West Virginia University - Monticola Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

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MONTicoiA( e ew Caw !S allying. Although the College of Law was the first professional school upon the campus of West Virginia University, it is the latest school to acquire a building exclusively for its own purposes. In 1919, the State legislature appropriated a substantial sum for the construction of a law building. In 1921, the legislature supplemented the amount formerly appropriated thus providing a sum sufficient not only to construct the build- ing according to the approved plans but also to acquire additional ground for a site for the building The site is now on Front Street immediately south of the President ' s house. Alumni and former students of the College of Law, the West Virginia Bar Association and the University administration joined in convincing the legislature of the necessity for this appropriation. Henry Craig Jones, at that time dean of the College of Law, both inspired the movement for the new building and, with the architect, Mr. Charles M Bates of Wheeling, worked out most of the plans for the building. All mod- ern law school buildings were inspected either by visiting them or by securing plans of their structures, and the advice of law teachers and law librarians was secured and advantage taken of their suggestions. On April I, 1922, the Board of Control of West Virginia awarded the contracts for the construction of the new building. It is to be one hundred and forty-four feet in length, fifty-six feet in minimum width and three stories in height, provision to be made for a mezzanine floor throughout one half of the upper story of the building. It will be constructed of reinforced concrete with hard brick exterior, limestone trim- ming, and tile roof, and will be fireproof throughout. The style of architecture will conform in general to the more recently constructed University buildings. A wide portico and six dormer windows along the front of the building will suggest Virginia and West Virginia court houses of the past century. Provision is made on the ground floor for a locker room and a student club- room where conversation and reading of the daily papers, etc., may be done. A room will also be available for typewriting. In addition, the men ' s toilet room, the librarian ' s packing room, the storage room, and the machinery room will be on the ground floor. The class room floor will contain two large class rooms, a smaller class room and a modern Practice Court room, as well as a rest room and toilet room for women students. Each of the large class rooms will accomodate more than one hundred students for instruction and about two hundred for general meetings. At the landing on the stairway half way between the class room floor and the library floor will be placed life size oil portraits of Professors Brook and Willey, the first two members of the law faculty On the library floor will be the large reading room, the stack room, and the offices of the professors, the dean, the secretary, and the librarian. The ceiling in the library room will be twenty feet high. Around the stack room, over the offices, will be a mezzanine floor which will be used as an addition to the reading room. There will be space on the library floor for approximately fifty five thousand volumes of law books. An electric book lift will be used to transfer books from the packing room on the ground floor to the librarian ' s station and to and from the Practice Court room and the class room floor. The contracts provide that the building shall be ready for occupancy not later than June 1, 1923. When completed it will be the most modern of the law school buildings of the country, embodying the best features of the others and will no doubt be the source of great pride on the part of the faculty, students and alumni not only of the law school but of the whole University. It should increase the usefulness of the law school to the legal profession and the public of the State of West Virginia. 14 e

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D e ew (ri)emlstr ! ull6ln9 The general form of architecture is Georgian, which conforms with Wo- man ' s Hall and Oglebay Hall. The broad expanse of the front will be relieved by two sets of stone columns over each entrance and over these columns will be placed a few designs of chemical significance. In the frieze between the third and fourth floors stones will be cut with the names of noted chemists. Stone and brick will be used for the outside of the build- ing, brick for the inside walls and finished concrete for the floors and ceilings. The building will be fireproof throughout. it will have a splendid location, south of the Library on the White prop- erty, fronting on that new portion of the campus. It will extend 305 feet on Prospect Street and will be 76 feet deep. The main portion of the build- ing will be 253 feet by 76 feet and the remaining portion will be a large lecture auditorium at the west end of the building, equal in height to two stories. There will be fou r floors, a basement under the entire building and a serviceable attic. Briefly the basement will take care of the general ser- vice of the building and will have ample store rooms, unpacking room, grind- ing, janitor, gasometer, constant temperature, locker, toillet, shop and fan rooms. There will also be one small laboratory for general chemistry in the basement. The first floor will be given up to general chemistry and phy- sical chemistry, with special store rooms, one lecture room beginning on this floor and extending through the second floor, recitation rooms, offices, private laboratories and balance rooms. The second floor is essentially for the first courses in chemistry also, including laboratories, recitation rooms, offices, private laboratories, balance rooms, etc. The general distribution room will be on this floor also. The third floor is planned to care for the general offices of the department and all work in analytical chemistry, includ- ing quali tative, quantitative, and electro analysis. The library on this floor will be arranged for organic chemistry and its applications. There will be, m addition to the regular laboratories, special laboratories for combustions and digestions and medium sized research laboratories to accommodate small groups of advanced students. Sufficient arrangements for offices, store rooms, etc., have been made. The attic will accommodate the hydrogen sulphide room, the distilled water room, and all the fans for pulling out the fumes from the entire building. The new chemistry building has been planned to accommodate in the neighborhood of two thousand five hundred students, a building that will take care of an ordinary enrollment of about five thousand. 16