Graves estimated that in 1899 there were, at most, accommodations for 30 students in the homes of Brooklyn (the name then for the U District). Graves' hopes that neighborhood churches might set up dorms came to nothing. Truth was, Brooklyn had more cows than citizens, and their free-ranging habits were so annoying that the school fenced them off with barbed wire. When the students moved into their new Lewis (for men) and Clark (for women) halls in January 1900, they had their own cows corralled behind the dorms. The 130 men and women shared a dining room — and the milk — in the basement of the women's dorm.

The president advised his married faculty to follow his example and invite students home so they might "become acquainted with good homes and learn the usages of the best society." But when Graves made an unannounced inspection of the women's dorm while investigating charges of lax discipline, he found their rooms generally "unkempt." The coeds responded by marching around the campus and singing a parody of their president to the tune of "We Kept the Pig in the Parlor."

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.