AMES, Iowa - If Archie and Nancy Martin were alive to see the expansive new residence hall named in their honor, there's little doubt they would be awestruck.
Last week, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved the renaming of Suite 2 in the Union Drive neighborhood to "Archie and Nancy Martin Hall." Iowa State's newest residence hall, which opened in August, features two-bedroom suites with double sinks and private baths. The first floor houses an Honors Program learning community. On the fourth floor, there are spacious, four- and six-person loft rooms. Laundry facilities are available on every floor. And a kitchen and three meeting spaces are located in each of seven "houses" in the building.
The amenities available to the 331 students who live in Martin Hall would be inconceivable to anyone born in the 1850s, as the Martins were.
But the Martins also experienced events inconceivable to us today.
When Archie and Nancy arrived in Ames from Georgia in 1913, they discovered that it was difficult for black students at then-Iowa State College to find housing. Nearly 20 years had passed since George Washington Carver, Iowa State's first African American student, had finished his bachelor's degree, started graduate school and had been appointed to the faculty. Black students could attend Iowa State, unlike other institutions that wouldn't even allow them to register. But they couldn't live on campus, and they struggled to find places to live in town.
Part of that had to do with an unofficial policy that students of color had to room with other students of color - a difficult rule, considering it wasn't until 1904 that a second black student graduated from Iowa State. And it would be 1914 before the third black student would graduate, according to noted historian Farwell Brown's book, "Ames, the Early Years in Word and Picture: From Marsh to Modern City."
In a 1910 letter, Iowa State President Albert Storms wrote in response to a colleague, "Negro students are entirely welcome at this institution; they have no discourtesy whatever shown them by fellow students or others. It is not always easy for a Negro student to find rooming and boarding accommodations except where there are enough to room and board together, as is the case with Filipinos and other nationalities."
The Martins saw the problem and in short order, did something about it.
Around 1919, Archie Martin and some of his sons built a house at 218 Lincoln Way. They opened the second floor, which had three bedrooms and a bath, as a rooming house for black students. History is unclear as to how many young men the Martins took in over the years. Some accounts indicate approximately 20 students total stayed with the Martins, although one student resident, Herbert DeCosta Jr., recalled at least 10 fellow black students at the Martin home during the 1940-'41 academic year alone.
At least twice prior to 1926, Archie Martin visited Iowa State President Raymond Pearson to discuss the problem of housing for black students.
A Martin grandson related Archie's experience in Brown's book.
"Pearson agreed to see that black students would be admitted to college dormitories on an equal basis with white students. But that fall, black students came to Martin telling him that their difficulties in getting rooms on the campus still existed. It was not until Archie Martin returned to Pearson's office that black students began to find it easier to find lodging in campus facilities."
Archie retired from the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Co. in 1932, and died in 1960 at the age of 102. Nancy, who had been a homemaker, a hired cook and mother to 13 children, was just days from her 92nd birthday when she died in 1947.
One thing is certain: The Martins housed and mentored students who went on to do great things.
Many received advanced degrees. Some became professors and engineers. One, James Bowman, went on to serve with the Tuskegee Airmen and became a Des Moines school administrator. Another, Samuel Massie, worked on the Manhattan Project during his stay at the Martins and earned his doctorate degree in organic chemistry from Iowa State in 1946. Massie became the first black professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, and was awarded the NAACP Freedom Fund Award and a White House Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award. And when Chemical and Engineering News compiled a list of the world's 75 most distinguished chemists, Massie was included.
Those are the stories that would impress Archie and Nancy Martin, their granddaughter, Pauline Martin of Ames, says.
"They were really special people. Neither of them was very well-educated, because they came from the days of slavery. They came from hard times. They did their best to help students at Iowa State," Pauline said.
Pauline recalls her grandparents fondly. She visited them often and briefly lived with them in 1945 when her family's home was being built.
"(Grandma) was the tough one of the pair, a strong-willed person. The woman of the family had to hold things together," she said. "Grandpa was a gentle little soul, more easy-going. He told me stories of when he was a boy, about 7, meeting Abraham Lincoln."
Pauline also remembers the students who stayed with her grandparents.
"We weren't to get in the way. They were adults and were supposed to be studying," Pauline said. "I remember they had a piano in the living room and sometimes they'd play classical music."
Pauline's younger sister, Paula Freeman, is a clerk in the controller's department at Iowa State. A brother, Norman, also lives in Ames, as do several cousins.
"It's really a great honor," Pauline said of the new Archie and Nancy Martin Hall naming. "That's what everybody feels. My grandparents were just simple people doing something they had to do, coming from the South and knowing how hard it was to get an education and to be accepted. My dad would be bursting his buttons if he were alive ... but it wouldn't have fazed Grandma and Grandpa much - they were just humble people."
Iowa State University Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Hill, who assembled the nomination to have Suite 2 named in the Martins' honor, is pleased that the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, approved the name.
"It really documents the presence of African Americans in the history of this institution," Hill said. "It recognizes the Martins for doing an outstanding job and meeting a need that wasn't being met. They stepped up. It is very appropriate to recognize them for their contributions to Iowa State."
Archie and Nancy Martin Hall will be officially dedicated in November.
