Kenyon College - Reveille Yearbook (Gambier, OH)

Page 7 text:

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

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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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The earliest known view of Gambier appears at top right. Note at the center the well, the site of which is now marked by a brass tabiet in the middle oFW'iggin Street; and, above all, the absence of Middle Path. Bishop Chase had planned for the main campus to be laid out in a se- ries of squares bounded by buildings; Old Kenyon would have formed the south side of the southernmost square, Kosse Chapel probably the west side of the next one up. This phin was scrapped under Kenyon's third president, David Bates Douglass, who laid out Middle Path from Old Kenyon to Wiggin Street in 1841; the path was ex- tended to Bexley Hall around I860. The photograph at middle right was taken from the roof of Bexley just after the work was completed. In the days when access to Mount Vernon was not so easy as now. Gambier supported a flourishing business district. The two establishments represented at right on the facing page, Jacobs’ Shoe Store and Casteel’s Barber Shop, were located on the site of Farr Hall. The subject of the top photograph is identified as Harold Parker, who later worked for the College as a laboratory assistant. French’s Drug Store was the first occupant of the build- ing immediately south of the post office, now the Drama Annex, and probably the most versatile building in Gam- bier's history. Built originally around 1855, it burned and was rebuilt in 1888. It served as the College Commons from lfMl to 1929, with the kitchen downstairs and the dining room up; then, when Peirce Hall was completed, it be- came the post office. When the present post office was occupied in 1940 it was devoted to library storage, and shortly thereafter was remodeled to house the College bookstore. In 1966 the bookshop occupied its new quar- ters in Farr Hall, and the old French building became the headquarters of the Art Department, which moved to Bexley Hall in 19 2. When the Fine Arts Center is com- pleted in 19?? . . . Corner of Gaskin and Brooklyn, 1896 I. c. 1840 c. 1860 6 Canoeing on the KoKosing, c. 1885