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.
It’s done that, as anybody who has gone there to play cribbage or do some late-night cookie baking knows. For the two students who live there, Dacie Moses is a campus job as well as housing: it’s their responsibility to maintain the house and make sure it remains a welcoming environment for all. Every Sunday they put on a brunch full of baked goodies. Last Sunday’s brunch was special. It marked the 127th anniversary of Dacie’s birthday.
Julia Uleborg Swanson, co-chair of the Dacie Moses House committee, said of this year’s brunch, “It’s a celebration of the house and all the people who use it, and the community that sprang up around it.” The anniversary brunches used to be held every five years, but they proved so popular that now they are doing it every year.
Sunday morning, the house was packed with people lounging on the furniture and enjoying Dacie’s signature beer muffins. There was also a special guest in attendance, Dixon Bond ’59. He is a founding member of the Carleton Singing Knights, which from their start in 1955 had close ties with Dacie Moses House. They would often hold practices there, a tradition which the current Knights continue. Over the past year, the Dacie Moses House committee has passed an apron around to every present and past Knight they could get a hold of for a signature. At the event, this apron was presented to Bond as a way of saying “thank you.” There was also a cupcake with a candle involved, since his birthday happens to be in January, too. What better way to celebrate than to have the Knights themselves sing “Happy Birthday” to you?
