The exciting thing about being an archivist is that you never know what is lurking in the next box that you might open. A recent discovery was made when we found some documents detailing new information about the history of Lamport House in an unrelated collection.

One such document is a memorandum to “All house plans having parties at Lamport House.” Dr. Irving Greger was the executive director of Lamport House and House Plans from 1951 to 1960. His memorandum has some interesting rules which today would seem rather outdated.

“This one is just for the fellows. Guys, girls are funny but they do like to arrive safely and directly at their party and they do very seriously like to be certain they will arrive home safely. What does this mean to you? It means that if your party is not a dated affair you must make arrangements to escort your invited group of girls to our building. This is not an undue suggestion.
 By the very lowest of standards you should at least arrange to have one of your members meet them at the subway exits. It means that you must be certain that every girl has some escort to take her home.”

Is chivalry dead today? I hope not.

To actually chronicle the events in Lamport House, the Baruch College Archives has the Annual Reports of the House Plans for assorted years in the 1950s to 1961.