The Quad at 125: a Penn Landmark
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National Architecture Week at Penn This year, Penn commemorates the 125th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of its famous Quadrangle. To highlight the occasion, Almanac presents a history of one of Penn’s most iconic buildings. The Quad at 125: A Penn Landmark Photograph Courtesy of the University Archives Photograph Courtesy of the University The Quadrangle’s iconic Memorial Tower is shown here in a 1901 photo. Its design firm, Cope and Stewardson, was inspired by the late Edwardian architecture in Great Britain. Note how the building ends on the left of the photo; the years after this picture was taken would see Penn expand the Quadrangle generously. In the early 1870s, Penn moved from its former Center City campus to as to the necessity for some sort of adequate accommodation for our stu- a new location west of the Schuylkill River. Despite Penn’s majestic early dents, but the question of raising several hundred thousand dollars must flagship buildings like Thomas Webb Richards’ College Hall (1873) and be settled first.” Medical Hall (now Claudia Cohen Hall; 1874) and Frank Furness’s beau- In 1891, Penn’s Trustees elected to prioritize the issue of housing. That tiful University Library (1891), it took the University several years to pro- year, the Trustees began planning the construction of a new dormitory build- vide spaces for students to live on campus. The University initially con- ing on a lot bounded by 36th, Spruce and Pine Streets and Woodland Walk, structed a few makeshift dormitory buildings, but they did not have a large which they had bought from the city of Philadelphia for $10,000 in 1882. capacity and did not leave much impression on the student body. They considered a trapezoidal, single-story design, submitted by architect By the late 1880s, housing had become one of many pressing issues Addison Hutton, which juxtaposed a single row of rooms with well-lighted facing Penn; in 1889, Penn’s Trustees discussed both the construction of corridors and would have allowed for expansion as demand grew. “The dor- dormitories and the question of whether to allow women to study at the mitories are coming,” trumpeted The Pennsylvanian on May 14, 1891—but University. As an anonymous (and undoubtedly male) columnist noted this announcement was premature. Despite a modification to the plan that ex- in The Pennyslvanian (the predecessor to today’s Daily Pennsylvanian) panded the dormitories to four stories, the Trustees rejected this scheme as on October 23, 1889, rather unfortunately, “The University stands in far too impractical. greater need of suitable dormitories to accommodate the students which The next year (1892), Philadelphia architecture firm Cope and Steward- it now has than it does of incurring the expenses which the introduction son presented a neo-Gothic design for a dormitory building that used the of co-education would necessarily entail.” Student agitation for new dor- available land more efficiently, and the Board of Trustees accepted this pro- mitory buildings was rife in the early 1890s, leading the Pennsylvanian posal. Ivy League-educated architects Walter Cope (a professor at Penn) editorial board to caution in a February 26, 1890, issue that “to the best and John Stewardson had already added Collegiate Gothic buildings to the of our knowledge, dormitories will be erected just as soon as the money campus of Bryn Mawr College (and would soon accept a commission from to pay for them is forthcoming. Every one, so far as we know, is agreed Princeton University). The Trustees and the student body alike had high (continued on page II) ALMANAC Supplement April 7, 2020 I www.upenn.edu/almanac National Architecture Week at Penn (continued from page I) hopes for Penn’s new dormitories: As a Pennsylvanian writer said on No- vember 13, 1894, “the buildings will be put up by the same architects who erected the Bryn Mawr dormitories, but will exceed even those in beauty and accommodations.” Rather than use the entire empty lot they had bought a decade earli- er, Penn’s Trustees initially elected to just build in the triangle framed by Pine, Woodland, and 37th Streets. The rectangular block between 36th and 37th Streets had become a popular ad hoc athletic field, and con- structing buildings on this land would have left students without athlet- ic space (until the completion of Franklin Field in 1895). Despite these delays, Provost William Custis Harrison, one of the chief advocates for new dorms, pressed forward with the design process. In 1894, pleased by the drawings submitted by Cope and Stewardson, Dr. Harrison made the firm the University’s official architects, replacing Frank Furness. Cope and Stewardson drew a series of sketches for buildings that were inspired by the college house systems of Oxford and Cambridge, both in their ref- erence to 19th-century Gothic architecture and conceptual layout. They drew buildings with broken facades, varied materials and a series of beau- tiful archways that recalled Gothic Europe. On November 5, 1895, the cornerstone was laid with much ceremony (and after a long delay—it had originally been scheduled to be laid six months earlier during Alumni Day festivities): “The laying of the cornerstone of the dormitories this after- noon marks an epoch in the history of Pennsylvania. For years the want of suitable accommodation for its students has been one of the Universi- The 1911 photo shows the Provosts Tower, constructed the previous year; below ty’s most argent and pressing needs,” apostrophized The Pennsylvanian is a 1901 view of one of the dormitories’ earliest rooms. on October 31. Unfortunately, the difficult winter of 1895-1896 delayed construc- tion. With these delays, Penn students got cold feet: “We wish to cor- rect a rumor which seems to have gained credence among some of the students that the rules regarding the use of rooms in the new dormitories are to be unnecessarily rigid and severe,” ran a March 3, 1896 Pennsyl- vanian piece. “Some students have heard somewhere that the men would be obliged to be in their rooms at some particular hour at night, and that there would be regulations regarding the burning of lights in the rooms af- ter certain hours, etc. Upon inquiry, we find the rumor to be without the slightest foundation.” Finally, on September 30, 1896, a couple days after the start of the fall semester, the dormitories opened and began to fill with students. The Pennsylvanian noted that a set of steps would lead from the “triangle” down to the adjacent athletic grounds. Gates at the entrances to the dormi- tories at 37th & Spruce and 37th & Pine would close off the interior court- Photographs Courtesy of the University Archives Photographs Courtesy of the University yard to the public. Penn, meanwhile, worked on finding firewood and fur- niture for the rooms and settling laundry arrangements. Penn’s new dormitories quickly became a center of campus life. The Pennsylvanian reported on the proceedings of the college house govern- ments, which comprised students and faculty, and fierce but friendly in- tramural sports rivalries between the various college houses. Just two months after the dormitories opened, The Pennsylvanian warned that “the use of light in the Dormitories is far in excess of what is reasonable or nec- essary and we believe the students should take note of this and be more economical in the future.” In 1897, students raised a complained that there were not enough bicycle racks in the dorms’ courtyards, but this issue was resolved with the addition of more bike parking. Despite these quibbles, students grew attached to dorm life. As student George Henderson asked rhetorically in a pamphlet he wrote in 1909, “Did you ever live in the ‘dorms’? Then you did not know what ‘dorm’ life means for college spir- it. Several hundred men who live in the same big family have a feeling of common fellowship.” He also urged Penn, “although [the dorms] are go- Photograph Courtesy of the University Archives Photograph Courtesy of the University ing up steadily, they might well go up faster.” A view of the Triangle, as it was then known, from the corner of 38th Street, So successful were Penn’s dormitories that the University decided to Spruce Street, and Pine Street (now Hamilton Walk). This 1900 photo predates the construction of the Memorial Tower. (continued on page III) www.upenn.edu/almanac II ALMANAC Supplement April 7, 2020 National Architecture Week at Penn (continued from page II) expand them almost immediately. In 1897, The Pennsylvanian Houses. After this addition, World War I abruptly halted any further de- announced plans to erect the third side of the triangle, which in its velopment. Still, during the 1910s, the Quadrangle (as it finally came to original form had only had two wings, arranged in a V-shape. Two years be known during this era) enjoyed possibly its greatest popularity among later, Penn solicited bids for this addition, which now was to include a students, according to historian Elizabeth A. Linck in a 1990 essay about memorial tower to hon-or Penn’s veterans and casualties of the Spanish- the dorms’ history. Penn arranged for these rooms to be furnished elabo- American War. Cope and Stewardson, the firm the Trustees selected, rately with upholstered chairs and sofas, Persian rugs and garish arrays of designed a tower that combined elaborate stonework and brickwork with curtains. The 1910s also the Quad hit its stride as a center for student life, four copper-clad ogee turrets, vis-ible from several blocks away. The new serving as the setting for sing-alongs, athletic events, performances by the additions to the dormitories, now informally known as the Triangle Penn Band and the annual Freshman Bowl Fight (a tradition that ended among the student body, opened in the summer of 1900.