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day after his inauguration, President
Rush Rhees led an academic procession,
representing 170 educational institutions,
that, to the strains of the
Eastman School band, snaked its way
through the eleven buildings of the
new River Campus as prelude to
three days of speeches and conferences.
In the stone lantern atop the
186-foot tower of Rush Rhees
Library, a 17-bell chime played in
jubilation. The chime had been
placed there as a gift from the
children of Arendt W. Hopeman in
memory of their father.
The building crowned with that
great tower was named, over his
vigorous objections, for the third
president of the University.
"It seems wholly appropriate," said
the Rochester Alumni Review, "that the
dominant architectural and structural
feature of the new campus should be
honored with the name of the dominant
personality behind the entire
development." It was not always
thus. Earlier plans showed other
features to be dominant, but plan no.
45, "made at the suggestion of Dr.
Rhees," clearly honors the library.
"The library," agreed the student
newspaper, The Campus, ". . . is
always the heart of a college....
Not often, however, is the physical
equipment as closely in keeping with
this principle as is the case with the
new Rush Rhees Library, with its
commanding position at the head of
the upper quadrangle, and its
massive tower of brick and stone.
Nor is it often that the beauty and
idealism in a university can be so
well concentrated as they are here in
inscriptions and carvings."
The names on the frieze on the
front of the library were "specially
arranged." Those on the west,
"Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes,
Newton, and Kant, are scientists,
realistic in outlook." On the same
side is Dr. John Slater's inscription,
"Here is the history of human
ignorance . . . recorded by human
intelligence for the admonition of
wiser ages still to come." On the
east are "Plato, Virgil, Dante,
Shakespeare, and Goethe, representing
the spiritual, idealistic side of
life," along with Slater's words,
"Here is the history of man's hunger
for truth." Four centuries of printers'
marks were wrought in iron for the
main doors and carved in Indiana
12
False front: To determine how patterns of walls and windows would look in situ, full-scale
samples were erected and photographed. Architect Leo Waasdorp couldn't resist posing in
front of one of them.
limestone along the balustrades of the
grand stairways inside.
Those stairways are indicative of a
period when the accessibility of
buildings was seldom considered and
when, in the words of Richard L.
Greene '26, "you had to wind
yourself with a long flight of stairs"
before reaching the catalog room and
handsomely decorated main reading
room on the second level.
During 1925-26, Messrs. Gordon
and Kaelber and their associate Leo
Waasdorp, accompanied by the
University librarian, Donald B.
Gilchrist, had visited public and
university libraries throughout the
country (including a number
designed by Charles Platt) and
returned laden with sketches,
photographs, and recommendations
from consultants.
The quartet then met with Dr.
Rhees, who critiqued everything from
the height of the ceilings and locations
of the stairs to the shape of the
lecture room and the advisability of
locating the browsing room in Todd
Union. The architects wanted a
passenger elevator; librarian Gilchrist
did not; arbiter Rhees said, "make
provision but do not install."
One of the final decisions was the
shape and garb of the stack tower. A
dozen sketches made in 1922 show
proposals ranging from descendants
of Independence Hall to the Pharos