On the place to be Sunday morning...

Dacie Moses was a librarian at the Carleton College in Northfield, MN, in the U.S.  She was awarded an honorary master of arts degree in 1969.

But her real claim to fame, both in living legacy as well as that left for future generations is the Dacie Moses House.  During her life, Dacie invited students to her house for freshly baked cookies, Sunday brunches (for up to 50 people), to hold conversations, watch TV or play the piano, snack from her refrigerator or call home from her phone.

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If there was ever any doubt about Carleton’s love for Dacie Moses, let her 128th birthday anniversary stand testament to the devoted appreciation and support of students, faculty, staff, alums, and community members alike.

(From the St. Olaf Manitou Messenger)

We have all been there. Late at night, scrambling to finish cramming and craving the cure-all reward for being able to keep your eyes open: a freshly baked cookie (or a clump of cookie dough, if you are not afraid of salmonella).

Back in high school, this fantasy was easily remedied by tip-toeing to the kitchen, but it is a harder mission to accomplish on the Hill, where all food venues close by midnight on weeknights. So, what gives?

While the cure for this problem seems like it could be thousands of miles away, depending on where you are from, you might not have to go so far after all. In fact, you could theoretically take a trip across the bridge to the Dacie Moses House, otherwise known as "The Cookie House." The house is three houses away from Carleton's campus, at 110 Union Street.

Some Oles are not aware of this local gem. "I don't think many people know of it," Ryan Timmerman ‘12 said.

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The Strength of Generosity - An Interview with Julia Uleberg

 Comfy couches. Haunting smells of freshly baked cookies. Tinkling music in the background. And now, crunchy carpets. As I stepped into Dacie Moses House, one sunny afternoon, I was greeted by a confused dog who came out of the kitchen to the living room, now decked up with a lavish blue carpeted floor. I walked to the kitchen, and as I had expected, there were cookies waiting for suddenly-hungry-stomachs, and I grabbed one (while thinking if I should grab another, and moving away before I could), and walked down from the kitchen into the little garden at the back of the house. There I met Julia, the coordinator of Dacie Moses House, cutting vegetables on the hammock, and then moving blocks of firewood, leftover from a bonfire that was used in one of the Sunday brunches....

A Knight's Tale

Since this acapella group started in 1956, the Knights have practiced in Dacie's living room. In this house, there are all the facilities there to have a comfortable practice session - storage rooms for CDs and tuxedos and song scores and a piano.  Dacie herself was very supportive of accapella. 'Steal Away' was Dacie's second favorite song...

A House for Everyone, and Me

I was drawn to the idea of living in Dacie’s because of the open-door spirit and the warmth of community that surrounds the house. Admittedly, part of the draw was that I could be paid to bake, something I always spent a whole lot of time doing anyway. My roommate (Emily Winer) and I wanted to help maintain the wonderful tradition of “grandma Dacie’s” while somehow incorporating ourselves into the house. While living here this summer, we started hosting themed Wednesday night dessert parties that were open to the Northfield community and we were amazed at how many people came each week! My personal favorite event which we threw together was the “1950’s Dessert Party” where we served banana cream pie, angel food cake, and about a hundred whoopee pies. Ultimately, I think I chose to live here because I wanted to live in a home and encourage other students to make Dacie’s a home too...

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So, if you read my previous blog post Presidents and Ice Cream, you know that I like my desserts. So clearly, my dream hangout spot would always smell like…

After diner we headed over to Dacie Moses for their desert day.  Unfortunately we came too late, and they ran out.  No worries though, it's Dacie Moses, you can make your own desert.  We wanted to make something crazy though, not just chocolate chip cookies....

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New developments at Carleton-- get excited!

Dacie Moses House is one of the beloved traditions of Carleton College, right up there with traying, a capella, and our infatuation with a certain German poet.  The house belonged to Dacie Moses, a longtime Carleton employee in the middle of the twentieth century.  During her life, her house served as a warm and welcoming place for college students freshly away from home.  She willed her house to the college so it could continue to serve the community that way after her death.

Read more about Dacie's...

Over seventy years of chocolate chip cookies is a legacy project that most everyone can relate to. Not seventy year old cookies, relegated to a museum. Rather a process of serving warm, just out of the oven cookies for people to enjoy week after week over that time.

Just goes to show everyone can contribute something – and with the right planning, what lives on beyond your lifetime can simply be an extension of what was joyfully given during it. Candace “Dacie” Moses provides us with an example of just how big even a small gift, made sustainable, can grow to be.

(Caution: There are some factual errors in this story, but the spirit of the story is faithful.)

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About an hour ago, I set out with a few adventurous confederates on a short journey. Our destination was a place called Dacie Moses House. None of us had ever been there, but we had heard stories about it--fables about what goes on within its walls, and legends of what awaits those who make the pilgrimage there...