Texas Tech University - La Ventana Yearbook (Lubbock, TX)

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With funding being a major pro- ject for the renovation effort, Ross Crabtree, Brad Hingst, Jay Biediger and Derek Holmes pre- sent a donation for the Dairy Barn project. (Photo by Corby Roberts) Shelter was not available for dairy I cattle in the 1920s, concerning t students and faculty. (Photo from ' Southwest Collection) 14 — Save Our Barn Designed by Daniel B. King

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E lM eace gatherers 0 1 Tamra Mabe, J Shane Westfall, David Keller and Ashley Wells gather in support of peace. The 1991 display was a peace rally for the war against Iraq. The showing was not the first demonstration at Tech. In the mid ' 60s a small protest was held against the building of the Wiggins complex because students were forced to help pay for it. Another protest involved the name change of the school to Texas State University. The alumni who favored the Texas Tech name prevailed. (Photo by Sharon Steinman) Student Life — 13

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B « vr jKr % ■H r BiiP I V ' ■a ' I nB ' vr ' H BbjbHIH k[ ,A b BTifl Touring the Dairy Barn. Sid Mil- ler, Jeff Burney. Jeff Larremore, Karen Snyder and Brad Hingst give their time to the restoration. Photo bv Corby Roberts) Save Our Barn The Dairy Barn and its adjacent silo on the Texas Tech University campus have survived a fire, a lightening strike, a severe wind storm, a condemned designa- tion and general neglect. Believing their heritage is worth sav- ing, some students are initiating a fund- raising campaign to preserve the historic buildings, keeping the structures from further deterioration caused by weather and time. The Student Association ' s Texas Tech Heritage Committee and other students are initiating a $60,000 fund-raising cam- paign to preserve the exterior of the structures, according to Grady Whitaker Jr., of Belton, a recent graduate of the College of Architecture. Whitaker, an ex student senator, in the fall semester co-chaired the committee with student senator Jay Biediger, a se- nior wildlife management major and Sad- dle Tramp from Uvalde. The fund-raising project is unique because it ' s a student-initiated project, Whitaker said. Twenty-five thousand Texas Tech students are pulling together to save their heritage. The university ' s Space Planning Com- mittee on Sept. 20 approved a plan for preserving the exterior of the Dairy Barn. For now, the structure will be weatherized and will be used as a dry storage area. Weatherization will entail replacing the roof, repairing all windows and doors and repairing any faults in the walls. Addi- tionally both structures will be repainted. The preservation work will require $50,000 to $60,000, of which one-half con- sists of labor costs, Whitaker said. The rebuilding of the roof on the barn and silo will involve replacing the decking and some structural members or rafters. Because the pitch of the roof is so steep, work crews from off-campus will have to construct scaffolding to complete the task, he said. The Student Association committee plans to target its fund-raising efforts at currently enrolled students, alumni and related businesses, Whitaker said. The committee also will seek donations of materials and labor from local construc- tion and building supply operations. The barn and silo will become official historic sites for Texas Tech, Whitaker said, although the university has applied to the Texas Historic Commission to give the structures state historic site designa- tions. During the spring semester 1990, stu- dents from architecture professor John White ' s restoration and conservation class documented the Dairy Barn and its adjacent 60-foot tall silo, structures that reveal the university ' s agricultural heri- tage. The Dairy Barn was a state-of-the-art facility when it was built. The building remains a symbol of the pioneering spirit of the area, Whitaker said. One of the original buildings on the campus in 1925, the Dairy Barn and silo were designed by William Ward Watkin of Houston, in conjunction with Wyatt Hedrick, of the architectural firm San- guinet, Staats and Hedrick of Fort Worth. At that time, Hedrick oversaw all con- struction projects for the new Texas Technological College. Used as an incentive by the college to attract agricultural students, the Dairy Barn originally had the capacity for the care, feeding and milking of 40 cows. Initially, in the summer of 1926, six stu- dents organized a student dairy and fur- nished milk to Texas Tech and private customers. Then delivery was made by horse-drawn wagons, but by 1930 a pick- up was used to deliver both milk and ice cream to the cafeteria and to home eco- nomics food lab s. During the time the dairy producing plant was open, from 1926 to 1939, numerous students helped to pay their college expenses by bringing their cows to college and working at the dairy facility. If the Dairy Barn is to be restored, the student body will have to be responsible for the preservation of Texas Tech ' s his- tory, and, in fact, become part of that history. We owe it to ourselves, to those who came before us and to those still to come to preserve our history so that everyone will know of Texas Tech, where it came from and where it is going in the future, Whitaker said. — By Kippra D. Hopper Save Our Barn — 15