Kenyon College - Reveille Yearbook (Gambier, OH)

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'Fhe drawing above shows the four temporary buildings, which Chase built to house the Col- lege when it moved to Gam bier in 1828 from its first location, Worthington, now a suburb of Columbus. These buildings stood on what is now the lawn north of the Church of the Holy Spirit. They were all removed from this spot at an early date; but. like so many buildings in Gambier's history, they circulated from one place to another, serving various pur|w ses. At least one of them may have survived until as recently as 1967. 1828 1829 1826 rrnroi collxox. 0» At top right appears the original design for Old Kenyon, which called for longer wings, giving the building an II shape. The stubby spire of this design was replaced by a taller one in the actual building at the suggestion of the noted early American architect Charles Hulfinch; this fact gave rise to a persistent legend that Hulfinch designed the entire building. At middle right is a sketch made by Chase himself which shows the building as it ap- peared when it was occupied in 1829 — only the middle section was finished. The painting at lower right shows the finished building; the Hast Wing was completed in 1834, the West Wing in 1836. The long wings of the original design were shortened to their present size because of a shortage of stone — and money. 4 c. 1838

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Lord Kenyon Philander Chase, first Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, founded Kenyon in 1824 as a theological seminary to train clergy for the Church in what was then the West.” In the face of opposition to his project from Eastern bishops, he went to England to raise funds and came back with around thirty thousand dollars. Two of the most liberal donors were Lord Kenyon and I ord Gambier; others were Lord Bexley, Hannah Moore, and Lady Rosse, whose contribution was earmarked for the construction of the College chapel, now Rosse Hall. Only the title of Lord Kenyon has continued to the present day, and its holders have been notably long-lived; the present Lord Kenyon is only the great-grandson of the one for whom the College was named. The seminary, envisioned by Chase as a retreat of virtue in seclusion from the Vices’ of the World, turned into a men’s liberal arts college when it became apparent that most prospective students were too poorly prepared to begin theological studies immediately. The Bexley Hall seminary was established as a separate department in 1839. Chase himself left Gambier in 1831 when his rather dicta- torial nature brought him into conflict with the trustees and faculty of the College. Before his death in 1852 he founded another college in Illinois. Jubilee, which has been defunct since about 1900. REVEILLE first dealt seriously with the history of Kenyon College in A Dusty Path, which appeared in the 1964 REVEILLE, The changes which have taken place since then have been at least as drastic as any in the previous 140 years. This section of REVEILLE 73 concerns itself, in part, with filling this gap. We offer it in the hope that your apprecia- tion ot what Kenyon is now will be enriched by some understanding of what it has been during the past 149 years. Jim Carson 74 Gail Meyer 75 Lord Gambier Philander Chase

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At 4:00 A.M. the morning of February 27, 1949. all was as usual in Old Kenyon. Ten minutes later the entire second and third floor hallways of Middle Kenyon were engulfed in flames. The fire started when sparks from a fireplace in the basement fell back down an unused flue in one of the four huge chimneys and escaped, through a defect in the mor- tar. into the space between the first floor ceiling and second floor. It probably smoldered there for several hours, and built up such tremendous pressure that it burst out with explosive force, completely de- stroying the building and taking the lives of nine students, of whom six never got out of their rooms. At first there was some hope of saving the wings, which were separated from the middle section by solid masonry walls, the only connecting doors being in the basement; but the fire spread rapidly through the roof into the wings. The bodies of the six missing men were not all recovered until March 8. There was never any serious question that Old Kenyon would lx rebuilt, and the project was com- pleted in May of 1950; but for the historical purist the present building is a replica rather than a recon- struction of the original one. It is a modern rein- forced concrete and steel structure with an outer shell about eight inches thick, composed of stones from the walls of the original Old Kenyon, num- bered and replaced in the same positions as before. The original walls, however, were four-and-one-half feet thick at the basement level, tapering to about two feet at the top. The reduced thickness of the exterior walls, while it undoubtedly meant a gain of floor space, also entailed sacrificing the deep window seats which had endeared the old building to gener- ations of students. February 27. 1949 d February 27. 1949 February 20, 1950 5