St Xavier College - Xaverian Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Entrants to Campu: tories not only for the present needs but for the future expansion of the College; and these rooms and laboratories are furnished and equipped with the latest and most approved scientific appliances. Its architectural design and symmetry mark sit as one of the mot distinguished buildings of the City. Another building, which was completed and ready for occupancy in November, 1920, is the Administration Building, Hinkle Hall. This is the muniflcent gift of Mrsv Frederick W. Hinkle, who by this generous donation has ensured the ultimate carrying out of the plans for the Greater St Xavier College in Cincinnati. Hinkle Hall is the central unit of the group of coliege buildings and has a frontage of 150 feet. Besides the necessary administrative offices, it contains accommodations for a faculty of fifty, with dining room, chapel, recreation rooms and a large roof garden from which a magnificent view of the college grounds and surrounding parts is obtained. In architectural beauty this building merits its place as the center of the college group. ' There is a very extensive campus With baseball and football fields and tennis courts situated in the lower grounds. A stadium inclosing a running track and football field, known as Corcoran Field, was added October, 1921. To the north and south, through the generosity of the Bragg estate, from which the College pur- Pagt thnly-anr

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vicinity for whom they were originally designed. In the fall of 1918 Extension courses for the same class of students were established. These courses are con- ducted on Saturday mornings and are for the most part of college grade. On October 1, 1918, a unit of the Students' Army Training Corps was established with 232 students inducted into the service. The academic instruction in the College was adapted to the needs Of the S. A. Ti C. until the disbanding of the unit on December 22d. In the year 1919I at the suggestion and on the advice of prominent Alumni, mostly of the legal profession, it was determined to add a Department of Law to begin with the fall semester of 1919. While a situation such as the College has Occupied in the very heart of the city has many advantges in the matter of accessibility, it has had also the disadvantage of preventing the ready expansion of accommodations for buildings and campus. The Faculty was aware of this drawback in the location and as early as 1847 an attempt Was made to find more room by locating the Preparatory Department in the so-called Purcell Mansion on Walnut Hills. Here the work of these classes .was conducted for two years under the direction of the Reverend George A. Carrell, later president of St. Xavier and eventually first Bishop of Covington. But this undertaking was premature, and for the means of csmmunication in those days the situation was too remote. The Preparatory Department was therefore brought back to the city again after two years. Nothing further was done in the matter until the year 1906 when the Reverend Albert A. Dierckes. S.J., the president at the time, purchased property at the intersection of Gilbert and Lincoln avenues on Walnut Hillst This property with the building standing on it was used for purposes of a Branch High School until the beginning of 1912. It was realized, however, that a better site would have to be chosen to give room for the expansion which St. Xavier had the right to look forward to and the Branch High School was moved to the building and grounds of the old Avondaie Athietic Club which had been pur- chased the previous summer. This property, on which the New St. Xavier College is located, is situated on Victory Boulevard, between Winding Way, Dana and Herald avenues in Avondaie. It is within easy reach of several trunk car lines, and, with the opening of the new rapid transit system, will become more readiiy accessible to all points of the city and surrounding territory. There is ample space for the various college buildings on the higher parts of the grounds. The first of these buildings, the Alumni Science Hall, was completed and ready for the college students at the opening of the fall session of 1920. This building is a gift of the Alumni of St. Xavier to express in a fitting manner their appreciation of St. Xavier College and to establish a lasting memorial of the Diamond Jubilee of the institution. It is from every point of view a splendid unit of the College. It provides ample lecture rooms and labora- P age Twe nty

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chased the property, the city has acquired great stretches of land for park purposes. The Park Board is proceeding with its happily conceived idea of constructing wide boulevards to connect the different city parks. For many miles there stretches a double boulevard, one branch skirting the base of the hill immediately east of the Campus, and the other running along the western edge of the College property. The New St. Xavier College is thus situated in a picturesque spot, surrounded by parkways, yet in a location which was chosen chiefly because at the time it was in the very center of Cincinnati and its suburbs. The opening of the Fall Session of St. Xavier College in 1919, marked an epoch in the history of the institution. A complete separation of the College students from the High School students was established. The High School cEasses were. concentrated at the old St, Xavier on Seventh and Sycamore streets. There, too, the evening courses continued to hold their sessions, and there the new St. Xavier Law Schooilbegan its career in October, 1919. The College classes were transferred to the Avondale Branch High School, and in September, 1920, they were perma- nently located in their new building. A definite and comprehensive plan has been adopted for the further development Of the College. One wing of the new dormitory, Elet Hall, is all but completed and will be ready for student occupation at the opening of the school year 1924-1925. Other dormitories are to come later. Then the College Chapel, with seating room for 1,000. With this must come the Arts Buildings, to be devoted to recitation purposes, and receive the Arts classes now temporarily housed in the Alumni Science Hall. The College Library Building is to be erected in the open space between Hinkle Hall and Alumni Science Hall. The Chapel is to be on the north side Of Hinkle Hall, and beyond that, on the northeast corner of the property, a large Normal Schooli The site of the Arts Building is just south of Alumni Science Hall and beyond the private road. A large gymnasium is to be erected on the west side of the Campus in the depressionvof the hill, and with entrances both from the Campus and from Winding Way. The northwest corner of the property, on Nlarion avenue and Winding Way, is waiting for the new St. Xavier High School, which is to have accommodations for a thOusand pupils. A central heating plant, situated on the lOWer ground of the property and at the northern end, will complet the plan as outlined. ' a ' - It may seem a wild dream, this list of buildings that are to round out the plans for the New St, Xavier College, for the cost of construction alone is a formidable sum, and with every'new building comes an additional charge of maintenance. The grounds, too, have 'tti be arranged and beautified in orderito become the splen- did setting for the' group Of'buildings, and the maintenance of the grounds will entail further con'siderable expense. -Yet it is almost inevitable that this dream Page- ngnly-l-wo