In February 1938 UT announced that it had petitioned the WPA for funding to create a dormitory at Neyland Stadium—300 feet long, 94 feet wide, and four stories high—that would house 120 men. On the roof of the fireproof edifice, seating for just over ten thousand was to be provided.
Professor Nathan Dougherty had visited the campus at Louisiana State University and had convinced the university that placing dormitory rooms under the stands was an inexpensive and effective way to add dormitory space and increase seating capacity. Mr. Harry Berry, the administrator of WPA funds in Tennessee, arranged to find $50,000 for the support of this east- stadium dorm project, and WPA funds provided all the labor. J. W. Bush, resident engineer who devised the plans, indicated that enough reinforcing steel would be used to build two hundred new Ford automobiles and enough concrete to construct three miles of highway sixteen feet wide and seven inches thick would be included. All the crushed rock in the concrete was quarried on the UT farm.
The Athletics Association turned the dormitory over to the university upon its completion in 1939. When completed, the four floors under the east stands provided accommodations for 128 men. Approximately one-half of the men were members of athletic teams, with the remainder being a cross section of the study body. Students paid $30 for the fall quarter and $28 for the winter and spring quarters, a sum set to be comparable with off-campus, private-home room rates.
The ground floor held a reception room so large that one-third of the residents could use the room at any one time. The room featured chrome and leather furniture, a “record playing machine,” tables and chairs, and indirect lighting.
Residence hall administrators indicated in spring 1970 that South Stadium Hall would be closed in fall 1970 but that East Stadium Hall would be operated as a cooperative dormitory beginning in fall quarter 1970. The $600 cost of the academic year room and board in Stadium Hall operating as a cooperative would have been $300-$400 cheaper than other residence hall/board plans. Because of insufficient interest in living in the cooperative dorm, both South and East Stadium Hall were closed in fall 1970, but, because the Apartment Residence Hall was not complete in fall 1970, there were 150 male students temporarily housed in Stadium Hall.
The closed dormitory was brought back to life in two-weeks’ time in the summer of 1979, when UT lost its contract with the Andrew Johnson Hotel to house the overflow of students requesting housing and international students. Approximately 70 students lived there in 1979, and 140 students in 1980. Residents voted to keep it open during the 1982 World’s Fair, despite the fact that Funland was just a stone’s throw away.
In spring 1985, the hall was closed, based on its occupancy rate of approximately 75 students a quarter, 25 fewer than was necessary for the hall to be financially viable.