Toward the Centennial

20 Toward the Centennial Butler University can't be the richest or oldest college. It can't be the biggest, but it can be the best and it can be the most beautiful. -J. l. Holcomh, 1')43 As THE UNIVERSITY MOVED TOWARD its Centennial, the vision and determination traditional with its leaders had been dampened by neither Depression nor war. Director James I. Holcomb's hopes for But- ler might not approach reality for another fifty years. Nevertheless, he and its other leaders never lost sight of their objectives. The 1930s During the Putnam administration, remnants of the old Fairview Park vanished and the new campus began to take shape. The old streetcar loop south of Jordan Hall disappeared, as did the pool where the streetcars' horses had watered. An arsonist burned down the old band shell. For a time the university retained the pump house that provided water for gardens and drinking fountains. Near an old bridge crossing the canal at 3G4 Buder at Fairview the south end of the present Holcomb Gardens, the pump house drew from a deep well that still supplies water to the pond that mirrors the Carillon. Where Robertson Hall now stands, a greenhouse arose on the concrete foundation ofa former picnic pavilion. An ugly, weather-beaten water tower stood on campus until students contrived to bring about its destruction. Some confusion exists in the records about how this was accomplished. Ac- cording to one account, the tower was burned during a pep rally. A merry- go-round 150 yards north of the present Jordan Hall was removed. A pony- track, picnic tables and grills, a small zoo, and canoe rental ElCilities had been fearures of the park. All of them disappeared with the emergence of the university campus. Even before his election to the board early in 1936, Holcomb took an interest in beautifying the campus. Directors appointed him chairman of a landscaping committee on which served Ralph Wilcox, state forester; Charles A. Sallee, the city's superintendent of parks and recreation; Andrew Miller ofthe city's nursery; Paul V Brown '24 (son of Hilton U. Brown) of the state department of conservation; N. A. Gentleman, Butler's superintendent of buildings and grounds; and Henry Hobbs, Emsley W. Johnson '00, and John W Atherton '00 of Burler's board. Holcomb presented Butler with 5,000 trees and shrubs. He was work- ing to create a formal garden along the canal downhill from and north of the main carnpus area. Willard N. Clute, instructor in botany and director of the gardens, wanted to preserve these acres as wilderness, but he lost out to Holcomb. In the fall of 1938, Holcomb and his wife, Musetta, donated funds for a press box, scoreboard, and wall along the north end of the stadium. A bronze plaque memorializing his late nephew, J. Irving Hol- comh, was placed above the entrance to the practice fields. Butler also benefited from the generosity of other donors during this period. Anna E. "Iaylor gave $1 0,000 toward a lectureship in American gov- ernment in memory of her late husband, Edwin Taylor. Arthur C. Newby donated $50,000 toward construction of Jordan Hall and left $75,000 to Butler in his will. He had made his money in the automobile business after starting out in bicycles. James H. Trimble had sold his Indianapolis oil refinery to Shell Oil Company. He was subsequently elected to Butler's board in 1937, but died the same year. His gifts to Butler included $25,000 before he died and a bequest of$500,000. In addition to his other support, Will Irwin provided anonymously for f;lculty salaries during the period of straitened finances. The [lCulty soon learned the identity of their benefactor, 7{;ward the Centennial 365 Charles E Williams, a former student, had an eighty-six-acre farm near Anderson that was valued at $20,000. His widow, Carrie, left it to Butler. James C. Black, who had attended Butler briefly in 1873 before teaching for fiftY-{()llryears in the Anderson public schools, made a gift of $2,000 and left a will providing from $5,000 to $10,000 for Butler. Eugene H. Darrach ex '85 married Mary Maude Huntington, a Butler member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. They owned the Conner home near No- blesville, now a centerpiece of the Conner Prairie outdoor museum maintained by Earlham College. Darrach was born in 1866, the son of a physi- cian, in Napoleon, Indiana. He attended Butler in 1881 when Hilton U. Brown was a senior. After leaving college Darrach worked for the Penn- sylvania Railroad, moved on to real estate, the investment business, and then banking, becoming a director of Indiana National Bank. In addition to gifts during his lifetime he left $50,000 to Butler. In the 1930s students maintained old traditions and developed new ones. New fraternity and sorority houses appeared on "fraternity row"-Hampton Drive on the south side of the campus. John W Atherton used his position in the state legislature to fight to keep property tax exemption for Greek houses. The university ordered fraternities and sororities to install approved housemothers {(H the first time in 1932. A few years later, quotas limited the number each sorority could pledge. Homecoming, Founders' Day, May Day, and Commencement festivi- ties were continued at Fairview. On these occasions, parades and pageantry helped catch the public eye, as did prominent speakers. May Day served to introduce prospective freshmen to Butler. Homecoming, Founders' Day, and Commencement provided occasions to rally the alumni. Homecom- ing, in addition to the Saturday football game, brought a Friday evening bonfire with a pep rally, decorated Greek houses, and a downtown parade with floats and the marching band, directed by J. B. Vandaworker. In 1931 the band numbered seventy members, increasing (0 eighty-five by 1938, when Ellis E. Carroll '32 became director. Homecoming also featured the freshman-sophomore "scrap," as it had in Irvington, with greased pole, rug- of-war, and other contests. Commencement brought seven days of activities. Early in the week an alumni-varsity baseball game was followed by a B-Men's banquet. Wednes- 30G Burler at Fairview days featured a College of Religion banquet and a Senior Ball at a nearby country club. The traditional installation of new members in the honorary society of Phi Kappa Phi, followed by a banquet, came on Friday, as well as College of Education awards and a reception. Friday was Alumni Day: with reunions, the Golden Legion medals for the Fifty-Year class, an alurnl11 lunch, and a meeting of the Alumni Association. Class parties and a dance in the gym concluded the day. Baccalaureate services took place in the Fieldhouse on Sunday morning. In the afternoon came the university president's garden party for seniors, parents, and faculty members. The Fieldhouse was the site for Commence- ment on Monday. During the year, an occasional open house sought to bring the university to the attention of city dwellers and prospective students. The tele- scope, moved from Irvington and installed on the roof of Jordan Hall, proved one of the main attractions. Butler's tradition of chapel services proved difficult to maintain. Jordan Hall had no rooms large enough for all-university convocations. The university tried improvising, with separate chapel services for Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Religion. Even then, scheduling problems forced suspension of chapel for the Liberal Arts and Sciences students. 'Toward the end of the Depression, the directors were finally convinced that they could not convert the buildings on the old Irvington campus to another use. In October 1938 they ordered the main building and Burgess Hall demolished. In an insightful article in the April 1937 Alumnal QUflrterl.J1, W L. Richard- son, dean of the College of Education, cited Butler's shortcomings. The faculty lacked creativity. Students lacked zeal to learn. The university lacked needed hlcilities: dormitories, an assembly hall, a student union. Alumni support was not growing quickly enough. More endowment and more cor- porate support were needed. Enrollments rose as recovery from the Depression began. In 1938 the university posted a gain of 140 students over the previous year, enrolling 1,636. The entering class numbered 555. Evening division students numbered 1,389. Butler ranked fourth among all Indiana universities, surpassed by Purdue, the largest, Indiana University, and Notre Dame. Butler was also attracting students from a wider area than ever before: twenty-four states, the District of Columbia, and four foreign countries. By 1939, 1847 -------------------------- Totonrd the Ccntcnninl 367 full-time students were on campus. Butler enrolled more men than women (1,0 II to 836) and had attracted 143 transfer students and 620 freshmen. p The] 940s With the approach of war, enrollment again began to drop, with l~)ss of over 200 by rnid-1940. Directors hoped to strengthen the univer- SIty with a new president, appointed in 1939. Daniel S. Robinson's administration proved brief but achieved constructive gains before the onset of War and the end of his tenure, occasioned by his bid for administrative con- trol in 1942 . .Robinson worked to build up alumni support. He appointed a number of new young faculty members and managed restoration of salaries that had been reduced during the Depression. The new College of Business Ad- ~inistration advanced. The College of Religion building neared cornple- non, The growing number of entering students benefited hom a new "freshman sponsor" advising program that Robinson instituted. Butler continued to maintain its prowess in athletics with winning teams in football and bas- ketball.

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