Dominican Hall residents from throughout New Zealand returned to Dunedin for a chance to reminisce on Saturday and yesterday at the Otago Polytechnic campus.
Of the 100 women involved, four were among the first tertiary students to live at Dominican Hall when it opened in 1946.
Mrs Scannell said just 18 young women lived at the hall in its first year and they formed a "lovely family" at their collective home away from home.
They came to Dunedin from throughout Otago, Southland and Canterbury to study and enjoy a few years of freedom before settling into work and family life.
"We went to the pictures together and had social sports groups. I thought it was wonderful," Mrs Scannell said.
Years later, the experience had hardly changed for hall residents Julie Meade Rose of Otorohonga, Karen Austin of Oamaru and Mary Firth of Waimate.
They met at the hall as teenagers in 1969 and after two years went flatting with another two Dominican residents in Castle St.
Friends ever since, the women remembered student life fondly.
Their first year of flatting coincided with the opening of the Gardens Tavern and their combined weekly rent was $20.
Dominican Hall closed as a student residence in 1978.
