Tag Archives: East Hall

Seven Oaks opens in its East Lake Road location (p. 323)

East and West Halls, had been completely renovated in 1954.) The library, designated the Everett Needham Case Library in 1962, was dedicated in 1959. As far back as 1931, Charles W. Spencer had stressed the need for a new building but it was his successor, Thomas M. Iiams, who was to have a major role in planning the structure and to see it take shape. The architect was Robert B. O’Connor (D.F.A., ’59) of O’Connor and Kilham. Chapel House, an anonymous gift, was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and completed in 1959. It has a chapel for meditation and prayer, a library, a music room, and facilities for a small number of interfaith resident guests. The Athletic Center, honoring William A. Reid, ’18, Director of the Division of Physical Education and Ath1etics (1935-1955), was opened in 1959, also; its architect was Oscar F. Wiggins, ’22. Watson House, a home for the President, given by Mrs. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., in honor of her late husband, was ready for occupancy at the time of Mr. Case’s retirement in 1962. Arthur A. Meggett, ’36, designed the building; its completion made the president’s former residence, Merrill House, available for the Faculty Club.

Two other facilities should be mentioned. The first, the Colgate Camp on Upper Saranac Lake, was the gift of S. Bayard Colgate (LL.D., 1958), a Trustee, and his family in 1953. It is well suited for use of the Outing Club and for faculty conferences and summer recreation. The second is the new Seven Oaks golf course in the valley east of the campus and the village which was opened in 1958 to supersede the old course behind the dormitories.

As early as 1941 the American Association of University Professors Chapter began a survey of the curriculum and University organization. In the spring of 1943, at Mr. Case’s suggestion, a committee on the Post-War College was established from the faculty with the President as Chairman, to continue the study with particular reference to the needs of a world at peace. Its far-ranging report received searching faculty analysis and was adopted, part by part, from 1945 to 1947.

Central to the program was the general education Core Curriculum, made up of a series of courses prescribed for all students. This concept was an outgrowth of experience with the five one-semester survey courses in the Biological Science, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Philosophy and Religion for freshmen and a course in Fine Arts for sophomores, which were an important feature of the “Colgate Plan of

Memorial Chapel (p. 268)

be well-organized appeals in the form of the annual alumni fund.

The early years of the Bryan administration saw renovation and adaptation of four old buildings. Work on the dormitories, West, and East Halls, which Dr. Merrill had planned and to which the growing enrollment of the College gave urgency, was completed-West in 1910 and East, with a Commons for feeding 100 in the basement, a year later. At the termination of Colgate Academy in 1912, its facilities became available for other uses. Administrative offices were moved from the Library to the academy building, henceforth known as the Administration Building, and Taylor Hall, which the Academy fraternities had occupied, was taken over for the post office and the YMCA.

The long recognized need for an infirmary was met in 1913 through the generosity of Mrs. James C. Colgate whose contributions enabled the University to acquire and equip the former Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on East Pleasant Street for this purpose,

Though the College, Seminary, and Academy each had its own chapel, the College chapel had become so crowded by 1915 that only a part of the student body could be accommodated. Plans for a new building were drawn by Harding and Seaver, architects of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and a location chosen which would bring buildings together around the north quadrangle. The donor, Miss Mary Colgate, sister of James C. Colgate, who gave it in memory of their father, James B. Colgate, specified that it should be in the simple New England meeting house style. Construction began in the spring of 1917 and it was first used for the September 1918 convocation. Miss Colgate dedicated the building in June, 1920, and provided an endowment for its maintenance. Its symmetry and simple classical beauty have made a focal point on the Hill ever since.

By the early 1920’s the campus had grown into the park-like tract that its planners and creators, especially the landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch, and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, James M. Taylor, had envisioned. The former died in 1918 and Dr. Taylor resigned two years later to be succeeded by Lt. Colonel James Ballantine, who had recently come to Colgate as Director of Military Instruction. Colgate’s buildings and grounds by 1922 had an estimated value of $1,100,000.

Though the size of the faculty had increased from 36 in 1908 to 48 in 1922 these figures are misleading since the first includes ,21 for the

Lathrop Hall completed (p. 250)

Within minutes of the Lathrop Hall dedication Dr. Lawrence, President of the Trustees, laid the cornerstone of an addition to the Chemistry Building-a unique juxtaposition of events in Colgate’s history of building construction. This project, too, came from Dr. Merrill’s initiative. When Lathrop Hall had been assured in 1905 he had appealed at once to Andrew Carnegie for funds and, after extended consideration, $20,000 was granted, provided a like sum be raised for endowment for the Chemistry Department. This condition was soon met and the architects, Harding and Seaver, and the contractors for Lathrop Hall given orders to proceed with plans and construction. The three large laboratories, lecture room and other facilities were in use by the following autumn.

During his first months on the campus the President discovered that the dormitories, East and West Halls, had fallen into serious dilapidation. With the requirements of the science departments satisfied and with increased college enrollment pressing for student accommodations, he made plans for their renovation. The only tangible result, however, was the equipping of a lounging room on the first floor of West Hall which faculty wives opened in December 1905 with a tea for students and professors. More extensive remodeling would come with the next administration.

The last major building project of the Merrill administration was the central heating plant which represented a significant advance in efficient maintenance and comfort. The financial assistance of the Baptist

p. 99 – Administrative problems and incorporation, 1833-1846

tion;” no record remains, however, to show that it was awarded. Dr. Joseph Penny, a native Irishman who seems to have had some flair for landscaping and who had recently become President of Hamilton College, inspected the Institution in the summer of 1836, in company with Deacon Olmstead; whether he hoped to win the premium is not known. The natural beauty of the campus surpassed, the visitor believed, that of the majority of public institutions in the United States. He liked especially the grounds west of the buildings because of their varying smooth green slopes and shaded groves and dells. Cutting a few trees, he thought, would open fine vistas through to the buildings, and suggested new paths, the removal of fences which broke up the north surface of the Hill, and the planting of a few clumps of trees in that area. “The buildings,” he wrote, “though plain, are in good keeping with the objects for which they are designed; and this is the first requisite of good taste.” Covering them with a coat of pure lime and sand, followed from time to time by pure whitewash, he believed, would both provide protection and give an effective contrast to the green lawns.

Trustees and faculty approved Dr. Penny’s recommendations, and several of them Steward Edmunds put into effect. His labor supply was students who took their exercise with shovel or axe in hand. The young men were especially active in building paths and lining them with maples transplanted from the nearby woods; many are still standing. Most of the work was done under the direction of the Students Association and was usually without pay.

Until 1833 the buildings consisted of the present West Hall and the Cottage Edifice. The student body, meanwhile, had grown so large as to overcrowd them and applicants for admission had to be turned away. At its annual meeting in 1832 the Society voted to erect another dormitory. Since none of the bids was satisfactory, the Board accepted Deacon Burchard’s offer to purchase the materials, hire the workmen, and superintend construction, himself. Work was started in the summer of 1833, and by December the whole edifice was completed except for plastering and installing furnaces. Students contributed much of the labor. The total cost was approximately $6,000, nearly $2,000 less than the original estimate. Dr. Kendrick, reporting for the Board in 1834, wrote: “It is worthy of grateful acknowledgement, that the lives and limbs of the builders were providentially protected, and

p. 90 – Student life, 1833-1846

should keep their pledges “to labor for God among the heathen.” In 1834 four had gone to the Orient, and in 1835 five went, but thereafter the number declined, and in some years none responded to the “call.” The failure of so many to keep their pledges and a waning interest on the campus in foreign missions led to a sharp decline in membership. Early in 1842 the pledge requirement was removed. A few months later the Eastern Association and the Western Association, the analogous organization for students intending to do missionary work in “the Mississippi Valley, joined the Society for Inquiry in an auxiliary status.

The first literary society, Gamma Phi, seems to have been founded prior to 1833, while the second, Pi Delta, probably originated in 1834. Little trace of their activities remains except the names of their orators on commencement programs. Competition between them for members led to faculty intervention, with the result that both seem to have been dissolved in 1840 when the Adelphian and Aeonian Societies came into existence. For two or three years, amicable relations seem to have prevailed but in 1844 difficulties arose relative to their joint public exercises. The faculty had scarcely restored harmony when rivalry over the selection of members again brought official action. Some Adelphians, refusing to abide by arrangements which had been agreed upon, attempted to form their own society in the village so that they might be free to admit freshmen of their own choosing. Within a week, however, they gave up the plan.

Both societies had rooms in the “attic story” of the present East Hall. The Aeonians devoted their weekly meetings to orations and the reading of original essays, plays and poems. A critic, appointed from their own number, passed judgment on these efforts. The essays and other contributions were collected by three editors who bound them together as the “Aeonian Casket.” The Adelphians occupied themselves in much the same way as the Aeonians. The faculty considered that both groups stimulated the development of oral and written expression, which were phases of the curriculum badly in need of expansion. The Institution, however, was probably no further behind current standards of instruction in speech and rhetoric than other colleges of the day. The Aeonian and Adelphian Societies and their predecessors were following, consciously or not, patterns of earlier and contemporary literary societies on other campuses.

The fraternity movement, a natural outgrowth of literary societies,

Philoponian society (p. 49)

The Board, seeing greater opportunities for student labor on a farm, began negotiations which, as has been seen, resulted in the purchase of the Payne property in 1826. Lack .of tools arid planned work led a few students, in August 1827, to form the Philoponian Society: the Greek name meaning “industrious” or “loving labor.” They stated in their constitution that they found by experience “that a suitable portion of exercise, is desperately necessary, to preserve the health of students & render their minds vigorous and active.”*By the end of the year a majority of their colleagues had joined the society.

Members were required to exercise outdoors an hour and a half each day, weather permitting. At the direction of their president, they assembled in the basement of West Hall and, tools in hand, marched to work under the supervision of monitors. In good weather they cultivated the farm or cut timber in the surrounding woods. They also leveled the ground around the new buildings and in other ways improved the campus. In bad weather they practiced gymnastics. At a special meeting in May 1828, when spring fever doubtless was virulent, they “Voted to erect a dam previous to commencement to raise a pond for bathing.”

The profits of the Philoponian Society went into a common fund which was divided each May according to the amount of work each member had done. The officers of the Education Society repeatedly commended the manual labor organization, furnished necessary tools, and required all beneficiaries to become members. One student in 1830 wrote to his brother at school in Peekskill, “labour is valued very high here and enables us to study more than if we laboured not. I advise you by all means to labour an hour or more every day.” By 1832, however, the Board, believing this extracurricular activity took too much time from studies and desiring labor for students which would be more profitable and independent of weather and seasons, established a window-sash factory on the campus. The Trustees planned to use its products in the present East Hall which they then contemplated building. The Philoponian Society reorganized into a “Judiciary Board of the Sash Factory” which lasted until 1833 when the factory seems to have been discontinued.

Wasting time or “loafing and inviting one’s soul” the authorities of the Institution discouraged. The following is the schedule of a student in 1831:

*[Colgate University], Philoponian Society, Record Book, 1827-32, Constitution

First building erected (p. 26)

Engraving of the first Colgate building, c. 1823

a brick building worth $3,500. By November 1822 they had more than fulfilled their contract. The building was made of stone instead of bricks and its dimensions, 36 feet by 64 feet, were in excess of specifications. It had cost $32.72 more than had been agreed upon and was ready six months earlier than promised. Daniel Hascall had taken the lead in enlisting the support of the villagers, particularly the members of the Baptist Church, and had supervised the construction. His personal finances became so involved in those of the project that a decade later he was in debt over $1,100 and never was fully reimbursed for the sums he had advanced. When the Seminary vacated the brick building the Hamilton Academy used the entire structure until a fire destroyed it in 1855.

The new building, later known as the “building on the plain” or the “stone academy,” stood on the east side of the present Hamilton Street and was dedicated at the Education Society’s annual meeting in June, 1823. A crude woodcut shows the three-story building to have been simple, unpretentious, and similar to remaining examples of the architecture of the period in this locality, such as East and West Halls. Hascall, by direction of the Executive Committee, had the yard