With increasing pressure from parents of preschool children for all-day child care services, it was decided that an 100 year-old stone house, located on Manhattan Avenue, had possibilities of becoming such a day care center to help meet the needs of students, classified staff, and faculty parents for their young children. In May of 1977, after careful planning by several architectural students, work began to completely remodel the inside of the old house, to convert the open porch to an enclosed stairway to the second floor, and even to reline the outside stones with new cement. The new all-day child care center was fully operational when the fall semester began in August 1977. The house was named in May of 1983 in honor of Dean Ruth Hoeflin, who served as dean of the College of Home Economics from 1975 until 1983. She and Dr. John Chalmers, Vice President of Academic Affairs were responsible for the creation of this child care center.