Back

I want to go back to Coe again,
     The college of the West,
Back to Williston Hall once more,
     The chapel and the old book store.

I want to go back to Coe again,
     The college of the West,
     I want to go back,
     I’ve got to go back,
To go again!

The above song should sound familiar (though it may look ‘off’).  They are the original words to “Slinga da ink” (minus said iconic phrase which was added later) written sometime during the early 1910s.  Who wrote it is somewhat in question. One account says it was written by Earl S. Killeen the director of music from 1910 to 1914, another says Claude Newcomb who was a voice teacher at the time and yet another account says the first choir director Risser Patty had something to do with it (or maybe she just wrote the second verse?).

The song was exclusively sung by the Women’s Glee Club for many years as a fare well at the end of their concerts.  It was sung as the girls left the hall with each girl having her right hand on the left shoulder of the girl in front of her, as Catherine A. Root tells it.  Root also recalls the confusion caused by the new women’s dormitory.  The third line of the song was changed from “Back to Williston Hall once more” (the old women’s dorm) to “back to Voorhees Hall Once More” (the newly built dorm) causing some discordance when some members of the club sang the old line while others paid their tribute to the new building.

Another alumni, Dodie Hamblin ’40, sheds more light on this iconic Coe song in her essay “Coe Songs”.  According to Hamblin the fifth line “the chapel and the old book store” refers “back to the days when the college book store was operated by “Charlie” Jones of the Superior Press, who had the store in the basement of Main building and dispensed not only books but candy, conversation and comradeship.”

On an interesting last note not one of the original beloved buildings mentioned in the song has survived to present day.  The Chapel burnt down in 1947.  Rickety Willston Hall was torn down in 1950 to make way for present day Hickok hall (though it had been wiped from the song long before that so it may not have been so beloved).  Last, Old Main (originally built-in 1868 Main Building contained classrooms, administration offices, the library, the gym, the chapel, the dormitory and many other college functions at one time or other during its life) was demolished in 1971 to make way for Dows Fine Arts Center (Old Main was no longer up to code after over a hundred years of use).

If you can’t wait until homecoming next year to year “I Want to Go Back to Coe Again” you can listen to it on-line, or if you’re curious about the development of Coe’s campus you can browse the digital exhibit “Aerials of Coe College Campus” to view images of the changing campus over 70 years.