University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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The football team in 1890, a tquad of thirteen with a mated. The player fumUhed their own uniform and chipped in to . University Archive buy the football. Holland resigned in 1901 and was replaced by outgoing, popular John A. Brashear whose term lasted three years. Under the administration of Brashear's successor, Samuel Black McCormick, the University received its present name and location. The trustees felt a new name was necessary because, mong other reasons, W.U.P., pronounced whup, was not dignified. The present location was chosen in February 1905, in the biggest real estate transaction in Pittsburgh history. The executors of the Mary Schenley estate sold 103 acres of Schenly Farms to Nicola syndicate for about $3 million. The land encompassed an area bounded by Forbes Avenue on the south, Center Avenue on the north, Bellefield Avenue on the cast, and Bouquet Street on the west. On October 2, 1908, the cornerstone was laid for Henry Hornbostel's large, awkward, and inutile Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall. This ceremony took place near the close of the city's ses-quiccntcnnial, when distinguished guests from all over the world were gathered for a happy, successful, and beautifully managed celebration. Immediately after the Memorial Hall ceremony, the crowd walked fifty feet to see the cornerstone laid for the first University building, that for the School of Mines. Bieenlennial 15

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1787 1987 In the 1830s the trustees were pushing for reorganization and a new look. In 1835 they filled vacancies on the Board of Trustees with young replacements, and they appointed the Reverend Dr. Gilbert Morgan, given the new title of president, to replace Robert Bruce. In his inaugural address Morgan declared that a new motivation, which he called General Education, should be brought into the classroom “to perfect the entire character of the individual and of society itself.” However, Morgan’s term was short and unsuccessful; he could not manage an effective compromise in the eternal conflict between theoretical and practical education. With his departure, Bruce was reinstated to his former position. Bruce's second tenure was also shortlived, as he left due to international dissension. In the midst of this instability and change, catastrophe struck the city and the University on April 10, 1845. At around noon an untended backyard fire at Ferry and Second streets spread to an ice house and then to several frame houses. By nightfall twenty squares in the most valuable part of the city were in ruins. The University's hall at Third Street and Chery was destroyed, and with it all the Academy and University records, files, books, furniture, and scientific equipment. Some trustees wanted to cease operations. Others wanted to sell the valuable lot, and relocate on cheaper ground outside Pittsburgh. Luckily this plan was rejected. With the money received from insurance and the scale of the old property, a new building was erected on Duquesnc Way (on the site later occupied by Horne’s department store). In July 1849, only four years after the Great Fire, disaster struck again. In a fire in the lower part of town, the Duquesne Way building was destroyed with all its contents. This time the disheartened trustees voted to suspend operations. The Western University remained alive but dormant through many of the next six years. On September 2, 1854, the cornerstone for a new building was laid and contained a copy of each of the city's eleven newspapers and a list of those working on the building. To their names they appended an exhortation: God save the Union and abolish all slavery!” The decade to come would be dominated by the United States Civil War. After the fall of Fort Sumpter in April 1861 and President Lincoln's call for an army of volunteers, the College and the city changed in appearance and in spirit. The students were given the largest room in the building as a gymnasium, and an army officer was stationed there to instruct them in drill and military tactics. Pittsburgh was swarming with workmen throughout the war, for it was supplying the North with heavy cannon, small arms, armor plate, steamboats, steel pipe, steel and iron fabrication parts, and coal. The Fort Pitt Foundry alone furnished almost three thousand cannon, including the largest in the world, the fifteen-inch Columbiad, and 10 million pounds of shot and shell. When the Confederate command surrendered on April 9, 1865, Pittsburgh was admirably equipped to supply the industrial products needed to build cities and expand across a continent. Its forty-six iron foundries were producing two-thirds of the country’s iron; its blast furnaces and thirty-one rolling mills were turning out half its steel. A new industry had been born in 1859 in Titusville, 100 miles north of the city. Now, with fifty-eight oil refineries operating, it was searching for more efficient and new uses for its product. Accumulation of the first Pittsburgh fortunes began. During this time the Western University was busy reforming and upgrading its curriculum. In August 1867, Samuel Pierpont Langly was chosen director of Allegheny Observatory and professor of astromy and physics, in 1870, the engineering course was extended to four years, and an attempt was made to revive the Law School. The University received $25,000 in 1875 from the estate of Charles Avery, a progressive clergyman, to provide free tuition for black students. Once again, in 1882, a fire caused the Western University to move to a new location — across the river to Allegheny City. The University remained at this site for eight years before moving to Observatory Hill. In late 1890, the trustees elected as chancellor Dr. William Jacob Holland, a remarkable man with an extraordinary background, who was on the verge of becoming a nationally known writer, scientist, and personality. He was well equipped to gain the confidence of persons of influence and means, and he was not likely to accept easily their refusal to give when he asked them to give. In the administration of William Holland, the College was to become a university. Holland’s term as Chancellor was characterized by tremendous academic reform. First, he began a program of graduate studies that would result in postgraduate degrees. Second, he accepted two sisters, the Misses Margaret Lydia and Stella Mathilda Stein, into the College and, in what was called a momentous decision of supreme importance to the higher education of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, announced that the University would hereafter be coeducational. Third, he brought into the fold three already established commercial professional schools that had expressed a desire to become affiliated with the Western University. These were the Western Pennsylvania Medical College, which became part of the University in 1896. And in 1895 he contrived, finally, to establish a full-fledged school of law. These advances were aided by the increased financial support from such wealthy Pittsburghers as Andrew W. Mellon, George Westinghousc and Andrew Carnegie. 14 Bicentennial

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1787 1987 The McCormick administration is best remembered today for changing the name of the University, moving the University to the new campus, and erecting six major buildings. It should be remembered as well for other less dramatic developments. That administration was one in which the deans of the schools and the heads of the departments wielded extraordinary power. They had, in fact, more authority to act and to command than faculty administrators were to have at the University of Pittsburgh for almost a half century. McCormick apparently felt no fear of being overshadowed by his faculty. The McCormick administration also was one that set out to save the College of Liberal Arts from extinction and in so doing produced an accommodation in the century-old conflict between proponents of technical training and those of liberal education. If McCormick was known for progressive academics, his successor, John G. Bowman, will always be remembered for progressive architecture. His contribution to the University stands as a symbol of Pitt’s excellence. Under Bowman, the people of Pittsburgh came together to erect the Cathedral of Learning. In a 1924 letter to architect Charles Z. Klauder, Bowman spoke of his dream of building the Cathedral. He wrote, My life is tied up in the idea that the proposed structure will be the most beautiful and outstanding building ever erected. I am confident that Pittsburgh will build it.” After a massive public fundraising campaign, work began on the tall building at 11:15 on September 27, 1926. After a series of setbacks, it was finally completed in October 1934. The construction of the Cathedral of Learning is probably what it has been called, the most important single event in the history of the University. The late 1930s were a time of crisis for the University. Chancellor Bowman was dissatisfied with the situation and ordered a committee be formed to look Frick Acre . here the Qitlwdral of I-earning was «o be coiwtrucled. in 1924. Right: A nearly completed Cathedral. into it. The investigation of the situation at the University in all of its aspects was a model of its kind: a painstaking, probing, productive study of the operations of an institution in trouble. The members of the special committee went directly to the heart of the University's problems. They made surprising proposals that opened the way for a revolution in procedure and style. They conducted the investigation in a manner that reflected credit on themselves — the seven trustees who asked the questions — as well as on the administrators, faculty, and alumni who answered them. In the history of the University, December 1941 is a watershed between the old and the new, a Great Divide between the past and the future. Doubts were quelled and uncertainties resolved by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and for the students there was relief and unaccustomed excitement in the common national purpose. In a flurry of activity, the University prepared to make its contribution to the war effort. By mid-1943 the Cathedral of Learning was at the center of a large, important, and efficiently run military installation. The classrooms, the halls, the Commons Room, the lawn, the sidewalks about the building were crowded with young soldiers. Soldiers who were taught at the University and professors who taught them speak highly today of the 1943-1945 experience. The seriousness and discipline in the classrooms were hitherto unknown on many campuses. The students marched to their classrooms to the cadence count of a section marcher, who was distinguished for the day by a blue band around his upper left arm. They stood at attention when the professor entered. The marcher reported his section all present and accounted for, holding his salute until the professor returned it. With the end of the war on August 14, 1945, the University turned its attention to new and happier problems. Now and for some years ahead it would be necessary to process, enroll, and find room and teachers for a flood of veterans. John Bowman declared in his biennial report, Everyone who comes in contact with this group of students is impressed by their intelligence and by the strength of their purpose. They are eager, disciplined, and, the faculty say, a joy to teach.” 16 Bicentennial