Syracuse University - Onondagan Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

Page 28 text:

(13) The Gymnasium. Now in process of construction. The dimensions are enormous, the extreme length being more than 200 feet. It will contain a bowling alley, a ball cage, social and trophy rooms, a swimming pool and a row- ing tank, baths, immense athletic room, 100 by 205 feet, a running track, twelve laps to the mile. A glass dome surmounts it. It will probably be the most com- plete and perhaps the largest college gymnasium in the country. (14) The Stadium. This structure is more elliptical than the Greek and the Roman stadia but it is not quite an amphitheater. It is really an am phithe- atrical stadium. It is well adapted to modern athletic contests, having a good 200 yards straight-a-way, a cinder track and a field. There are eighteen rows of seats and a grand stand. The following statistics are of interest. The out side measurement of the great structure is 670 by 475 feet. It covers six and a third acres of ground. It seats 20,000 persons. With improvised seats it will accommodate 40,000. The grand stand seats 3,000. In ex- cavating for the Stadium there were removed 200,000 cubic yards of earth. The materials used in construction are as follows: One million feet of lumber in making the boxes for concrete, etc.: 23,000 barrels of Portland cement; 220,000 square feet of galvanized wire lath; 280,000 square feet of wire cloth. There are 500 tons of steel in the concrete, and in the roof of the grand stand 150 tons. There is no other building in Syracuse that excites the interest of citizen and stranger alike as does the Stadium. It is alone in its class, the Stadium at Cam- bridge being quite different in its construction. It is somewhat larger than the Colosseum at Rome but not quite so wide in outside measurement, It probably covers a trifle larger area, As the Colosseum rises 150 feet in the air with four tiers of seats, it is not surprising that its area is much smaller than that of the Stadium. 282 by 177 feet measures the arena of the Colosseum. That of the Stadium is 535 by 339 feet. But the Colosseum would seat 50,000 people and was a true amphitheater. The University Stadium is longer and wider than the Greek stadia which were not, however, uniform in size, nor is one end cut square off as in the latter. The Romans often modified these features, especially in round- ing both ends so as to make the stadium resemble the amphitheater, and this 1007 specimen copies the Roman shape. We are not without precedent in re- taining the name while we adapt the form (retained in the main) to the athletics of our own time. These records are very incomplete, very fragmentary. Yet they br ing to view a gallery of faces and forms that are familiar and have a lasting place not only in memory but in university history. What a heritage to any university is the memory and the lasting influence of the presence and work of such an ar- ray of distinguished characters. The number of degrees conferred to date is 5,409 including those of Geneva College (721) and of Genesee College (379), The ratio of growth for the last ten years has been approximately from six to thirteen per cent, annually. The present enrollment is about 3,200, officers 215. 20

Page 27 text:

(4) Winchell hall, a thirty-room dormitory for women. It faces University place and is named for the first Chancellor, Dr. Alexander Winchell. (5) Haven hall, also in University place and named for the second Chan- cellor, is a larger dormitory for women. The rooms in both these buildings may be used singly or in suites. (6) The Lyman Cornelius Smith College of Applied Science. Mr. Smith is well known in Syracuse and his generous gifts to this college have been heralded all over the world. He is the founder of the typewriter industry of this city. (7) A Mechanical Laboratory is Mr. Smith ' s second building and was oc- cupied for the first time this fall. It adds greatly to the facilities of this college. (8) The Heating Plant supplying steam heat, to all the buildings on the grounds, including the dormitories.. TEACHERS COLLEGE (9) Sims hall, named for Chancellor Sims, is a dormitory for men, just oc- cupied, and will conveniently accommodate 200 men. (10) The General Library, the gift of Mr. Carnegie, with stack room for half a million volumes, with an ample reading room, a faculty room and seminar rooms for the different departments. (11) Bowne Hall of Chemistry, the donor being Samuel W. Bowne of New York. There are in it 100,000 square feet of working space. It is already partly occupied. (12) Lyman hall of Natural History, built with a legacy of $200,000, left by the late John Lyman, an imposing building fitly located at the eastern end of the campus front to balance the stately John Grouse Memorial college at the western end. It accommodates the departments of biology, of botany and of geology and mineralogy. 19

Page 29 text:

Perhaps no grander work or more fruitful of good results can engage the thought and energy of men than the founding and developing of a great univer- sity. The thought of one man or a few men may underlie it, but it requires the wise planning, the intelligent organizing, the generous giving, the faithful co- operation, the inspiring teaching of many other men and women to foster the plant and to realize its possibilities. Syracuse University is an admirable il- lustration. Prosperous almost beyond belief, its energies are devoted not to the development of material results, but to the quickening of thought, the investi- gation of truth and the formation of character. A few choice spirits labored at the founding; many loyal and zealous successors have entered into their labors and made them fruitful. THE STADIUM