Campus of Lafayette College
The Lafayette College campus is a 110-acre suburban area located on College Hill in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States. Lafayette College also owns and maintains a 230-acre athletic complex, the Metzgar Fields Athletic Complex. The school is roughly 70 mi west of New York City and 60 mi north of Philadelphia.
The main campus borders the downtown area of Easton to the south, the College Hill Residential Historic District to the north east, and is situated almost directly on the Delaware River.
Architecture
Lafayette's campus architecture is highly varied with elements of many styles visible. While the overall architectural style cannot be singularly determined, examples from Beaux-Arts, Postmodernism, Gothic Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Second Empire architecture are clearly visible on campus.The original college buildings were planned facing the city of Easton, but as the college expanded the architecture was redefined around a central quad. As a result, the quad is addressed by the backs of the earliest buildings.
In 1909, the Olmsted Brothers, one of the most influential landscape architectural firms at the time, were commissioned to produce a report on Lafayette's campus. In it, they praised the topography and grounds of the college, but lamented at a lack of harmony in architectural style. However, this "architectural eclecticism" has been a purposeful tradition at Lafayette, and has also been a source of praise; as the campus was not constructed all at once, the style of buildings reflect the time periods in which they were constructed. Nonetheless, during the college's expansion in the twentieth century, most of the buildings adopted the uniform of red brick buildings in the Colonial Revival style, allowing for more architectural unity.
Academic buildings
Acopian Engineering Center
Acopian Engineering Center holds the college's programs in mechanical, chemical, electrical, and civil engineering. It is named for Sarkis Acopian, class of 1951, whose contributions to the college allowed for the renovation of three buildings to be combined into one center. The first engineering center in the complex, the Eleanor Dana Engineering building, was completed in 1912 with a fund secured by Andrew Carnegie for the endowment of a course in mechanical engineering. With this fund, the college planned to create a large building with separate wings for their emergent engineering courses. On June 13, 1953, a second building in the complex was constructed known as the Alumni Hall of Engineering. In 1966, an addition to that building dedicated as Dana Hall was completed, and the metallurgical engineering department moved there from the basement of Markle Hall. Acopian's donation in 2003 bridged these buildings together under one single center bearing his name.Hugel Science Center
Hugel Science Center houses Lafayette's programs in chemistry, physics, and biochemistry. It is named for Charles E. Hugel, class of 1951, and his wife, Cornelia F. Hugel. Originally built as Olin Hall of Science in 1957, the building received a $25 million upgrade in 2001 to renovate the existing 50,000 square foot structure and add 40,000 square feet to its east end.Kirby Hall of Civil Rights
The Kirby Hall of Civil Rights is home to Lafayette's Government and Law Department. It also houses Lafayette's second library, with a collection of over 30,000 volumes related to government and law. It was the first of many buildings to be named after philanthropist Fred Morgan Kirby after he made a donation of 1,000 shares of stock in the F. W. Woolworth Company, of which he was co-founder and vice-president. With each share valued at $100, this donation was worth $100,000 in total, though with the swelling of a bull market in the early 1920s the college ended up selling their shares for over $538,000. In 1921, Kirby had created an endowment for the Kirby Professorship in Civil Rights. By 1930, in an effort to grow the department, he donated an additional $590,000 to fund the construction of the Hall of Civil Rights. Upon its dedication, Kirby Hall was said to be one of the finest academic buildings on an American college campus.Construction of the Hall began on October 10, 1929, in the footprint of the old gymnasium which had been demolished to make room for its successor. The famed architectural group Warren and Wetmore were hired to construct the building in the Beaux-Arts style. The exterior of the building was built out of Indiana limestone and Woodbury granite, while the interior was decorated in travertine imported from Italy. An ornate oak-paneled library was constructed on the second floor, a large classroom placed on the first, with more classrooms constructed in the basement. Around the four walls of the exterior of the building the following inscriptions were carved in the stone: The front reads a line from the Gospel of Matthew, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?", while the back reads a line of Herbert Spencer, "Every man is free to do that which he will provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man." The north side of the building reads, "Every man is the architect of his own fortune", while the south reads a line from Ecclesiastes, "Whatever Thy hand findeth to do, do with it Thy might". Additionally, a bust of The Republic was placed over the front door. According to historians, the building was meant to be "one of the outstanding college buildings in America," and was rumored to be per square foot the most expensive building of its day. It's also purported to be the first college building of its time expressly made for the study of government and law, with press lauding it as a "practical step forward".
Kunkel Hall
Kunkel Hall houses Lafayette's program in Biology. The building was dedicated in 1969 to Dr. Beverly W. Kunkel who had led the school's biology program for 37 years and in that time tutored two Nobel Prize winners; Philip Showalter Hench, and Haldan Keffer Hartline. Before the construction of Kunkel Hall, the biology program was housed unsatisfactorily in Jenks Hall. In 1966, the college received a $700,000 grant from the Longwood Foundation on the condition new buildings break ground by May 1, 1968. A necessary $800,000 was required to plan and construct Kunkel Hall which was provided for in part by federal grants and college supporters. Upon its completion, the 31,000 square foot building contained a warm-animal room, cold-animal room, radioisotope facility, multiple laboratories, a museum for the college's specimen collection, an auditorium, and a two-story greenhouse. A tunnel in the basement connected the building to what is presently Hugel Science Center.Oechsle Center for Global Education
The Oechsle Center for Global Education was built in 2014 and houses the college's departments of international affairs, Africana studies, anthropology, and sociology. The 19,600 square foot building was constructed at a cost of $10.6 million, and its construction was launched by Mikhail Gorbachev during a speech he gave to the student body. Like Oeschle Hall, it was named after Walter, class of 1957, and Christa Oechsle who were longtime donors to the college.Oechsle Hall
Oechsle Hall is home to the college's psychology and neuroscience programs.The building was originally known as the Alumni Memorial Gymnasium and was built as a memorial to the Lafayette alumni who had served in World War I, a group of over 1,000 students. The cost of the building was $300,000, and it was completed in 1924. Originally, this building was the home of the college's intramural sports and the school basketball team, though the size of the building was quickly deemed inadequate due to ever increasing student population sizes. As the largest indoor venue on campus it was also used to host large events hosted by figures such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Erroll Garner, and Bill Cosby. By 1971, a new field house was under construction to host the college's basketball team, and renovations were undertaken to transform the gymnasium into a hall for concerts and lectures.
In 1998, Walter and Christa Oechsle donated $12 million to the college endowment, with funds meant to re-purpose the building to house programs in psychology and neuroscience. The new building, renamed Oeschle Hall, opened on October 18, 2002.
Pardee Hall
Pardee Hall is the most iconic building on the Lafayette College campus, and at the time of its completion was one of the largest collegiate buildings of its era. Initially created to house the college's science programs, it now houses the school's humanities, social sciences, and mathematics departments. It was designed by John McArthur Jr. in the Second Empire architecture style, and since its initial completion has been renovated three times – twice due to fire, and once after the second World War for modernization.The initial construction of the building began after a $200,000 donation from Ario Pardee in 1871 during the administration of president William Cassady Cattell, who had begun a large fund raising campaign to save the college from financial ruin. Construction of the building took two years, and Pardee Hall was officially designated as the campus scientific building on October 21, 1873. A crowd of over 20,000 marched through Easton on the day of dedication, and the dedication of the building was delivered by Rossiter W. Raymond. The final costs of its initial construction totaled over $250,000.
On June 4, 1879, Pardee Hall burned to the ground for the first time. Hot equipment not properly cooled in the chemistry lab on the top floor were to blame for the start of the fire, and late notice, combined with an unorganized firefighting patrol, led to the almost complete gutting of the building before the flames were extinguished. As the building was the cornerstone of the campus, efforts were made to immediately begin its reconstruction. At the cost of $130,000, Pardee Hall was rededicated on November 30, 1880, in view of an impressive assortment of individuals including General William Tecumseh Sherman, Secretary of War Alexander Ramsey, and President Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes himself gave a speech during the re-dedication.
The second burning of Pardee Hall occurred on December 18, 1897, as an act out of revenge by disgruntled professor George H. Stephens. Stephens had made a pile of chairs, books, and other materials in the biology department, and then used gas and matches to set the pile aflame. He escaped to New York after watching the building light up in flame from the New Jersey border, but returned to Easton at the start of the new year to continue acts of vandalism on the campus. In June, he was accosted and admitted to the burning of Pardee. He also admitted to plans to burn down Colton Chapel later in the year. As before, Pardee was rebuilt identical to its former self on the exterior, with modern changes to its interior. It was re-dedicated, now for a third time, on May 31, 1899, and a Tiffany glass window titled Alcuin and Charlemagne was installed on its front edifice.
The last renovation of Pardee Hall occurred from 1964 to 1965. While iron railings around the perimeter of the roof were removed for the war efforts in WWII, the interior of building was updated to fit the demands of the college. The building was completely gutted, with every former item moved to a new location, including the Tiffany stained glass window which was later restored and displayed in the renovated Skillman Library. A basement was dug under the foundation, and the entire wooden interior was replaced with concrete offices and classrooms. The exterior was sandblasted and the roof completely removed and rebuilt, though after construction it looked largely like its former self.