After graduating from Wellesley College in 1896, alumna Mary Esther Chase noticed a problem: Wellesley alumnae had no reliable way of keeping up with the campus news. Five years later, Chase decided to solve this dilemma herself.

 In 1897, just one year after graduating, Chase founded the Wellesley Tea Room Corporation after noticing that there was “no place in Wellesley village where the Faculty and Undergraduates of Wellesley College could meet for relaxation and social intercourse.” 

In 1901, she used this business to found the College News, establishing Wellesley’s first — and only — student newspaper, which would eventually become The Wellesley News.

The Corporation ran the Wellesley Tea Room, which included an oak-paneled reception room, dining room and living room. The space occupied half of the Wellesley Inn, which stood at 580 Washington Street.

After renting the Tea Room for four years, Chase and a group of Wellesley alumnae officially purchased the space after raising funds through selling $5 shares to Wellesley students and affiliates. In the summer of 1901, they successfully purchased the space and opened it to lodgers. 

While operating the Tea Room, which served many visiting alumnae, Chase noticed a recurring question.

“It is a cry with which we are all familiar when the older alumna meets the more recent alumna in the corridors. After the greeting comes, ‘What’s the news?,’” Chase wrote in the first issue. “In the streets of distant cities Wellesley girls meet and the refrain is the same, ‘Do you know any college news?’”

In 1901, there was an abundance of College news to share. Alongside the official purchase of the Wellesley Tea Room, students established the student government, the first time the student body could self-govern. 

To meet this demand, Chase organized a student newspaper to be printed from the Tea Room and funded by the Corporation’s profits. In October 1901, Chase, alongside business manager Caroline Wright Rogers ’1900, printed the first issue of the College News. Published weekly, it sold for five cents per copy, or 50 cents for a yearly subscription. 

 “In a College as large as Wellesley, there are countless personal, class, social and academic happenings that many students and alumnae not involved may still find of interest,” Chase wrote in the first issue.

At the time, Wellesley was among the largest private institutions in the United States. In the 1901-1902 school year, there were 767 students enrolled at the College, more than twice the number enrolled when the College first opened its doors, according to a catalog from the College’s early years. By comparison, the median private institution had only 130 students in 1897, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 

Before the College News, students and alums could  purchase The Wellesley Magazine for 25 cents a copy. Founded in 1892, the Magazine featured students-published literary works, alumnae news, editorials and news articles “of college interest.” The Magazine has since become an Alumnae Association publication.

Early College News coverage overlapped with the Magazine, including reporting on student government, society initiations, upcoming events, athletics and alumnae news. But Chase noted that College News differentiated itself from the Magazine by having “no literary aspirations.”

Over time, the newspaper has expanded its scope and changed its name several times. Nine years after the first issue, in October 1911, the College News’ era elapsed, and the newspaper officially became Wellesley College News. In March 1967, the name changed to Wellesley News. In April 1980, the newspaper established its current name, The Wellesley News. 

In 1914, Chase sold the Tea Room to Jeremiah Bransfield, who merged it with the larger Wellesley Inn. The Inn was demolished in 2006 and has since been transformed into a luxury condominium complex. 

While the Tea Room has faded into history, Chase left behind a far more enduring legacy: The Wellesley News, a 125-year-old institution that still serves as the College’s only student newspaper.

Contact the editors in charge of this article: Rebecca Birnbach and Noufeesa Yahyaoui