Originally designed to be a women's gymnasium and social center, Ida Noyes Hall remains a social hub of the University, though the original gym was converted in 1987 into Max Palevsky Cinema, home to Doc Films. Nonetheless, the oak wainscoting, gessoed ceilings, and hand-wrought iron stair rail, as well as an elaborate cloister, remain.
To some, the decorative details are excessive. At Ida Noyes Hall’s dedication, for example, President Harry Pratt Judson was apparently disturbed by the splendor and presumed expense of the interiors. Professor Edith Foster Flint bid the president relax, saying that “we agreed that its beauty ought to be educative.” She added that the building itself had inspired more students to read Ruskin’s writing on the moral uplift of the Gothic. “[T]he campus buildings in general and Ida Noyes Hall in particular had whetted their appetite for such knowledge,” she said.