The Cabin is used by student and alumnae groups as a retreat center. The original cabin was built by the campus YWCA in 1938 and named in honor of Dice R. Anderson, a former president of Wesleyan. The new cabin, built to replace the old one in 1990, is situated amidst an area of "back campus" now used by botany classes as an arboretum. The undeveloped acreage on the Wesleyan campus serves not only as a barrier between the campus and nearby residential areas, but as a rich resource for research in the natural sciences.