Butler University - Carillon / Drift Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

Page 28 text:

The first draft of the first conception of a greater Butler by one of th ' local Architects. The Campus — Past, Present, and Future The history and prophecy of Butler ' s Campus reads like a legend that may be set forth in a series of pictures. The first picture, dated 1855, shows an old-fashioned brick building set near the corner of what is now Fourteenth Street and College Avenue, — the campus of Northwestern Christian University. The streets were then sparsely-settled, quiet avenues; carriages instead of automobiles were the vehicles drawn up at the side of the road. Young men and women strolled about the campus, dressed in the quaint garb of ante- bellum days; but at heart very like the students of today. On this quiet little campus, with its one building, its meager equipment, its handful of students and faculty, the spirit of Butler College, which shall forever shape its destiny, had its beginning. By 1873 the College had outgrown its quarters. Expansion was im- perative. Conditions demanded a move to a community where there would be room to grow. But students, alumni and faculty had become greatly attached to the old campus. It was hard to break the ties whicli bound their college life to that of the community. After careful delib- eration, the town of Irvington, then a scattered village with few inhabit- ants, was chosen. Now comes a glimpse of the second picture. The chosen site was part of the farm of Charles B. Ross, father of Dr. David Ross, of In- dianapolis. Dr. Ross remembers the place as a wood-pasture, with un- broken country for some distance around, where he and his brothers drove the cows every morning.