Loras College - Purgold Yearbook (Dubuque, IA)

Page 16 text:

Archbishop Rohlman breaking the sod with a golden spade . . . the Loras faculty assembled as the ground is blessed . . . the student body accompanying the Loras Vested Choir in hymns of hope and joy . . . work is begun . . . trees are felled . . . gaping holes appear before the hungry mouths of machinery . . . students watch from Keane Hall win- doys as the chapel appears in outline in the excavation . . . speculation and theories from amateur contractors in the engineering classes . . . the cement is poured . . . summer arrives with warm sunshine and the pros¬ pect of great progress . . . vital shortages force a sharp curtailment in activity . . . weeks of unavoidable delay . . . the first steel finally arrives and is bolted in place . . . through a maze of scaftling appears the second floor . . . bricks, stone, and cement begin to arrive in quantity, and plans are pushed ahead . . . the eight massive I” beams which will serve as the skeleton of the building are swung into place with the aid of pulleys and a 75 foot pole . . . students back for the new year watch tremulously as the soaring beams sway in the wind . . . breathe a sigh of marvelling relief as the connecting steel is raised into place and firmly riveted . . . culminating touch is the steeple which rises above it all . . . meanwhile, the brickwork appears on the limestone foundation . . . ce¬ ment work on the main floor is rushed to completion as winter nears and the first blizzard mantles the rough exterior in soft lines . . . un¬ perturbed by weather the construction continues behind billowing can¬ vases . . . frost is kept out of newly laid brick by charcoal fires and their glow welcomes sports enthusiasts who pass at night on their way to the Loras gymnasium . . . extreme cold disrupts work for a week, but construction is quickly resumed . . . completed first is the ambula¬ tory . . . then the sides and the transept of the chapel . . . snow is still flying when work is begun on the roof ... as the apse on the east end is finished warm weather returns once more . . . stone trim gives the building part of the beauty that wil be its when completed . . . Cardinal Preysing honors Loras as he extends his tour of the United States to Dubuque to dedicate the chapel of Christ the King . . . visiting notaries are lavish in praise . . . the stones which will edge the doors and the stained glass window are lifted ponderously into place ... a slipped pulley sends one stone crashing into the cement below, but a rush order quickly replaces it and the arch is completed in early April . . . the front of the building is then trimmed, and the exterior is almost complete . . . interior construction has divided the first two floors into iayrinth of doorways, passages, rooms, staircases and more rooms . . . students ex¬ plore with mingled feelings . . . the main floor is breathtaking . . . the first promises of the finished structure, aided by architectural sketches, evoke scores of compliments . . . as the school year draws to a close it is difficult to realize that scarcely a year ago there was only bare ground . . . student hopes rise that the chapel will be completed by the end of September . . . there are dreams of the first Solemn High Mass ponti¬ ficated by His Excellency, the Archbishop . . . and of daily Mass through¬ out the year.

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Drydock , where sail is freshened, provi¬ sions stored and old acquaintances are re¬ newed. St. Francis Hall Formidable barriers — si¬ lent warnings to all who would enter here.

Page 17 text:

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