I do not condone sneaking into private property to take construction photos. That being said, if I receive them I’m more than happy to post them as the ones seen below. Most of the photos would appear to be of the parking structure in the lower floors of the building. Too bad some of the exterior photos are a little blurry.
It’ a a blessing and a curse to have posted mostly news tidbits lately. It saves time for me while it still is pertinent to the general focus of this blog, but posting them feels relatively unsatisfying, especially when I’m comparing them to some of my history entries, like the “Essentials of Campus” entries. I have been planning to do Willard Straight in an entry since about May; the trick was finding the time and resources to do it right. For one, I didn’t have enough photos of the Straight, so I decided to go on a little photo tour of the inside of the building. Secondly, I had debated to what extent I would cover the Willard Straight takeover back in spring 1969. I came to the conclusion that I’ll provide links and brief description of that piece of history, but since there are entire books dedicated to it (which thanks to the wonders of Google, much of Donald A. Down’s meticulously detailed book concerning the crisis can be read online), I decided to not spend too much time on it for the time being.
So, let’s start with the man. Willard Dickerman Straight, originally an orphan from Oswego, NY, was a member of the class of 1901 (Bishop 455). During his time at Cornell, he was an editor for the Cornell Widow, which was a popular campus humor magazine at that time, and he was one of the students responsible for organizing Spring Day, which would evolve into Slope Day in later decades. He was also a member of Delta Tau Delta and the Sphinx Head Honor Society. After graduation, he worked in the Chinese customs service (a time when the Qing Dynasty still ruled in China and Anti-Western sentiment ran high) and rose rapidly in his field to become the head of the State Department’s Far Eastern Affairs. He married Dorothy Payne Whitney, member of the incredibly WASPy and wealthy Whitney family. Willard Straight passed away from complications due to Spanish Flu strain pneumonia on December 1, 1918, while waiting for the Americans to arrive in Paris to negotiate WWI peace treaties. His will asked his wife to do “such thing or things for Cornell University as she may think most fitting and useful to make the same a more human place.” While I have little idea what “make the same” means, it was part of his will to use his money to enhance the quality of life at Cornell. Generally, that was the sentiment he held during his life too; he was one of the financiers for Schoellkopf Field.
Digressing here, but Striaght had three kids: A chairman for Rolls-Royce, an actress, and a KGB spy. None of them went to Cornell.
Thing was, back in the day, fraternities were the entire social scene at Cornell. If you weren’t a member of a house, you didn’t exist. There were few clubs, and intercollegiate sports were a diversion for precious few. In that time, if you were an independent student, you probably lived in a crappy tenement in Collegetown of further down East Hill and you led a miserable existence hating the weather and not enjoying the collegiate experience. One can see where Willard Straight was coming from when he said that the place needed to become a little more human.
Well, Mrs. Straight didn’t know what to use the money on, so she kinda sat on it for a few years figuring out what would be the best way to fulfill her late husband’s wishes. Enter Leonard K. Elmhirst ‘21. A charming englishman and president of the Cornell Cosmopolitan Club (the club [in the sense that coops and frats are clubs] for international students at the time), and when he discovered that his club was $80,000 short of funds (which is like $830,000 in today’s terms; one has to wonder how the hell you get so far in the hole without someone catching it). Like any proactive student, he went on down to NYC to plead with alumni for money. One of those who pitched his plea to was widow Straight. Well, she was taken by his image of barren student life at Cornell, so she paid off the debt for the club, resolved to donate the money to better student life, and married Mr. Elmhirst. Now that’s a package deal if I ever saw one. Mrs. Elmhirst became a citizen of the crown in 1938, and passed away in December . Considering what happened the following spring, that may have been for the best.
Through consultation with President Farrand, Mrs. Elmhirst came up with the idea of a student union, which was an increasingly popular idea in those days, conjuring images of the schools of Europe while also improving the quality of student life. William Adams Delano drew up the plans and they were presented to the trustees in June 1922 (Bishop 456). The plans called for meeting halls, banquet halls, dance halls, a library, formal dining rooms and a cafeteria, a thatre, guest bedrooms, dorms, campus offices, game rooms, all in one grand Collegiate Gothic package built with the finest craftsmanship and llenroc bluestone. Ezra Winter painted the murals in the grand hall, meant to illustrate Striaght’s life and career (this is why you can see Manchus above the door of the reading room today). The building opened November 25,1925, though to comparatively low-key fanfare (though perhaps I may be comparing this to the dancers dressed up as scientists dancing in the atrium to “Weill Thing” when they dedicating Weill Hall). Mrs. Straight, now Elmhirst, was the first to dine in the cafeteria and the first person to stay in the hotel that existed on the upper floors. The hotel remained on the upper floors until it was closed as a result of the April 1969 crisis. At one time, the building was also home to WVBR, a barbershop, a store to buy your booze, and people actually utilized the different entrances for men and women instead of just walking to the doors that are closest.
So…about that crisis. If I sum it up in a paragraph, that would be doing the event, the actions leading up to it, and those involved a great injustice, and as I mentioned, there are far better resources for reading up on the takeover of the Straight than this blog entry. On April 19, 1969, a series of events with regards to racial discrimination on campus led to a takeover of the student union during Parent’s Weekend. All guests and staff were forced out of the building, and several African-American studies held up in the building as other students groups tried to remove them by force, leading some of the students participating in the takeover to smuggle guns into building. After negotiating with the university vice-president, the students left the building, guns in hand, immortalized by a now famous Pulitzer-Prise winning photo by Steve Starr. The event was a public relations disaster for the university, and led President James Perkins to resign his position with disgrace. The event also led to the formation of the Africana Studies and Research Center, and Ujamaa three years later.
Today, the Straight is home to the Ivy Room and Oakenshield’s dining facilities, the Cornell Cinema (which replaced the theatre after 1988), the browsing library, lounge areas, various student office and mailboxes for campus orgs, the Dean of Students and Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. The new Asian Student Center has also been set up in the building until the budget allows for them to move to 14 South Ave.
EDIT: So WordPress hates large photos. It says “Treat all women with chivalry** The respect of your fellows is worth more than applause** Understand and sympathise with those who are less fortunate than you are ** Make up your own mind but respect the opinions of others ** Don’t think a thing right or wrong just because someone tells you so ** Think it out yourself, guided by the advice of those whome you respect ** Hold your head high and your mind open, you can always learn ** Extracts from Willard Straight’s letter to his son
I suppose that most people, on their first arrival back to the place they call home, would call their friends and make their presence known. I on the other hand decided to avoid my overcrowded sub-subletted apartment by taking photo of the campus construction projects.
I have to come back to 107 weeks of this? I just lost one of my main walking paths to class. This is almost like coming back to my girlfriend in bed with someone else. I s’pose I should be glad I’ll only be affected by this for a year before I head elsewhere.
Well, I guess if they were going to close off the street, they might as well take advantage to do soil testing for the Johnson addition. Speaking of which, am Ithaca Journal article mentioned that mercury was found at the site [1]. Considering that the building was a chemistry building, and its first incarnation burnt down back in the days before WWI, this shouldn’t be too much of a shock.
The physical sciences building continues on its merry way towards completion.
MVR North is also well into its construction. I’m personally hoping the concrete and mortar parking base receives an attractive stone veneer to reduce some of the brutalist qualities of the north facade.
The Vet School’s Diagnostic Center has received part of its brick facade, on track for its opening within the next year.
Meanwhile, Barton Hall and anabel Taylor (not pictured) are being renovated, mostly with replacement stone for the facade, and roof repairs. Barton has been particularly needy for a reno because the stone on the tower was getting to a point where it was liable to crumble away, and it reasonably couldn’t be put off any longer.
The Hotel School addition is on target for its winter completion date. For a 12,000 sq ft addition, it really sticks out, especially when approaching from the north on East Avenue. Where the Beck Center used to clash with the south facade, now the new addition clashes with the older southwest wing of the hotel school. I don’t think it’ll do much for Statler Hall, aesthetically speaking.
[1]http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20090720/NEWS01/907200328/Mercury+buried+on+CU+campus
So, a little background story to this entry. One of the things that I’m in charge of for my fraternity is maintaining the alumni newsletter. So, I had to send snail mail and a typed letter to the publishing company. Much to my annoyance, the nearest computer lab to where I was at the time was in Lincoln Hall, the music building.
Well, I’ve never printed anything at Lincoln before, so when I selected printers, i accidentally sent it to 374 MTH instead of the MUSIC printer. I being off not-so-sound mind apparently managed to read that as 374 MUSIC, so I went up and began searching the third floor.
Then I found this display. Realizing its worthiness for writing materials, I grabbed my camera and took a few photos.
It seems the above pictorials date from ca. 1900, and were proposed designs for a combined Architecture and Fine Arts building. No word on where the building would have been built.
This Collegiate Gothic design was proposed in the late 1920s, and would have been where Gannett Health Center stand today. Alas, the plan never saw the light of day due to budget cuts brought on by the Great Depression.
This modernist structure was proposed in 1950, and would’ve been built where Noyes Lodge stands today. Considering this school’s record of modern architecture, part of me is glad this never saw construction.
Okay, maybe not so much. Reasonably so, Cornell has seen many fraternities in its day, and while many still remain on campus, they often move during their tenure at the university. Other organizations have come and gone with the times. Well, the fraternity and its symbols may be gone to all but their alumni and the old yearbooks, but the houses…what happens to them?
It really depends on luck and the general mood of the times. The most common fate for Cornell fraternity houses is demolition, whether it be for a parking lot, an apartment building, or for a physical expansion of the campus. The Rabco Apartments (the rather worn-down brick buildings on the 300 block of Thurston) sit on the site of what was Phi Kappa Psi’s house. DTD’s old house is now a parking lot, as is Zeta Psi’s first house at Cornell (granted, it burnt down in a fire in the late 1940s). Kappa Alpha Society’s Victorian masterpiece was torn down for Hollister Hall in 1957.
This view used to be blocked by DTD's old house. But now it's a very nice parking lot.
Image courtesy of Cornell Facilities website (www.fs.cornell.edu).
Fun Fact: 14 South was AOPi's house from about 1992 to 2006.
Photos obtained from the book “Cornell in Pictures: 1868-1954″, compiled by Charles V. P. Young 1899.
As mentioned previously, Sibley was constucted in three parts; the first, which is the West Wing of the current building, was built in 1870 and named for one of the original trustees of Cornell, Hiram Sibley. The East wind would be built in 1894,and the dome was constructed in 1902 [1]. Apart from stone Row, this was the first building that the University built that still stands today (the university did not build Cascadilla Hall).
A map of campus, circa 1954. Some of the notable differences
I. Kappa Alpha Society’s house was where Snee Hall stands today. The house was torn down to facilitate construction of Hollister Hall in 1957-58, so KA moved to South Avenue. The Old Armory, built in 1892, was also torn down.
II. The road that was Central Avenue up until the 1990s cut between Franklin (Tjaden) and Sibley. Morse Hall would be torn down within a year of this map’s publication to make room for a parking lot, which would then be replaced by the Johnson Museum of Art that began nearly two decades later.
III. Boardman Hall is still there…in terms of aesthetics, I wish it was still there today too.
IV. ILR was located in temporary buildings (quonsets) on the Engineering Quad (which still had yet to fully develop). Law Hall, Moore Lab and the other smaller buildings where the ILR school stands today were the vet school buildings. Schurman Hall would come on line five years later, which facilitated the demolition of Law Hall in 1959, and for the construction of Ives Hall and Catherwood Library, which would be completed in 1962.
V. The Johnny Parson Club. More on that later.
VI. Alpha Xi Delta’s House is where the Propsects of Whitby co-op is located today. AXiD closed in 1964 and would be off campus for 40 years. Even the house they live in today is still own by Delta Phi Epsilon sorority (which closed the year before Alpha Xi Delta was brought back to campus). Chi Omega lived in the light purple house with the red tile roof on Wait Avenue, and would move to Phillips House (Sigma Alpha Mu’s current house) when that building was built on Sisson Place in 1956.
A poor photo (my shaky hands, I regret) of the Statler Inn. Prior to the 150-room hotel built in 1986-87, the Statler Inn was the premier facility, with “modern classroom” and 36 rooms. Another hotel was located in the upper floors of willard Straight Hall where the lofts are today, and those would play a prominent role in the takeover of Willard Straight in 1969.
Prior to the Maplewood Apartments, veterans attending Cornell post-WWII had the option of living with their families in “Vetsburg”, on Maple Avenue.
Back in the days before Day Hall, the lot was the site of a parking lot and the house of Professor Babcock, which was the first faculty house built on campus. Back in the day, it was common for houses to be on campus, where the Human Ecology school is today, where the Engineering Quad is today, and even on Central Campus. This was the last central campus house, and it was torn down to facilitate Day Hall’s construction (completed 1947) [2].
To save my breath, I’m going to quote a DUE from August 23, 2007:
“The Johnny Parson Club was named after a mechanical drawing professor in the Engineering college from 1895 to 1938. It’s said that he was the one who established ice skating on Beebe Lake. In addition, it was he who began the Cornell hockey tradition, by encouraging students to form a team. In 1922, the University built a two-story facility where skaters could spend time, eat, drink, and warm up, naming it after Professor Parson. However, in 1958, when skating events were moved to Lynah Rink, the University chose to take down the top two floors of the Club. The remaining basement area was covered and is now used by Cornell Outdoor Education. [3]“
Rather nice place, from the looks of it. Tudoresque.
Bacon Baseball Cage. The first Cornell mascot bear, Touchdown I, was housed here in 1915. [4] The building would be taken down for the addition of the pressbox and more seats at Schoellkopf.
Laying the cornerstone for Goldwin Smith Hall in 1902. The building that is currently the north wing was constructed earlier on as the Dairy Science building.
Law Hall, a couple small ag buildings, and the third observatory. It would be torn down for Barton Hall in 1915, and replaced with the observatory on north campus in 1924.
Schuyler House, the grad dormitory, used to be Cornell Infirmary. Next door is the Sage House. This was a time when students lived down the hill in fraternties or boarding houses, so it made sense to have the infirmary between the city and the college.
Speaks for itself. Screw pumpkins on the clock tower, I’m going to go tear down the bridge into Collegetown.
Fancy arc lighting. The house in the back was the stately home of Presidents Adams (1885-1892) and Schurman (1892-1920). It was torn down for Baker Lab shortly thereafter.
All the functions of a 1900s barn (where the CCC is today), all the appearance of a redneck’s idea of Count Dracula’s castle.
Can we reconsturct this building as a dorm? Please? Hey, I know Morse Hall was burnt down by a fire and all in February 1916, but the design can be retrofitted with today’s safety standards. Really.
[1]http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?tab=facts&q=&id=651
[2]http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?tab=facts&q=day%20hall&id=239
[3]http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=1187848800
[4]http://cornellsun.com/node/17613
Because you’ve probably never been in most of these buildings anyway.
Rice Hall. The building on the left, obscured by the trees, is colloquially known as “Little Rice Hall”. Located on the National Register of Historic Places [1], Rice Hall was built in 1912 and designed by the architectural firm Green and Wicks [2]. Rice Hall was intended as a peripheral building to Stone, Roberts, East Roberts, Caldwell and Comstock Halls. The building is home to Cornell’s “Center for the Environment” (yet another academic think tank) and is a hodgepodge of SNES and Crop and Soil Sciences. The building is named for James E. Rice 1890 [5], who taught the first course in the country on Poultry Husbandry (the building was originally for poultry husbandry, which is likely why it’s such a clusterf*ck now).
Fernow Hall is another of Green and Wicks’ works, being constructed three years later in 1915 [3], and also sits on the National Register of Historic Places. For the record, all that means that it’s old and likable. It must not mean much for architectural merit, otherwise we’d still have Roberts, Stone and East Roberts. The building is primarily used by the Dept. of Natural Resources. The building was known as the Forestry Building from 1915 to 1922 [4], and was dedicated to Bernhard Fernow, Dean of the College of Forestry (a sort of predecessor to the natty rys dept., which failed only five years after its inception in 1898, because the state received threats that if Cornell would be spoiling summer cottage retreats in the ‘Dacks for commercial purposes, wealthy state residents would reside elsewhere).
The original Comstock Hall, now the Computing and Communications Center. The hall was built in 1912 and named for renowned entomologist John Henry Comstock 1874 [6], and originally housed entomology. In some twisted sense, the same firm that designed this building would design the later Comstock in 1985. After Cornell granted moving the name to the new building, the old Comstock was renovated into (C3), CIT’s Operations Unit, in the late 1980s. Prior to that, CIT was out in Langmuir Labs in the Office Park in Lansing, and before it left for Lansing in 1967, CIT’s main computer lab jumped between Rand and Phillips Halls [7].
A lot can change in 70 years. The original Comstock (formerly Academic II) was a corroboration between Green & Wicks, and the firm Hoffman, O’Brian, Levatich & Taub. The new Comstock was by the shorter ”Levatich and Hoffman”. I think our tastes have gone downhill, ladies and gentlemen. Anyways, the new Comstock houses entomology and the little-used Entomology library (I just want to say that, as a CALS student, I’ve only ever met two entomology majors in my time at Cornell).
Corson-Mudd Hall (Corson is the east wing). Named for former university president Dale R. Corson and philanthropist Seeley G. Mudd (who has a crapload of buildings named for him on college campuses across the country [9], the building was completed in 1981 [8].
Technically, it’s possibly to get to nine seperate buildings through the tunnels and walkways of the AG Quad. Bradfield is connected to Emerson Hall (the lowrise portion), which is connected to Fernow Hall at one corner and to Plant Sciences from the second floor hallway. Through Plant Sciences, there are two ways to get into Mann Libe (ground, which involves being outside for ten seconds in the tunnel towards Manndible Cafe, and a less-used second-floor stairway). Mann is connected to Warren Hall. Plant Sci also has a connection to Weill Hall through its basement, and the tunnel runs underneath the street to the basement of Weill. The public use of this tunnel is not clearly stated, so try it at your own risk. Weill also connects to Corson-Mudd and Biotech through tunnels.
So, I’ve already told the story of the Roberts-Kennedy complex once before, but I’ll do a partial rehash. The building is named for Issac Roberts, an early professor, and 1970s CALS dean W. Keith Kennedy. Originally, Stone, Roberts and East Roberts stood on the site.
L to R: Roberts, Stone, East Roberts
The three were built around 1906. While they were national registered historic buildings, Cornell rather covertly had the designation removed, in a move that angered many traditionalists. The buildings were imploded in 1988-89. The original proposal for Roberts-Kennedy Hall was a 10-story building where Kennedy stands. Well, that didn’t go over too well, so they essentially pushed it onto the side and made a “breezeway”. The two were completed in 1990. Trillium is technically a part of Kennedy Hall.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_Hall
[2]http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=1040
[3]http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=1029
[4]http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/mission/history/
[5]http://books.google.com/books?id=jUu9pDRhWjkC&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=%22rice+hall%22+cornell&source=web&ots=Mp_YbfQomX&sig=dQmUQ68KhXUqtys6MW5lwXXPF_s&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA401,M1
[6http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/newscolumns/archives/OSL/2005/October/051027OSL.htm
[7]http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/history/timelines_locations.html
[8]http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=1019E
[9]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeley_G._Mudd
Looking southwest. Weill Hall dominates the view since its completion. The far hills in this photo are about eight miles away.
In this image, the crane for the physical sciences building is prominent, as is the Spencer T. Olin Research Tower (1967). The odd smokestacks on either end of Olin Tower’s roof are a fairly recent addition, from the late 1990s [1].
Bradfield’s roof is surprisingly spacious. Up until a few years ago, it had red flashers on the roof because it was originally in the flight path of planes heading into the airport. (Note: this area is only accessible by special request. There are alarms, and they will go off if you go up here without the key).
Looking SSE. These were the smockstacks I was referencing in the incinerator entry. The heating plant is currently being expanded about 16,000 sq. ft. Friedman Wrestling Center (2002) and Bartels Hall (1990, formerly Alberding Field House) are in the foreground.
Schoellkopf in the foreground, with the towers of IC in the back.
Looking East towards the vet school. The far hill is Hungerford Hill, about nine miles away They’re Turkey [left] and Baker Hills, and they’re 3.5 to 4 miles. This might be the worst entry I’ve ever done when it comes to factual correctness. Hungerford Hill, 2.5 miles away, would be farther to the right if it had made it into the photo.
To see what the view looks like from Hungerford Hill looking at Cornell (winter), click on the link (screw it, the link isn’t working too well, if you want to see just google “hungerford hill ithaca”, it the first thing in ‘images’): http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/472688985_3a80886d64.jpg?v=0
Rice hall is in the immediate foreground, with Stocking, Wing and Riley-Robb Halls sitting on Judd Falls road halfway between Rice and the Vet School.
View directly north, over Beebe Lake. Fall is a comin’.
NNW is north campus.
Far up on the lake (about twelve miles) is the Bolton Point Milliken Station power plant (EDIT: okay, my bad, I mix up the names of the water station and power plant A LOT). If you’ve been hung up on 79 between Inlet Island and downtown by the train, this is where it is going (delivering coal from Somerset, PA).
[1]http://www.chem.cornell.edu/history/laboratories/STOlin.htm
The Cornell Daily Sun Building on West State Street. Notably, the Daily Sun was not the first newspaper on campus, but rather took the title from the Cornell Era, which was founded shortly after the school opened, and then after twenty years or so began to take a different direction (literary journal) that would lead it into obscurity and termination. The Sun also holds the prestigious title of being the oldest continually-independent college daily in the U.S. [1]. I believe the printing press is on site, but if someone wants to provide a little more detail on that, please be my guest.
As for the building itself, it was built in 1916 and was the home of the Elks Lodge in Ithaca. The Daily Sun’s Alumni Association bought the structure in 2003 and completely renovated it over the next several months. The building also happens to be located next door to the Ithaca’s Journal’s offices (who don’t even print here—they print in Johnson City, near Binghamton [2]).
The Immaculate Conception Church is a Catholic Church in Ithaca that falls under the Archdiocese in Rochester. The building was constructed in 1898 and designed by architect A.B. Wood [3].
Across the street is St. Catherine’s Greek Orthodox Chruch. It was constructed in the 1900s.
Shortstop Deli is a popular sub/deli/convenience store near downtown Ithaca. The Deli was founded in 1978 by Albert Smith [4], although by my guess the buidling dates from the 1950s. Shortstop is also the company that owns The Hot Truck.
The Clinton House was built as an upscale office and hotel building in 1828-1829 [5]. Designed by Ira Tillotson, it is named for NY Governor DeWitt Clinton (DeWitt Park is up the street). The building has been renovated numerous times in its nearly 200-year history, which is clearly evident by the glass wall stairway addition in the rear of the structure and the colonial details that were added in a 1901 renovation of the building, after a fire destroyed the roof and upper floors. The building underwent renovations again in 1985-1987 and more recently in the mid 2000s, returning Clinton House to it’s “1852-1862 era appaearance”. The building is maintained by the NPO Historic Ithaca, but the last I heard they were seeking to sell it to a willing buyer.
Admit it, you’ve thought about going here if you haven’t already.
The Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) on Green Street. The building was originally a Woolworth’s department store until it closed in 1998, and it was renovated into the library space in 2000. Prior to that time, the library was located about five block farther north in a ca. 1968 building. The first library was a gift from Ezra Cornell to the city, but later went into private use, and it was torn down in 1960 [6].
So I had a special request for this photo. The State Street Theater was originally built as the Ithaca Security Garage Auto Company and Dealership, built in 1915. The building was renovated into a theatre by the Berinstein family and opened as a theatre on December 6, 1928. Due to changing times, the theatre struggled to remain open past the mid-century and closed by the 1980s. Slated for demolition in the mid 1990s due to a number of structural and health concerns, a grassroots effort to resotre the theatre took hold, and enough funds and renovated were completed in the late 1990s that it was reopened on December 5, 2001 [7]. Today, the theatre continues a slow but steady renovation, and hosts a number of live acts from music groups to comedians.
Yes, Ithaca has a Holiday Inn too. The building was built in 1972.
As I mentioned previously, the City Hall and Town Hall are two different structures for two different entities. City Hall dates from the 1930s. The original city hall, if you’re lucky enough to find an old photo of it, had the appearance of a country church.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cornell_Daily_Sun
[2]http://theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/CUSTOMERSERVICE02/50411002
[3]http://www.immconch.org/history.html
[4]http://www.shortstopdeli.com/welcome.htm
[5]http://www.ci.ithaca.ny.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B0374E3DD-2B1E-49D3-AA16-ECA42FEF728F%7D&DE=%7B6C41E3A4-5DC1-4EA1-AD3F-32631AF0F4F4%7D
[6]http://www.tcpl.org/about/history.html
[7]http://www.stateofithaca.com/statetheatrehistory.html
Some people suggested that I might consider sharing a little history of a few of the campus buildings for those that are interesting. Well, it’s Friday evening, and I’ve already enjoyed a private 21st birthday celebration for a friend. So, why not?
Rand Hall, built in 1912, was built in the industrial style typical for the time period. The building was donated by Mrs. Henry Lang in honor of her father Jasper Rand [1], and her ubcle and brother of the same surname. The building housed machines shops as part of the Sibley School of Engineering, and eventually was reworked to be the studio for many of the architect student as part of the AAP school.
For those of us who aren’t architects, we rarely see the interior. We do, however, see the designs and phrases bored architects create on the compound windows. The building has been proposed for demolition in recent years to make room for proposed addition to the AAP school (see the Milstein Hall entry), but the current design proposal for Milstein Hall spares the structure for the current time. The building doesn’t tend to make much news, with the slight exception of a time a peacockfrom a Cayuga Heights home broke into their computer lab a couple of years ago [2].
Lincoln Hall, across the path, has seen a much more varied history than its workhorse neighbor. Lincoln Hall was built in 1888 at the then-cost of $72,603, and housed the Civil Engineering until 1960 (it moved to Hollister Hall). The building was renovated for the music department, and they moved in the following year [3].
Lincoln Hall saw an 18,640 sq. ft., $19 million dollar expansion from 1999-2000 (the addition is on the left side of the photo). The firm that designed the addition also designed Kroch Libe in 1992 and the Law School addition in 1988.
Sibley Hall, namesake of Hiram Sibley, has three seperate wings built at three seperate times. The West Wing began construction in August 1870. The building was dedicated to the “mechanical arts”, as so deemed by Hiram Sibley, an original trustee of the university. Sibley donated the money hinging on A.D. White building himself a president’s house on the campus [4]. The east wing was built in 1894, and the center area, including the photogenic dome, was built in 1902. Although the three portions were designed by three different architects, they form a relatively cohesive single structure that serves as the nucleus of the AAP school. The center area houses the Fine Arts Library.
The construction in the photo is some pipe work, and Sibley underwent minor renovations during the summer to make the building handicap-accessible, and to add more bathrooms to the structure.
The John M. Olin Library shares the title of being the main library for the Cornell campus. The building was opened in 1961 [5]. To facilitate its 5.66 million dollar construction, the university demolished Boardman Hall (1892), which was the original home of the law school. Boardman was a former dean of the law school. The three stone faces on the outside and the three stone faces next to the interior staircase are artifacts from the exterior of Boardman Hall that were incorporated into Olin’s facade.
http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/WhoWeAre/MissionAndHistory/History/images/buildings_-_boardman_hall.gif
The Kroch Libary, largely underground except for four skylights next to Stimson Hall, was constructed in the fall of 1992 at a cost of $25 million dollars (namesake Carl Kroch ‘35). For those who are curious, Olin has a utility tunnel to Uris, and Kroch has a utility stairway-tunnel that connects to Stimson, both of which are largely prohibited for non-staff use.
Olin’s entry way and cafe were renovated in 2002. The rest of the building is currently being prepped for a major renovation that will clean the exterior facade and renovate the interior to being it up to safety codes and to make it more conducive for current trends in upper education (think “pollinization spaces” not too unlike those in Duffield and Weill, without the atrium).
Tjaden was built as a “physical laboratory” in conjunction with West Sibley in 1883. Although $50,000 was budgeted, delays and material shortages drove the costs up to a final tally of $100,923, more than twice than was originally budgeted [6]. This is partially because of A.D, White insistance on the use of stone, and the medallions that decorate the building with the profile of prominent men in the mechanical arts. If you look closely enough, you can see that the window arches still have the names of great discoverers and inventors inscribed into the stone. The building was originally named Franklin Hall, in honor of the great innovator Benjamin Franklin.
The Department of Chemistry originally called the building home until it left for Morse Hall in 1890. The physics department left in 1906, and afterwards the building was incorporated into AAP as the Fine Arts building and workshops. The building was rededicated in 1981 to Olive Tjaden van Sickle ‘25, a pioneering woman architect [6]. The building was renovated in 1998, at which time it regianed the hipped roof that I so inconveniently cropped off because I was too lazy to take a few steps back (the original hipped roof was deemed structurally unstable in the 1950s after a lightning strike set it on fire).
[1]http://www.aap.cornell.edu/aap/explore/rand.cfm
[2]http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/peacock.nabbed.dea.html
[3]http://www.arts.cornell.edu/music/LincolnRen-Exp.html
[4]http://www.aap.cornell.edu/aap/explore/sibley.cfm
[5]http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?tab=facts&q=&id=541
[6]http://www.aap.cornell.edu/aap/explore/tjaden.cfm
