(subtle music) - It was like the real life experience of some of the classes that we had taken especially in management, planning, organizational skills, nutrition, because we cooked all our meals.

So a lot of it was to make sure that we scheduled things well, that we were organized, that we learned how to manage work together as a team, lots of times.

So it was sort of that real life experience of the classes we had taken up to that point.

- Five to eight students lived here at a time, during one academic quarter in their senior year.

And so it was during this time that they were able to put into practice the theory and principles that they were learning in the classroom.

But those weeks were really regimented.

In addition to their regular classes, each student was required to assume a role in the running of the household.

They were responsible for the cooking, for the cleaning, budgeting, grocery shopping, laundry, hosting dinners, and entertaining guests.

They also provided demonstrations to Fargo homemakers and other students.

So for many of them, this could be a really stressful experience, this was the first time they had done a lot of this.

But it also provided amazing opportunities for them to develop their skills in public speaking, preparing research, and for many of them it was their first exposure to other cultures and to wider social issues.

For colleges to access federal funds, they had to provide an opportunity for students to have practical experience in a demonstration setting.

And in 1917, NDSU did not have that available on the campus.

Alba Bales came to NDSU in 1920, as Head of the School of Home Economics.

She immediately began advocating to build a home demonstration house.

She was very persuasive with the legislature.

It was through her efforts that the funds were appropriated for this house.

Ground was broken in October of 1922, and the first class of students lived here in the fall quarter of 1923.

Alba Bales oversaw the construction of the house.

She saw that it was fitted out with the most modern and up-to-date equipment to meet the needs of the home economics curriculum.

During her tenure here as Dean, Alba Bales championed home economics research and she incorporated classes into the curriculum that focused on improving the health of children and running an efficient household.

She retired in 1942, and in 1954, the house was rededicated from the Home Demonstration House to the Alba Bales House to honor her leadership in getting this house built, and the opportunities that this house provided to the students.

There was a faculty member who lived in the house with the girls who enforced the rules, and also all of the activities that the women did in this house as students, they were graded on.

- Ellena Virgin was her name, and she lived in the apartment up in the third floor, and she was known as very strict but she liked our group really well, 'cause we seemed to get along very well with her, and we had quite a time.

The most pressure was when we were the cook or the manager, when we had to manage everybody else.

And when we had to cook the meals and we had to plan the meals, and we had to have a budget that we had to work with, and we planned three meals a day.

That was the most pressure.

(subtle music) - Once you got in the house, oh, nerves kind of started to come out because there were all these expectations.

And then you were concerned about doing the right thing and of course getting a good grade.

Many of us came from farm families and things were a little bit loose knit maybe because life was very busy working with outside, and inside, and gardening.

And this was a little different situation.

We had classwork too, that we had to get our homework done and our reports done as well as the house management.

- It was intense.

I can remember exactly scrubbing the bricks on the fireplace and the tile down below.

And if you would not use a clean wash cloth in the right way, and you ended up with, say a gray from the fireplace, all of a sudden there was a little bit of gray on that clean wash cloth, you had to start all over with a toothbrush.

Not only was it that the walls had to be perfectly clean and the windows, oh my goodness, there couldn't be a streak.

If there was a streak then you had to go back, start all over.

- I do remember coming over here and having to compare like vacuum cleaners.

We had to literally measure out X number of ounces of sand and grid it into a rug with our feet, and then vacuum up that, and then take out the bag and measure how much of that had come in in the vacuum cleaners.

- So now I'm very careful about how I set the table.

I have company and I do, it's not just you throw a potluck on, I do a really formal job of that.

It has stood me in good stead.

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