Was Elam Arms dorm at USM once a hotel?

Answer 1

My roommate and I resided in Elam Arms when first opened circa 1965 or 1966. The facility was grand for its time at USM especially when compared to other university owned and operated dorms. It was touted as the premier residence at USM at the time. When first opened Elam was a private dormitory, i.e. private financing for constructed and operated by the Elam Family of Hattiesburg. Charlotte Elam managed the dorm. The cost of living at Elam was much higher than at the standard USM residence hall. Morrison Cafeteria had the food concession for the dining room and kitchen. My roommate and I were fortunate ... so we thought ... to obtain jobs serving in the cafeteria line. We started out as dish scrapers/washers, but the other white students looked on us with disdain. Dirty dish scraping was reserved for black non-students at that time. You might say we broke the color barrier in reverse. Things were very different at USM in the 1960's. USM was not integrated. Cannot recall exactly, but that year or the next, a single brave black student enrolled at USM. He lived in one of the large mulit-floored USM residence halls on the far west side of campus. Unfortunately, some students tried to make life miserable for the young man by bouncing basketballs on the floor over his dorm room 24/7. Perhaps "hotel" is a misnomer for Elam Arms. However, the ammenities did include maid service.