The Haebler Memorial Chapel bathroom is perhaps one of the lesser-known restrooms on campus. Maybe not “lesser-known” but “less thought about.” Finding it alone is something of a challenge depending on what entrance you use. It’s in the basement but it’s easier to find if you use the back entrance. To avoid confusion, as there are two bathrooms in the Chapel, this review will be focusing on the first one closest to the water fountain.
Rather than talk about the positive vs. negative aspects for this week’s review, I thought I’d go point by point.
Privacy: I’ve had great experiences with the Chapel being mostly uninhabited at various times in the past. But in doing research for this review it seemed like I couldn’t get a moment’s peace in there (bad standards for a Chapel). It seemed like I was always running into Red Hot Blue or some guy tuning his guitar in the stairwell. In defense of this bathroom, most people tend to stick to the undercroft room.
The actual bathroom itself is like a nesting doll of privacy. It has two locks. One on the stall door, and one on the room door. So, two locked doors stand between you and the outside world. That’s a plus in my book.
Hours: The Chapel is seemingly always open. While I couldn’t bring myself to drag my body out of bed to check to see if the building was still unlocked at 3 am, I did have a late night on Friday, and it was still open at around 1 am.
Cleanliness: Not much to say on this front; it’s pretty clean, especially by college standards. I can’t bring myself to wax poetically about it though.
Décor: Now THIS category was the main reason why I picked this bathroom over some of the others, even over the other bathroom in this hallway. Most places I cover don’t have a lot to write about in terms of décor, but Haebler certainly does. Powder blue tiles on the walls contrast beautifully with a dark blue floor tile. There is a vase of dying but also color coordinated flowers on the counter in front of the second mirror.
I don’t know if this would go under décor, but I don’t have anywhere else to put it. The Chapel has a. . . “church smell”? I personally enjoy it to a certain extent, but I could see how someone else would be unhappy with that aspect of the restroom.
Acoustics: The Chapel is certainly lacking in this regard as well. The piano from the undercroft, any noise from the hallway, all make their way into that room with relative ease. Sound flows out of the room as easily as it flows into it.
Stuff Holder: This may seem like a strange category but as a woman who tends to either have a purse/bag or VERY full pockets, a place to hang or place a number of items is very important to me in my comfort. The Chapel has me spoiled for space. There are three hooks in the room, one on the back of the door, one on the back of stall, and one in between the two on the wall. There’s a glass shelf over the sink, the sink being no slouch in holding things itself. Not to mention the counter where the flowers are. There are a few other places to . . . place things as well that are less traditional but let’s just stick with those for now.
Extras: This category is the small things that can’t really be categorized (perhaps “church smell” should have gone under here but the “Extras” section is normally positive things and that’s more of a neutral than a positive or negative). Paper towels are the hand-drying option of choice, which is always a positive in my book. There’s a kitchen and a piano just outside. The kitchen used to have a ton of lollipops in it but now it’s a bit lacking.
Despite the fact that I had a bit of trouble finding privacy this week in particular, and the acoustics not really being what I wanted, I just find the Haebler Memorial Chapel bathroom so charming that I can’t help but give it 8/10.
