During its first fifteen years, NISNS had no dormitories.  Students boarded with local families or lived in boarding houses in what is now known as the Ellwood Historic Neighborhood just to the east of campus.

President John Williston Cook believed that the very future of the school depended on being able to provide housing for a growing number of students.  In 1913, the state legislature finally appropriated $125,000 for construction of what Cook called “the house for women.”

The new building was four floors tall, with 40 double and 47 single rooms, and it quickly filled with female students.  It featured a large living room with a grand piano and adjoining dining room, providing at last a place for parties, dinners and dances.  The “house for women” soon became the center of campus social life.  And keeping with the school’s reputation for affordability, room and board was $6.50 per week.

The NISNS Board of Trustees sought to honor President Cook by naming the building after him, but since there was already a “Cook Hall” at ISU in Bloomington, they chose instead to use the revered president’s middle name, and the school’s first dormitory became Williston Hall.