Between 1946 and 1957, Vetville stood on this site after being developed by President Henry Tape to accommodate the influx of World War II veterans attending Northern Michigan University on the G.I. Bill. It also housed the Barracks Boys, student athletes in Northern Michigan University’s first Grant-in-Aid athletic scholarship program, which began in the fall of 1952 under head coach C.V. "Red Money." The program provided part-time jobs and campus housing in a barracks-type building, where each student athlete paid one dollar per month in rent and contributed to heating oil costs. Known as the Barracks Boys, these residents functioned as an unofficial athletic fraternity, and their Spartan, crowded conditions fostered a family-like relationship with Coach Money and a lasting loyalty to the university. Barracks housing and the program ended in 1957.