Tag Archives: James C. Colgate Student Union Building

McGregory Hall dedicated and Student Union completed (p. 297)

CORNER OF BIOLOGY BUILDING, LATHROP AND MCGREGORY HALL

McGregory Hall, the chemical laboratory, was made possible by a bequest of Miss Evelyn Colgate, supplemented by a gift from her father, James C. Colgate. It honors Dr. Joseph F. McGregory, esteemed Professor of Chemistry for forty-five years, who assisted the architect, Mr. Chambers, in drawing up the plans for the building which he intended to provide ample accommodations for his department. Its dedication in 1930 was the occasion for a conference on chemical education addressed by leaders in the field.

The projected student activities center, which the burning of the old gymnasium in 1926 delayed, at last became a reality in 1937 in the James C. Colgate Student Union. The need for a freshman dining hall had become acute in view of the impending change in fraternity practices, which would defer rushing and pledging from the first to the second semester. This would require eating arrangements for the first year men, more extensive than the Commons in East Hall, since they

p. 293 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

floors of Eaton Hall became a dormitory and the Departments of Philosophy and Religion and Music were assigned offices and classrooms on the first. The Chemistry Building was converted to the use of the Department of Biology in 1930 when the Department of Chemistry moved into the new McGregory Hall. Spear House after a century as a faculty residence and fraternity house was reconstructed in 1935 for the Samuel Colgate Baptist Historical Collection which was transferred to it from the Library. When space in the new James C. Colgate Student Union Building became available for the campus post office and student organizations in 1937, Taylor Hall which had housed them was remodeled for a faculty club and largely furnished with articles from the James B. Colgate mansion in Yonkers which was being demolished.