University of Arkansas – Fayetteville AR

Description

“While PWA funding was typically focused on local school districts in the public school system, seven buildings were constructed on the University of Arkansas campus using this funding. Buildings constructed with PWA funds during this period include Vol-Walker Hall (1935), the Chemistry Building (1936), Gibson Hall (1937), the Men’s Gymnasium (1937), Ozark Hall (1940), the Home Economics Building (1940), and Memorial Hall (1940). While the design oversight for these buildings was provided by Jamieson & Spearl based on the guidance of their 1925 plan, the construction documents and project administration for many of these buildings was completed by local Arkansas firms.

Following many years of planning for a new library, $1,165,000 in funding was secured from the federal Public Works Administration for the construction of a library and a science building (Chemistry Building). Although floor plans for the new library were developed by Haralson & Nelson architects of Fort Smith in consultation with Jamieson & Spearl, members of the University Board disagreed with the architects about the design of the exterior of the building. Subsequently, President Futrall employed Gordon & Kaehler architects, who designed the Classical Revival exterior for the building, with its Ionic entablature and columns, monumental arched windows and rusticated stone plinth. [18]Inspired by the Bibliotheque St. Genevieve in Paris, the new library was the most monumental of the new buildings and became the center of campus upon its completion. [19]

The library was named in memorial for James Volney “Vol” Walker, an 1877 graduate of the University, lawyer, and member of the Arkansas Legislature. A 1935 landscape plan from the University’s Facilities Management archives shows evergreen and flowering shrub plantings around the base of the building with Norway Spruce planted along Campus Drive. Nine of the original Norway Spruce remain from this plan. The conversion of Campus Drive to a pedestrian walk significantly changed the entrance to the library.

The entrance walk to the library was actively used during the 1960’s and early 1970s as a gathering area. Demonstrations such as the 1963 student protest to promote equal housing rights for all university students, the 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. memorial march, and several Vietnam War protests in 1970 took place in front of Vol Walker. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the building has housed the School of Architecture since the library moved to Mullins Library in 1968.

Also constructed in 1935 with PWA funds, the Chemistry Building is located immediately south of Vol Walker Hall facing north. Designed in the Collegiate Gothic style by the Little Rock architectural firm of Wittenberg & Delony, the Chemistry Building is sited in line with the Agriculture Building. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the Chemistry Building is today connected to the Chemistry and Biochemistry Research Building by a second floor skywalk.[20]

The former Field House or Men’s Gymnasium was constructed in 1937 using a portion of a $307,000 PWA loan initially earmarked for a field house, men’s dormitory, and additional steel stands for the football field. Designed by Haralson & Nelson of Fort Smith, this building has Collegiate Gothic detailing and was sited according to the 1925 Jamieson & Spearl plan. The building was faced with light brick and trimmed in limestone. At a cost of $160,000, the Field House could accommodate 3,500 spectators in folding bleachers, and 4,000 in folding chairs when used as an auditorium. The Field House has served many functions over the years, including home for men’s basketball until Barnhill Arena was constructed in 1954; physical education until the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Building was constructed in 1982; and most recently as the University Museum from 1986 to 2003. Following its official name change to the University Museum, the former Field House/Men’s Gymnasium was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [21]

Campus Development in the 1940s

Soon after enrollment at the university exceeded 2,400 in 1938 and following the death of President Futrall in a car accident in 1939, J. William Fulbright, a former UA student and Rhodes Scholar, and later U.S. Senator, served as president of the University for four years until 1941. [22] Senator Fulbright was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and established the Fulbright International Exchange and Scholarship Program in 1946.

After completion of the PWA-funded University Library and Chemistry Building, the University received an additional $413,000 loan and $337,909 grant from the PWA for the construction of three additional buildings on campus. The PWA funds were used to construct the Home Economics Building (now the Human Environmental Sciences Building), Student Union (now known as Memorial Hall), and the Classroom Building (now Ozark Hall). Architects for all three of these buildings were Haralson & Mott of Fort Smith with Mann & Wanger of Little Rock. [23]

The three-story Home Economics Building, constructed in 1940, is a masonry building of Indiana white limestone trim and Batesville limestone ashlar. Designed in the Collegiate Gothic style, this building is aligned with the Agriculture Building to its east. During the early 1990s the building received upgrades to its mechanical systems and the original windows were replaced. In 1995, the name of the department was changed from Home Economics to the School of Human Environmental Sciences, three years after the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. [24]

Memorial Hall, also constructed in 1940, was built as the Student Union. This three-story stone building was the first student union at the university. Funds raised from a student union fee of $2 per student and an annual operating fee were used to match the PWA grant and loans for this building. The building features the Collegiate Gothic style on its front façade while the remainder of the buildings is a modified Gothic and Classical Revival style. The interior of the building, particularly at the entrance and in the lobby reflects the influence of the Art Deco style of this period. Used today as administrative offices and classrooms for the Psychology and Landscape Architecture programs, Memorial Hall was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [25] The front lawn of the building features a mature Bald Cypress and Southern Magnolia. Both trees are documented as sizable specimens in 1950s photos of the Union. In 1969, the large Cypress tree was inhabited by a Vietnam War protestor for several weeks. Both trees likely date to the construction of the Union.

Ozark Hall was originally constructed in 1940 as the Classroom Building, in the Collegiate Gothic style. This three-story stone building is I-shaped, with the trunk of the “I” oriented east to west. The construction of this building necessitated two significant changes to the campus landscape. First, a parking area and driveway, known as the “horseshoe” parking lot, to the south of Old Main was displaced, and the main street leading into the central campus was moved to be more in line with Campus Drive located to the west of Old Main, as called for in the 1925 Plan.”

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