{"id":2452,"date":"2014-03-08T23:39:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T03:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=2452"},"modified":"2021-05-10T14:11:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:11:36","slug":"the-campus-that-never-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-campus-that-never-was\/","title":{"rendered":"The Campus That Never Was"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Headmaster<\/a>
Headmaster Joseph Henry Sawyer around 1910. (Click all images to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At schools and colleges like Williston Northampton, one eye is necessarily on the future.\u00a0 Difficult as it is to predict the educational needs of the nation and the world a decade or a half-century hence, it is essential to try.\u00a0 As Williston itself very nearly learned in the 19th century, complacency is what closes private schools.\u00a0 It took a Headmaster of exceptional vision and perseverance, Joseph Henry Sawyer (who joined the faculty in 1866 and served as Head from 1896-1919) to break us of the habit of constantly looking backwards.<\/p>\n

Details of Sawyer\u2019s campaign for \u201cThe New Williston\u201d are for another post.\u00a0 But briefly, it called for the development of the Williston Homestead property \u2013 our present campus \u2013 as the eventual replacement for the cramped and increasingly obsolete Old Campus in downtown Easthampton.\u00a0 There was a complete re-thinking of the role of the school and faculty in its students\u2019 lives, from a kind of laissez-faire paternalism to active collaboration in academic, athletic, and social activity.\u00a0 To pay for all this, Sawyer sought new funding sources, notably through the then-controversial idea that a Williston education was only the beginning of an alumnus\u2019s lifelong relationship with, and responsibility to, the school.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Architect<\/a>
Architect James H. MacNaughton, class of 1909.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The transformation of the campus began with the creation of Sawyer Athletic Field in 1897-98 and the opening of Ford Hall in 1916.\u00a0 But the First World War, which brought with it an enrollment crisis that nearly closed an institution still far too dependent upon tuition income, put further building plans on the shelf.\u00a0 Sawyer, aged 77 and worn out by the strain of service, retired and died a few weeks later.\u00a0 It was left to his successor, Archibald Victor Galbraith (served 1919-1949), to revive the plans and bring them to the next level.<\/p>\n

In 1927 Galbraith called on Boston architect James Hiram MacNaughton, class of 1909.\u00a0 As a student, MacNaughton had known Sawyer at his most enthusiastic and visionary.\u00a0 Galbraith\u2019s first project was to build an innovative Recreation Center, a combination athletic, fine arts, and social building, that would supersede the school\u2019s crumbling Old Gym, built in 1865.\u00a0 The building, which today dominates the south side of the Quad, was opened in May, 1930, just in time for the senior prom.\u00a0 (Few realize that its 1996 transformation to the Reed Campus Center restored its original function as a home for the arts and student activities.)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The full rendering of a revised version of the master plan, by Cram and Parette Architects, 1937.\u00a0 The Homestead is at left. Above (east of) it is Memorial Hall; beyond that,\u00a0a dormitory complex. The dining hall is at the end of the avenue, with Ford Hall and the Recreation Center to the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But along with the Recreation Center, Galbraith and the Board of Trustees asked for something broader: a master plan that envisioned how the campus might look in the future.\u00a0 Two additional buildings were intended for the near term: a dining hall and a classroom facility, to be called Memorial Hall.\u00a0 MacNaughton responded with an ambitious rendering of a series of interconnected buildings that would embrace the north and east sides of the Quadrangle, starting with Memorial Hall, just behind the Homestead, and ending with Ford Hall.\u00a0 The style would be \u201cGeorgian-Colonial, in keeping with Ford Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction of the Recreation Center began immediately, while the details of the next stages of the plan were presented as part of a 1928 fund-raising campaign.\u00a0 The hope was to move forward with additional buildings in time for the school\u2019s centennial in 1941.\u00a0 No one could have anticipated that the collapse of the investment market in October of 1929 would plunge the country into a decade-long economic depression.\u00a0 Luckily, funds to complete the Recreation Center were already in hand, but work on other capital projects was suspended.\u00a0 World War Two would delay plans for the new campus even further.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A map of the Master Plan. In this rendering, Memorial Hall (the “School Building”) is not connected to the dormitory complex, which forms three sides of a mini-quadrangle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end of the War brought with it different academic and social, as well as fiscal priorities.\u00a0 The urgent need to consolidate the school onto the new campus as soon as possible was at the top of the agenda, but above and beyond its expense, the MacNaughton plan, now two decades old, seemed to invoke a vision of another time.\u00a0 And Headmaster Galbraith was retiring.\u00a0 It was left to his successor, Phillips Stevens (served 1949-1972), to bring about the change.\u00a0 The move was completed in 1951, having entailed the renovation of three factory buildings on Payson Avenue (two remain: Plimpton Hall and the Schoolhouse), and the construction of Memorial Dormitory on what was to have been the site of McNaughton\u2019s Memorial Hall.<\/p>\n

The Stevens era brought much expansion to the campus: the Science Building, Stevens Chapel, John Wright Dormitory, the Lossone Rink, plus construction of a dining hall wing on Ford Hall and the acquisition of several residential properties that would become small dorms.\u00a0 The large rendering of MacNaughton\u2019s campus hangs in the Assistant Dean\u2019s office where, for a variety of reasons, students are occasionally moved to contemplate that which might have been.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The interior of MacNaughton’s Dining Hall, never constructed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A detail of Memorial Hall, which was to have been an academic and administrative building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Memorial<\/a>
Memorial Hall, as finally constructed as a dormitory in 1951. Subsequent renovations brought a peaked roof, an expanded faculty residence wing on the east end, and a central entrance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"MacNaughton's<\/a>
MacNaughton’s design for a bridge over the campus pond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The real bridge, from 1898 until construction of the present-day Parent’s Bridge in 1957. Over the decades there were actually several of these trestles, since they tended not to last very long.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0We encourage your questions and comments!\u00a0 Please use the form below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At schools and colleges like Williston Northampton, one eye is necessarily on the future.\u00a0 Difficult as it is to predict the educational needs of the nation and the world a decade or a half-century hence, it is essential to try.\u00a0 As Williston itself very nearly learned in the 19th century, complacency is what closes private … Continue reading The Campus That Never Was<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,53,12],"tags":[175,318,316,314,311,312,310,317,315,84,313],"class_list":["post-2452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-alumnae","category-campus-and-building-history","category-williston-academy","tag-archibald-victor-galbraith","tag-bridge","tag-dining-hall","tag-gymnasium","tag-james-hiram-macnaughton","tag-joseph-henry-sawyer","tag-master-plans","tag-memorial-dormitory","tag-memorial-hall","tag-phillips-stevens","tag-recreation-center"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5226,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452\/revisions\/5226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}