Today's post is a school located in the Golden Triad area of Mississippi, the Mississippi University for women. It has the distinction of being the first and oldest public university for women in the U.S.  When it opened, it was named the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls, or II&C. The name graces Orr Hall to this day. The university traces its heritage back to the determined actions of a few individuals. The first of these was Sallie Reneau, a native of Tennessee who moved to Mississippi as a child. Reneau would create the first formal proposal for the university when she completed school at the Holly Springs Female Institute at the age of 18 in 1853. The idea was received well, but enthusiasm to create the institution was not followed by a will to provide funding to actually build or staff it. Reneau persisted, but she would die during a Yellow Fever outbreak in 1878. Additional lobbying led by Olivia Valentine Hastings and Annie Coleman Peyton finally resulted in action being taken. State Senator John M. Martin drafted Senate Bill 311 based largely on Reneau’s ideas and the institution was formally established in 1884. The school would be located in the city of Columbus which had actively pursued the school. The city had acquired the grounds and facilities of the Columbus Female Institute, a school for girls, and donated these assets to the new college along with $50,000 in bond funds (about $1.5 million in today’s money) to be selected as the new site. Classes were held starting in October 1885 with 341 women attending the newly established school.

The institution would change its name in 1920 when the new moniker Mississippi College for Women was adopted. The name was meant to reflect the liberal arts tradition of the school. Sometime thereafter, the institution picked up a nickname, The W (pronounced The Dub). It would keep that name until 1974 when, as additional undergraduate and new graduate programs were being implemented, the name was changed to current Mississippi University for Women. It remained a university for women only until 1982, when the Supreme Court decision in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan determined that men had to be admitted as well. Today, it is still referred to as The W, but about 20% of the 2,700+ students are men. The campus covers about 88 acres, and the university currently offers thirty-seven majors.

The W experienced a most terrible event on November 10, 2002, a date which marks the second largest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. Over the course of two days, 76 tornadoes occurred in 17 states. One of the tornadoes hit Union University. Another would hit Columbus and the MUW. A large F3 tornado hit Main Street at 7:20pm that night. A tornado is a terrifying thing and the thought of one occurring after nightfall seems worse. The tornado ripped through the MUW campus, bringing damage across the university but particularly on the southern half of campus. Damage around town included a church which was destroyed and dozens of homes and businesses. Nearly half (26 of 60) buildings on campus were damaged, some heavily. The Emma Pohl gymnasium was one of the casualties. The building was levelled. The damage was so bad that the university ceased all athletics. No MUW teams would compete again until 2017. The Fine Arts Building (now Summer Hall) had its roof and top floor ripped off. Thankfully, the 10th was a Sunday, so most buildings save for the dorms were vacant. The gym had closed at 7pm shortly before the torrent began. The entire campus was without electricity and classes would be cancelled for a week. As you will see, the campus still carries the scars of that event 22 years later. 

We begin, simply enough, with two renditions of the ever-present lamppost sign. The first utilizes the athletics logo which incorporates an owl, the athletics mascot, with the "W". The second is far more common on campus and around Columbus (indeed, as you enter town from most directions these welcome banners are on every light). 

The first five photos below are the front of Whitfield Hall, which stands on the northwest corner of campus. Named for the university’s sixth president, Henry L. Whitfield, the building was designed by architect P.J. Krause. The three-story Georgian Revival building was completed in May 1928 at an expense of $212,000 (nearly $3.6 million in today’s inflation-adjusted value). The building sits on land donated to the university by the people of Columbus. Two homes were on the site previously; they were relocated to allow for its construction (one of which is Puckett House detailed below). In addition to being president of MUW, Henry Lewis Whitfield was governor of Mississippi from 1924 until his death in 1927. His tenure as president of the university extended for 13 years from 1907 to 1920. A photo of him on campus during his final year can be seen here. The building was significantly damaged by fire in 1957. In addition to being repaired after this event, the building has undergone two renovations since. Air conditioning was not added to the building until 1969!

​The last two photos are of benches on the grounds around Whitfield which were a gift of the class of 1928. 

Puckett House was one of the three homes to be moved to allow for the construction of Whitfield Hall. Built in 1902, the building was home to Willis Newbell Puckett and his family. Puckett owned a local brickyard which was, of course, the source for the home’s brick cladding. Over the years it served in various roles – a classroom building, a dorm, and even faculty offices. It was left vacant for a time but was subsequently remodeled to become a guest house in 2022. This is the north side of the house; the front faces the street, but I didn't go round to get a photo of it as it was late in the day, and I was about to leave campus.

Next, we have a beautiful Queen Anne style building currently known as Hastings-Simmons Hall. It opened in 1900 as Hastings Hall (it was also referred to as Columbus Hall Annex) and was designed by Chattanooga, TN based architect R.H. Hunt (who also designed buildings at Blue Mountain College and Mississippi State University). When it opened it had dining facilities and rooms for 63 residents. By the 1960’s it had been converted into office space for academic support units. It would continue to hold offices of various sorts including a credit union office in the 1980’s. A significant renovation was completed in 1992 transforming it into a residence hall once more, this time with apartment-style suites. It remains a dorm today. The first photo is the front of the building. The name is for two women. The fist is honor of Olivia Hastings who was an early advocate for the creation of the university. The second part of the name is honor of alumnae Miriam Q. Simmons who was a member of the state’s Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and later a state Representative.

​The second photo is Columbus Hall, which sits directly adjacent to Hasting-Simmons. ​Columbus is a beautiful building. The Queen Anne style building opened in 1896 as a women’s residence hall. At the time, it served as housing for 100 students in 46 rooms. A remarkable aspect of the building is that it sat unused for more than thirty years. The building closed in 1970 and would not open again until 2001 when it reopened after renovation into a suite-style residence hall. The low cost of the renovation, only $3.1 million (about $5 million today) is a testament to the original design and construction since a building closed that long to be so inexpensive to bring back to life speaks to the sound construction of the place.

The next set of photos are of Callaway Hall. Callaway is the oldest structure on the MUW campus, having opened in 1860. As such, it actually pre-dates the creation of MUW. built as a classroom and dorm building for the prior Columbus Female Institute. It is also the only remaining building from the Columbus Female Institute days. It closed for a time in the 1930’s due to its age and condition. After a renovation in 1938 (thanks to funds from the Public Works Administration), the building re-opened and was renamed for Mary J.S. Callaway. Callaway served Acting President (i.e., interim president) twice; first for four months in 1890 and again for five months in 1898. She was thus the first woman to hold the office, albeit as an interim. A woman as sitting president would not happen until 1989 when Clyda S. Rent took control as the university’s 12th president!

In addition to its collegiate use, the building was used a hospital for both Union and Confederate troops during the Battle of Shiloh. The clocktower seen in the first photo was an addition which came in 1885. All of the photos are of various parts of the front (north) of the building which faces College Street.

The next photo is Thad and Rose Cochran Hall, which began life in 1908 as ​the Main Dormitory Annex and Library Annex (as it served in these capacities over time), and subsequently South Callaway Hall in 1940. It too was named in honor of Mary J.S. Callaway. It sat vacant and left deteriorating in the 1970’s but was subsequently renovated in 2005 to house administrative offices. It was subsequently renamed in honor of long serving U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and his wife. It sits south of Callaway Hall. 

Below are two photos of the front (north side) of Eudora Welty Hall. Construction of the building began in 1929 and was completed the following year. It opened as the John C. Fant Memorial Library. You can see a photo of the building when it was the Fant Library in 1930 here. Fant was president of MUW from 1920 to 1929. It was designed by architect Claude H. Lindsley. An addition designed by architect Chris Risher was added in 1957. The building was without air conditioning until 1966! It is hard for me to imagine working in the building during the summer months prior to A/C. I keep coming back to that thought as I review buildings at southern colleges and universities. I know that air conditioning didn’t come around until the 20th century and the inclusion of this now staple was limited for many years. Still, thinking of the stifling heat of summer in a large building without air conditioning seems awful. So awful, in fact, to seem almost unimaginable. As I write this in my home office the temperature outside is a relatively cool (for my location and the date) 89°. The air conditioning is blowing full force and it is a steady 72° in here, and yet I was, until I wrote this line, thinking of making it cooler. My how times have changed. I imagine that on any hot summer day in 1935, the folks at MUW would have killed to be in a room cooled to 72°! The building underwent a significant renovation in 1991/1992 and thereafter housed administration and services offices.

The building was named for Welty, who initially attended college at MUW but later transferred to the University of Wisconsin to finish her degree. Welty was, of course, a writer and photographer who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Order of the South.

The two photos below are of Carrier Chapel. The chapel was designed by internationally renowned architect Gyo Obata. Construction was completed by the Nelson Myers company. You can see a photo of the groundbreaking here. The building opened in 1965. It is named after MUW alumnae Lenore Woollard Carrier. If the name sounds familiar, it is because she and her husband Robert M. Carrier were philanthropists who donated extensively to the University of Mississippi. You can read more about him in my earlier post on Ole Miss. In addition to providing funds for the construction of the chapel at MUW, the Carriers endowed a scholarship at Ole Miss and two buildings there carry their name. Carrier Hall there is a result of their giving as is the Chancellor’s home - Carrier House. The house was their family home in Oxford (among others including a mansion here in Memphis). Mrs. Carrier donated the house to Ole Miss upon her death in 1963. It was subsequently renovated and has been the chancellor’s residence since 1969. The Carrier Chapel is a Modernist structure that is, in my opinion, surprisingly short on windows. It is nestled in the trees on its site, and I nearly didn’t recognize it at first as a result. 

The photos below are of Poindexter Hall which opened in 1905. The building was designed by architect R.H. Hunt. When it opened it was known as Music Hall, although many referred to it as the Temple of Music. Noted German soprano Johanna Gadski was part of the opening gala. It would not be the first time a notable figure graced the building. Shortly after it opened, world acclaimed Polish pianist Ignace Paderewski was invited to give a performance by Weenona Poindexter (for the whom the building would later be named) which resulted in a profit of about $1,000 (just over $33,000 today). Paderewski would go on to be the third Prime Minister of Poland. He was not the only head of state to visit the building. Indeed, you can see a great photo of President William H. Taft along with college president Henry Whitfield on the steps of Poindexter in 1909 here (you can see photos of President Taft arriving on campus here and a view of him speaking here). Later, Vice President Dick Cheney would visit campus and stand in the same spot on October 28, 2003 while campaigning for Haley Barbour. 

Poindexter would keep the Music Hall moniker until 1947 when it was renamed in honor of Weenona Poindexter who chaired the chaired the department of music from 1895 to 1934. She is rightfully credited with creating the music program and getting the structure built. By all accounts she was a kind but highly determined woman whose deep care for the institution would stay with her until she passed.

The photos below begin with four views of the front (northside) of the building. The fifth is the view from the font landing giving you the view that President Taft and Vice President Cheney had when giving their respective speeches. The sixth is the building plaque, which is located to the right of the front door. The seventh photo is the east side of the building. The last two photos of are a fountain and the Pioneers Plaza which is adjacent to the building on the west side.

The building below is McDevitt Hall. ​McDevitt began its life as a cafeteria after opening in 1927 for upper division students and was called the Junior/Senior Dining Hall. It was not used in this capacity for long, however, as the cafeteria closed around 1932. The single-story Georgian Revival building subsequently became the student health center (MUW called it the Student Infirmary) in 1934. It was also designed by architect P.J. Krause. Sometime thereafter, it was used for office space. In 1977, the building was renovated to house the university Data Center. Today, it is the home to the W’s Technology Center (I believe the name change from Data Center to Technology Center took place in 2013). It was renamed in honor of Dr. Ellen McDevitt in 1988. McDevitt was an alumnus (class of 1930) who would go on to medical school at the University of Utah (class of 1949). She had a remarkable career in medicine thereafter.

Next, we have four photos of a MUW sign that is called the Pylon. The Pylon was a gift of the class of 1955. ​The white columns and roof are not original to the structure. I am not certain why or when they were added. Also added is the “MUW” on the outward facing front of the Pylon and the university’s current tagline “A Tradition of Excellence for Women and Men”. You can see photos of the Pylon as it originally looked in a photo from 1975 here as well as in an undated photo that appears to be from the 1970’s or perhaps the very early 1980’s here. A great photo of Emma Ody Pohl walking beside the Pylon in 1955 can be seen here. You will note that hedge seen in these earlier photos are now gone.

I was pleased to see construction underway on campus. This is the Culinary Arts Building, which is located just to the southeast of Poindexter Hall. The new building was designed by JBHM Architecture, a Mississippi-based firm with offices in Jackson, Oxford, and Tupelo. They have designed numerous structures, most of which have been in the southeast. It will contain about 40,000 square feet of new space and will include commercial-grade kitchens, a stadium-seating style auditorium, and an event space. A small library and offices will also be located in the building on the second floor. The culinary programs are currently located in Shattuck Hall. The building will be on the east side of Bryan Green.

There are two gates on the MUW campus. I was unable to get a photo of the main gate on the north side of campus, but below are two photos of the 4th avenue gate. The gate was a gift of the class of 1929.

The photos below are of Martin Hall which sits directly across 4th Avenue from Parkinson Hall (see below). ​Martin is named for Mississippi State Senator John McCaleb Martin, who was an outspoken advocate for the establishment of the university and who drafted Senate Bill 311 authorizing its creation. Martin would go on to serve on the university’s Board of Trustees for fifteen years. The building was another designed by architect Claude H. Lindsley. The first two photos are of the front (north side) of the building. The third is a plaque noting a renovation of the structure in 2005. The fourth photo is the west side of the building, and the fifth and sixth are the east side. The final photo is the original dedication plaque. 

Below are four photos of Parkinson Hall, named for MUW president Burney L. Parkinson. The original portion of the building was completed in 1950. A significant renovation/addition was completed in 2003. The building has a variety of classrooms and wet labs and is currently home to the Department of Sciences and Mathematics. Parkinson was a graduate of Peabody College (Vanderbilt University) who had been an administrator and college president prior to coming to MUW. He served as president of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina for one year. He found the job too involved and conflicted for the salary and left at the end of the 1927-1928 academic year. He then went to Alabama for four years for a position in the state government. He arrived in Columbus as the 9th president in 1932.  

There had been some complaining of Parkinson in the waning years of his presidency centering on the notion that the university had languished under his leadership. Although this did not raise to any real attempt to remove him, he was encouraged to retire. He would hear nothing of it, however, and in the end the board established a requirement for presidential retirement, and he left his position in 1952. You can see him in his regalia at what is probably his last spring commencement here. His time remains the second longest tenure of any president behind Charles Hogarth who bested his 20 years by five additional years. After leaving the university, he went to Virginia to serve as a professor of education and psychology at Mary Washington University (then Mary Washington College) for four years. He retired from Mary Washington in 1956. He passed away in 1972. You can see a photo of him during his time at Mary Washington here.

The first two photos are the original front façade of Parkinson which faces south. The third photo is the east façade, which is part of the 2003 addition. The last is a photo the dedication plaque for the 2003 addition/renovation.

Reneau Hall, seen in the two photos below, is another creation by Claude H. Lindsley. Opened in 1929, Reneau was originally a residence hall capable of housing up to 130 students. The building is named in honor of Sallie Eola Reneau (1837-1878). A native of Tennessee, Reneau moved with her family to Mississippi in her youth. She graduated from the Holly Springs Female Institute and subsequently began a campaign to create a college for women. She developed a proposal which was presented to members of the state government. Her work facilitated the development of the bill by State Senator John Martin which would create MUW. Interestingly, in 2009 the university concluded a 22-month study to create a new and more inclusive name for the university. Then president Claudia A. Limbert submitted the name “Reneau University” to the Board of Trustees for State Institutions of Higher Learning (Mississippi’s agency for higher education). Apparently, the Board approved the change, but the state legislature did not. A photo of Sallie Reneau can be seen here.

Regardless, Reneau remained a dorm until 1971 when nursing moved into the structure. I am uncertain when they moved out, but by the mid-1980’s the building was empty and deteriorating. A $2.7 million renovation began in 1998 and the building reopened in 1999. Today, it houses the College of Business and Professional Studies. The Department of Legal Studies has a complete mock courtroom in the building.

The next set of photos begin with seven shots of Summer Hall. Summer opened in 1960 as the Fine Arts Building. The building was designed in-house, by Dr. Ralph Hudson who has head of the art department at the time. As noted above, Summer was significantly impacted by the tornado of November 2002. The entire top floor and roof were ripped off the structure. In addition to repairs, the building also received a facelift and modernization. The second photo is a plaque denoting the repairs. The construction firm was Columbus, MS-based West Brothers Construction. One of the two brothers shares my name Steve West! There is a small gallery on the first floor just inside the main entrance. Exhibits in this space can be seen in photos three through seven.

​The last photo is the Centennial Kiosk from 1984 which sits just outside the Fant Memorial Library on the corner of 5th Avenue and 13th Street. I took a couple of photos of the library, but something was on the lens of my camera and blurred them to the point that not even software could correct them. It’s a shame the photos did not turn as I had intended to use them as an opportunity to mention an alumnae of The W who shares two things in common with me – the same last name and an association with Texas Tech. Elizabeth H. West was born in Pontotoc, MS in 1873. After completing her studies at The W, she would later move to Texas where she would go on to earn two degrees from the University of Texas. She would be the head librarian of the San Antonio Public Library but is most remembered for two later positions. In 1918, West would be named Director of the Texas State Library. She was the first woman in Texas history to lead a state agency (and the second woman to do so of any state in the nation). Later, she would leave to take a position at the newly created Texas Tech University, where she created and led the library until her retirement. I have always thought that the library at Tech and the state library in Austin should be named after her. In addition, her maternal grandfather was Moses Waddel, who was the president of the University of Georgia and the Chancellor of the University of Mississippi.

​Next, we have photos of the Marie Charlotte Stark Recreation Building and the (new) Emma Ody Pohl Physical Education Building, two buildings attached by an enclosed overhead walkway across 11th street. The buildings replace an earlier structure with the Pohl name which was destroyed by the tornado of 2002. The two buildings were completed in 2007 at a total expense of $13.7 million, which is about $19 million in current 2022 value. The buildings were designed by Jackson, MS based architectural firm Singleton Architects. Singleton also designed the Sanderson Center for Athletics at Mississippi State University in nearby Starkville as well as a physical education center at Delta State University. Combined, Pohl and Stark come in at 89,246 square feet. Owing to the likelihood of tornadoes (obviously, since the prior building it replaced by razed by one), the building has a tornado safe room built in. Emma Ody Pohl was head of the department of physical education from 1908 to 1955. She was a fixture on campus and a vocal advocate of the university. Stark was an alumnae of the university (class of 1933) and Pohl's niece. She was an archivist with the International Monetary Fund and a major donor to the university.

The first photo is the main entrance to Stark on the north side of the building. The second photo is the enclosed walkway over 11th street. The fourth photo is the front (south side) of Pohl where the dedicatory plaque seen in the last photo is located.

The first photo below is Painter Hall (I believe the entire formal name is Lawrence Painter Academic Hall). The building opened in 1922 at a cost of $88,050 (about $1.44 million today). When it opened, the two-story Georgian Revival Building was known simply as Academic Hall. It would keep this moniker until 1954 when it was named for Lawrence G. Painter who was chair of the Department of English from 1913 to 1948. It originally had a clay tile roof, but more economical asphalt shingles took their place in 1975 and remain to this day. A photo of the building from 1922 can be seen here. 

The second photo is ​​Shattuck Hall. Shattuck opened with a very different look than we see today. Shattuck was designed by R.H. Hunt and cost $25,000 (about $770,000 in today’s value) to build. When it was completed in 1911, the building, was a four-story structure that housed a dorm and a cafeteria. A fire in 1953 left it with extensive damage. It was subsequently rebuilt as the two-story Georgian Revival you see here. Re-opened in 1959, the building continued as a cafeteria (on the first floor) and a dorm (the second floor). It was home to the nursing program from 1975 to 1983 and today houses the culinary arts program. A great photo of the former dining facility on the first floor of Shattuck from around 1960 can be seen here.

All of the photos in this group are of the Education and Human Sciences building. The building opened as the Home Economics Center in 1973. This building speaks to me, as it looks like many buildings that were brand new when I was a kid and into my early teens. Everything about it is so spot on for the time, from the look of the building to the use of oversized handrails on the entrance steps. The first two photos show the north façade. I love the faux “porches”! The third photo is the west side entrance where the two dedication plaques seen in the last photos are located. A wonderful photo of the building from 1975 can be seen here.

Below are two views of the front of the Harvey Cromwell Communication Center. The building is a rather generic looking Modernist piece that would fit right in on my campus at the University of Memphis (we have more than our fair share of nondescript Modernist boxes). It is named for the former Dean of Arts and Sciences and the first Dean of the Graduate School. It has a large 356-seat theater inside. A photo distributed by the university as part of a press release when the building opened in June 1977, can be see here and you can see a photo of Dr. Cromwell in front of the building (also in 1977) here. The MUW logo doormat was at the entrance to the building.

Next, we have Turner Hall. Turner opened in 1929 and is yet another structure on campus designed by architect Claude H. Lindsley. The building opened with the name Demonstration School. It served as a K-6 lab school (as they are known today) and a training facility for teacher prep students at the university. It would serve in this capacity until the sometime in the 2010’s (I believe it closed in either 2016 or 2017, but I may be mistaken). It was renamed Turner Hall in 2016 in honor of long-time principal Alma Turner. It sat vacant for time but was renovated and reopened in 2020. Today, it houses the Department of Speech Language Pathology and its Speech and Hearing Center.

The photos below begin with two views of the south side of the building. The next two are of the east side of the building. The historic marker stands just in front of the old main entrance.

The next set are of some Modernist residence halls on campus. The first photo is Kincannon Hall, a five-story residence hall on the southside of campus. It is part of a complex of four similar dorms. Completed in 1972, the building is named for the university’s fifth president, Dr. Andrew A. Kincannon. Kincannon held the longest tenure of any president to that point (nine years), but Henry Whitfield who followed him would easily surpass this term by serving in the role for thirteen years. The second photo is of Kincannon (on the left) and Jones Hall. Jones is the older of the two, having opened in 1964. It too is a five-story Modernist structure. Both are suite-style dorms. Jones is named in honor of Richard W. Jones, first president of the W.

The last photo is a residence facility of a different flavor. There are four groups of buildings each with the name University Apartment Building and numbered sequentially. They are for faculty and staff. They cumulatively have 48 units, and they are available at reduced rent (compared to market value) for the first three years of occupancy. They vary in size and come in both two- and three-bedroom variants. 

Decommissioned. A singular word set on the current MUW campus map to denote several buildings that were damaged in the 2002 tornado and for which funds to repair or demolish them is not available. It's a sad word that I had previously only associated with military ships. In both contexts, it means sitting idle and in decay until such time funds are available to scrap them. It's not a pleasant connotation in either case. For an academician such as me, the following photos are not pleasant to see. I've covered two defunct colleges, but this is the first post I have made where buildings have been left to rot on the campus of a currently operating university. 

The first decommissioned building I will cover is the Pohl Recreation Building (or Pohl Gymnasium) which opened in 1927. It would be the first of three buildings to carry the name. The current Pohl is the newest, of course; the second was destroyed by the tornado that hit campus in 2002. The building contained a basketball court and natatorium and opened with the name being simply the "Physical Education Building". It was later named in honor of Emma Ody Pohl, who chaired the Department of Physical Education Department for 48 years from 1907 to 1955. Although a new gym would be added in 1976, the building was actively used until 1982. It has been vacant ever since and it shows in the state of the structure. The Georgian Revival building was designed by Mississippi-based architect P.J. Krouse. It was the second gym on campus. It sits behind (to the south) of the Carrier Chapel and Eudora Welty Hall.

I know that razing a structure is an expensive activity. I worked for years on the health sciences campus of Virginia Commonwealth University where numerous structures were torn down to make way for new ones and the cost of demolition in each case was always notably high. I imagine that at some point when funds are available, the old gym will be levelled and something new will take its spot on campus. The photos below begin with a view of the front of the building (north side), and two of the rear. The last photo is a view of the entry vestibule taken through the windows of the front door.

The next building is Orr Hall, and I did not realize it was vacant when I approached it from the east (the view seen in the first two photos below). By the time I walked around to the front (seen in the last two photos) however, the look of decay was evident. I took a look at the campus map on my phone to see that it too is decommissioned. Orr is a beautiful building the front of which faces College Street to the north. Orr opened in 1885 and as such the Victorian-styled building is the second oldest structure on campus today. The city of Columbus donated it to the school. It housed administrative offices and the university chapel from the time it opened until 1928. It later housed a museum. Various renovations and modifications happened over the course of its lifetime. It was fairly heavily damaged in the 2002 tornado. I believe the building is named for Pauline Orr, the first professor of English and Speech at the university.

The next six photos are two other decommissioned buildings on campus and both are former residence halls. 

​The first three photos are of Peyton Hall which opened in 1922. It cost $128,000 (just over $2 million today) to build. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and was designated a Mississippi Landmark structure in 1986. It was designed by St. Louis-based architect Theodore C. Link. Link also designed structures at Mississippi State University as well. The building was damaged a great deal by the 2002 tornado and has been vacant since I believe.

The next vacant building, seen the last three photos, is another building carrying the Fant name. Fant Hall, or more fully, Mabel Fant Hall is named for the wife of MUW’s seventh President John C. Fant. If it looks a good deal like Peyton Hall it is no coincidence. It was designed by architect P.J. Krause and was meant to be identical to the older structure. It opened in 1927, and was named Mrs. Fant (Mabel Beckett Fant) who died during the building’s construction. It ceased being a dorm and vacant by the mid-1980’s, but was subsequently renovated to house the Mississippi School of Math and Science. It was heavily damaged by the 2002 tornado and has remained vacant since.

I suppose there could be hope for these structures, although it is hard to imagine.

The last photo may not be recognized by the uninitiated. This is a tornado warning siren. There are different kinds with different shapes, but they all blare a siren (if you are unfamiliar, imagine an air raid siren from the movies) to give those in the immediate area the warning that a tornado is imminent or has been sighted and it is time to take shelter. There are many of these near my house and they have blasted their warning several times. Once the tornado was close enough that we could hear what sounded like a semi-truck running its engine full blast outside. I am quite used to hearing them as I have lived in other locales, most notably Lubbock, TX, where tornadoes occur. An odd thing to take a picture of in some cases, it seemed entirely appropriate given the fact that the campus was hit by one.

When I started this blog, the pandemic was in full swing and travelling was not really happening. I filled in space initially by posting photographs I had taken in the past and visiting nearby colleges. Better than a year later, I am still basically in that mode. Plus, I have found that the quality of the photos I had taken in the past are not all that great. Point and shoot cameras were not known for high quality image production, and scanning them doesn't help. Add that to a busy life and I have not covered nearly as many schools as I had thought I might. None the less, I've covered about twenty-eight schools and thirty campuses. These cover schools in ten U.S. states, and also three abroad in Australia and the U.K. I hope to pick up the pace and add more as spring comes into full swing. The map below highlights the states covered (in red) to date.

On a recent trip to Saint Louis, Missouri, I had the opportunity to visit a school that until a few short years ago I had never new existed. Despite my lack of knowledge about it, the Barnes-Jewish College, Goldfarb School of Nursing is an institution that has a history that goes back further than my current institution (the University of Memphis). As is the case with many colleges, Goldfarb is the current iteration of several institutions that came together to form the current school.  Goldfarb traces its history back to 1902 when it began life as the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing. Although some sources indicate it was the first, the college’s website says it merely one of the earliest schools of nursing accredited by the National League of Nursing. Regardless, the institution flourished and by the early 1990’s offered degrees at the associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s levels in nursing and other allied health fields.

Another institution that now part of the college began life in 1955 when the Barnes Hospital School of Nursing was founded. Barnes formed its own school when Washington University shuttered its nursing program. Some time thereafter (I was unable to ascertain exactly when), the Barnes College of Nursing became a component of the University of Missouri St. Louis. The two institutions would finally merge into the current iteration in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the college ceased offering associate’s degrees. Today, Goldfarb enrolls more than 625 students at the bachelor’s (BSN), master’s (MSN), and doctoral (DNP and Ph.D.) levels.

The Goldfarb name comes from local businessman and philanthropist Alvin Goldfarb. Mr. Goldfarb was founder of the Worth Stores, a women’s clothing business centered in St. Louis. He gave a substantial donation to the school, a good portion of which was responsible for the building you see in the loan photo below, appropriately named Goldfarb Hall. You can read more about him here. The building was designed by St. Louis-based architectural firm Christner Architects. The firm has designed many university buildings and even an entire campus plan. Opening in 2007, the building includes some 105,000 square feet of classrooms, labs, offices, and auditoriums. Costs came in at $40 million (roughly $54.7 million in 2022). The building was honored with several awards including the American School and University Architectural Portfolio 2008 Outstanding Design Award, the 2007 Construction Industry Best Practice Award, Honorable Mention, St. Louis Council of Construction Consumers, and the 2008 Project Achievement Award for New Construction under $30 Million, Construction Management Association of America.

The weather and work have been keeping me off the blog for a time, so I am returning with a quick post on another campus of the Southwest Tennessee Community College (STCC). I had previously posted about the STCC Union Avenue Campus and today return the institution with some photos of the Macon Cove Campus. I had mentioned the campus in the earlier post. When the college was devised, a two-campus plan was basically in the works from the beginning. The Macon Cove Campus sits about sixteen miles east of the Union Avenue Campus, and at the time of the construction of both Macon Cove was likely considered very far out from the downtown campus. Today of course, metropolitan Memphis extends much further east, but photos from the era show that not too much existed that far out at the time. The campus itself is large, covering some one hundred acres and consisting of nine academic buildings and a handful of smaller support (e.g., physical plant) structures. It is a pleasant space and seemed generally well maintained. Indeed, the cleanliness of the interior of the buildings was better than some public universities in the area. 

As is too often the case for two-year colleges, little information is available about the history of STCC. This, coupled with the fact that I covered the Union Avenue Campus in an earlier post, will leave the historical notes on the campus relatively brief. We begin with the first two buildings you see when entering campus: William W. Farris Student Services Administration Complex and the Bert Bornblum Library. The buildings are connected via the curved wall you see in the first two photos below. The spot marks the main gateway into campus and provides a bit of dramatic detail to the space. In the first two photos below, the Bornblum Library is on the left and the Farris Building is on the right. I will start with Farris and then come back to Bornblum.

William “Bill” Farris was a fixture in West Tennessee politics and in the democratic party for decades. He held many political positions including a seventeen-year stint on the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). TBR was the sole governing board of all public colleges and universities in the state aside from units of the University of Tennessee System for decades. It still exists, but the other state universities in that system have moved on to form their own boards. The building acquired his name in 1989.

​The first three photos below are of the east façade of the building marking the entrance to campus. The fourth is the building’s auditorium on the west side of the building. The signs of spring are not yet evident on a tree on the west side as seen in the fifth photo. Behind this spot is an atrium seen in photo six. The seventh photo is the north façade of the building. The remaining four photos are interior shots of the building.

The next set of photos are of the Bert Bornblum Library. Bornblum is named for Bert Harry Bornblum. A native of Poland, he immigrated to the U.S. upon the Nazi’s invasion with his younger brother David. His family did not survive the Holocaust. They had family in Memphis and eventually made their way here. He was eighteen at the time. Both he and David would serve during the war. After the war, they opened Bert’s Men’s Store on Beale Street
 
He and David would go on to found the Judaic Studies program at the University of Memphis. Bornblum was a notable philanthropist in the area. He gave significant funds to numerous organizations and causes. He founded the Bornblum Solomon Schechter School here and donated extensively to local Lemoyne-Owen College and to STCC. He donated to the nursing program at STCC and provided significant funding for the library which now carries his name. He also funded the Land of Israel Studies program at Kineret College in Israel. The library was dedicated on December 1, 2009. The building was co-designed by two Memphis-based architectural firms. If I understand it correctly, the firm Evans Taylor Foster Childress handled the interior work while Askew Nixon Ferguson did the exterior work. Both have related academic work at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the University of Tennessee Martin, and the University of Memphis. The first floor has the reference section, offices, check out desks, an auditorium, and an art museum (which was closed during my visit). The second floor has the main stacks, offices, group and individual study rooms, and a copy center. The photos below begin with three views of the east side of the building and then the main entrance in the fourth. The plaques are located just inside the front doors. Photos seven and eight are of the ground floor; the rest are of the second and include general stack spaces and study rooms. There were no names or information about the three portraits seen in photos thirteen through fifteen but given the regalia the gentlemen are wearing I assume they are past presidents of STCC. If you know, please leave a note in the comments.

The building is really cool, and the interior has design elements and features I would not expect in a community college library. Community college buildings tend to be very utilitarian, but the Bornblum Library is very nice, and the interior is quite beautiful. The library contains some 69,300 sqaure feet of space.

Next, we have one of the newer structures on campus, the Academic Building. It is a large building with what appears to be the biggest single footprint of any building on campus. In sum, it comes in at 106,000 square feet. In addition to classrooms, it has many wet labs and computer labs. It is a beautiful building on the inside. The first three photos are of the south side of the building. The fourth is the main entrance as seen from the north. Next, we have one of the newer structures on campus, the Academic Building. It is a large building with what appears to be the biggest single footprint of any building on campus. In sum, it comes in at 106,000 square feet. In addition to classrooms, it has many wet labs and computer labs. A notable feature is the woodgrain wall complete with the STCC Seal seen here in the fifth photo. It is a beautiful building on the inside. The two-story atrium, seen here in photo six is in the middle of the long structure. The building was designed by Memphis architectural firm LRC and built by EMJ construction. The two-story atrium, seen here in photo seven is in the middle of the long structure. The last photo is a typical classroom in the building. The building was designed by Memphis architectural firms Looney Ricks Kiss (LRC) and Fisher & Arnold and built by EMJ construction. Construction began in 2008 and the total cost came in at about $17 million (about $22.2 million today).

​Next, we have the Charles O. Whitehead Center seen in the first two photos below. Whitehead was a fixture in the community-college sector in Tennessee for some time. He was president of two community colleges (in Chattanooga and Memphis). The building was designed by the Memphis architectural firm Goforth/Fleming. The firm was founded by Robert Goforth in 1960 and acquired the name Goforth/Fleming in 1970 when Robert Fleming joined him in 1970. The two would part ways in 1980. Fleming Architects continue to this day and have designed buildings for colleges and universities across the Midsouth.

The building is one of the earliest structures on campus, and it shows not only in the exterior design but in the interior as well. It has a high school feel to it. The interior walls are concrete block and there are lockers (in use) in the hallways. Still, the building was clean and in terms of appearance at least, in good working order. 

I have to say that perhaps the best aspect of this building to me was the sign. I know it's strange, but the font/color scheme/layout is 1970's at its best. The building was designed by the Memphis architectural firm Goforth/Fleming. The firm was founded by Robert Goforth in 1960 and acquired the name Goforth/Fleming in 1970 when Robert Fleming joined him. The two would part ways in 1980. Fleming Architects continue to this day and have designed buildings for colleges and universities across the Midsouth. I posted about their work for Jackson State Community College’s Jim and Janet Ayers Center for Health Sciences about a year ago. The Whitehead Center opened in 1975.

Directly across (to the south) of Whitehead is the Nabors Auditorium Building, seen here in the third and fourth photos. I could find no information on the source of the name.

The sixth photo is the main entrance to the Robert B. Fulton Engineering Technology Building. Robert Fulton was a Rear Admiral in the Navy. During World War II, the ship on which he served, the USS Houston, was sunk and he became a prisoner of war. He would remain so through the end of the war. He remained in the Nacy after the war. He came to Memphis in 1968 to aid in the development of the college that would become STCC. He ran the engineering technology programs for many years. Finally, this set closes with a photo of the Fulton Building Auditorium and an STCC clock.

​Sitting behind (to the west) of Bornblum and Farris is the John L. Thornton Building. Despite having his name on the building and the mention of the John L. Thornton Memorial Scholarship on the STCC website, I was unable to find anything on the man himself. If you know anything, leave a comment. I will update the entry if I am able to find out anything about him. It is a structure representative of its time. A Brutalist building with no real ornamentation and an outward appearance of concrete. The few windows are mere slits. It does not strike me as inventive or attractive.

​Behind the Thorton Building (to the west) is the Richard D. Sulcer Building. It too is a rather plain concrete structure, but it at least has some good-sized windows. I was unable to find out anything about the building of the man for which it is named unfortunately. This is the east façade of the building.

Finally, we close with two photos showing some STCC logos and the Saluki mascot.

As 2021 comes to a close today a word of thanks to the visitors to the blog. I started this just over a year ago thinking it would be something fun to do and without any expectations of readership. For a blog that has no advertising or way to promote it, University Grounds has been getting a good bit of traffic. According to Google Analytics, the past year has seen readers from each continent (save for Antartica of course), and dozens of countries. Most of the engaged users have been from the U.S., but readers from Europe and Asia have spent a good deal of time on it as well. My thanks to you all! Hopefully, the pandemic will continue to abate and I can get back to travelling and add institutions on a more frequent basis. Happy New Year!