Tuesday, April 9, 1946
THE STUDENT MEMORIAL COMMITTEE REPORT
Page Three
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panile will be 170 to 195 feet high
The top of the tower will house an observation room from which energetic individuals (325 steps to the tower top) can see for miles in every direction and can absorb the magnificent vistas of both the Kaw and Wagarusa valleys.
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The architects have suggested that the campanile, to conform with the majority of the other University buildings, be constructed of native Kansas stone. All of the walls, steps, and other appurtenances to the tower will also be of native stone.
In the base of the tower will be a Memorial hall, 25 by 35 feet, on the walls of which will be bronze plaques with the names of the more than 8,000 K.U. men and women who served in the armed forces during the war. In the center of the 30-foot-high room, plans call for a huge metal globe on which will be marked the various countries and islands in which University men and women were stationed.
Plan Garden of Memories
The tower also affords space for the large carillon (set of bell)s) and an apartment for the carillonneur which will include the carillon clavier (keyboard) room, dressing room, and shower. The dressing room and shower are necessary because playing the carillon requires great en-
High open arches will be placed in the four sides of the Memorial hall. The north arch will lead to a balcony overlooking the Parkway and the Kaw valley. The east and west arches will open onto 150-foot long pergolas while the south arch will give access to a Garden of Memories. The Garden of Memories, when screened by the tower, the pergolas, and Frank Strong hall, will be a place of quiet refuge, beautifully landscaped and including a fountain and pool.
An English Campanile
cyggy and action—as much as is required for many sporting events.
To Have Individual Memorials
To Have Individual Memorials The pergolas will be roofted but open on all sides. Fitted with benches, they will afford visitors and students of the University an unexcelled opportunity to enjoy the panorama of the wide Kaw valley. Space will be available in the pergolas and the garden of Memories for many individual memorials to K.U. men and women who lost their lives in the recent war. Steps will lead from each of the pergolas to the Memorial parkway.
Campanile Adds Beauty
"These plans," Mr. Neville said, are still in the preliminary stage and are still subject to considerable change. However, I feel that the Memorial spirit has been captured in the designs and the campanile will contribute greatly to the beauty of the University campus."
Mr. Neville, a member of the K.U. engineering class of 1923, has cooperated in the design of the Kansas City Municipal auditorium, buildings at the Kansas City Municipal airport, and many other notable structures in the middle west.
Working with Mr. Neville on the
campanile design is Edward Buehler Delk, consulting architect for the Kansas City Park board. Delk is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and came to Kansas City years ago to design and lay out the Country Club Plaza district.
An Italian Campanile
How Much Should I Give?
How much should you give? As much as you can! You are asked to contribute, frequently, to many worth-while projects which have no direct connection with the University This week you have an opportunity to give to a project which will add immeasurably to the beauty and future of K.U. You can't give too much.
After World War I students pledged $160,000 of the total fund of one million dollars for a memorial. With almost twice as many students now as there were in 1920, students are asked to contribute only $10,000 of a half-million dollar fund.
Although cash subscriptions are desired, students who wish to make pledges may do so. Pledges should be made payable within one year, and may be paid in either monthly, quarterly or annual payments.
Memorial Drive Will Cross Ruts of Old Oregon Trail
Says Ken Higdon, Student Committee, financial chairman: "No sum is too small nor too large to be acceptable. I hope the students will cooperate in this drive and assure themselves of a share in the Memorial project."
"I believe I express the desire of the class of 1936 in endorsing a K.U. Memorial, which will memorialize six men of our class who died in order that we, the survivors, might enjoy the American life. Things go on without them, but we should support whole-heartedly any project which will forever remind us of their deeds and sacrifices." — Dana Durand, President, Class of 1936.
The Scenic Parkway, to be built on Mt. Oread as a part of the K.U. Worcester War II Memorial, will have "historical significance," according to Prof. Robert Taft, of the University chemistry department and author of the book, "Across the Years on Mount Oread."
"Even before the day of the traveler," Professor Taft writes, "on this height (Mt. Oread) stood many a Kanza warrior viewing a land that was literally the happy hunting ground. From this promontory, Monchonsia, chief of the Kanza tribe, may have*
chief of the Kanza tribe, may have viewed the great flood of 1844, which transformed the region into a vast inland sea."
"As the waters receded and time passed, Monchonsia could also have seen from this same headland a growing number of caravans bound for the Shining mountain sand for the oceans beyond, caravans whose predecessors for a quarter of a century had gradually deepened the ruts of the famous Oregon Trail."
"Beginning in 1849," Taft continues, "there plodded up the southern slope of Mt. Oread a vast emigration bound for the golden land of California. One branch of the great California and Oregon trail, still unnoted and unmarked, thus passed over the very ground now part of the University campus."
According to preliminary plans for the Driveway, a part of it will be laid over the ruts of the old Oregon trail. Memorial association officials expressed the hope that the portion of the Driveway which traversed the pioneer route might be suitably marked in some way.
"Among the first to settle the new territory was a band of New Englanders who, on the first day of August, 1854, camped on this same promontory and found the land beneath them good and their journey at an end. Thus Lawrence was born and the promontory named 'Mount Oread,' from Oread Institute in a far-off town in Massachusetts which, like the present University, occupied a commanding site overlooking its town."
"Even after 1849," Professor Taft writes, "the immigration continued and numerous were the travelers who cast envious eyes on the fertile valleys below, once they had gained Mt. Oread's height. But the land was reserved for its original inhabitants 'as long as the grass should grow and the water should run.' Water stopped running and the grass ceased to grow in a few short years as far as the politicians at Washington were concerned; for, in 1854, the land was removed from the Red Man's domain and given to the white man.
PARKWAY ROUTE
"My three sons were all in the war—and though not K.U, students—for their sake I would to help out on this alive memorial."—Nettie Manley Lyon, '01, Topeka, Kans.
Although not yet definitely determined, it is planned that the Memorial Driveway will be built from a formal entrance to be erected in the vicinity of 13th and Orread streets down the slope north and west of the Memorial Union.
West of the Union the driveway will follow up the present Mississippi'ippi approach to the Hill branching off North of Bailey Chemical laboratories. Curving around through the upper edge of Marvin Grove the road will emerge onto the promontory north of the center of Frank Strong Hall. It is on this same point where the Memorial Campanile will be built.
Leaving the promontory the parkway will be built south and west above Potter Lake and north of Snow Hall, curving up to the present campus drive at the intersection near the Engineering School.
If sufficient funds are available, the Driveway will be extended around the south side of the Hill. Passing in a circle west of Lindley Hall, the road will run approximately midway between the Military Science Building and Hoch Auditorium. Then it will curve down towards Sixteenth Street below the University utility buildings connecting with the present South approach to the Hill.
If additional funds are available a North spur to the Memorial Driveway will be built. It will be constructed from the junction at the west end of the campus in a northeasterly direction past the new recreation area above Potter Lake and on down the Hill to join Maine street just west of the stadium.
At the first thought the selection of a Driveway as one of the two sections of the University of Kansas World War II Memorial seems too common to merit either attention or interest. Deeper study, however, reveals that a Scenic Driveway is singularly appropriate as a memorial to the men and women who fought, and those who died, that the world might be a place of peace and freedom.
The history of roads is the history of civilization. Where roads went, civilization followed. Where they ended, it stopped. The Nazis and Jap., in their enormous conquests, cut off all roads to the world outside the territories which they dominated. Victory came for the subjected peoples only when the Allie pushed roads, on land, sea and air, back into Europe and the Orient.
Consequently it seems entirely fitting to memorialize those who opened up the channels of communication which brought peace to the earth, with a road devoted to beauty and built on a Hill dedicated to the best in life.
Will Be a Mecca
"When the World War II committee decided upon a Memorial Campus Driveway with a Campanile and Carillon the action met with, my enthusiastic support. I can envisage this driveway encircling historic old Mt. Cread with numerous scenic bay recesses. . . . Through the ages it will bring friends and loved ones back to the campus to renew the memories of imperishable acts of our heroes of the World War II. Our University of Kansas will become a mecca. The symphony of the chimes will forever be a reverent tribute to the Kansas youth who have served us so faithfully and so well. Truly this project is a living memorial." -Forrest C. Allen, Director of Physical Education and Basketball Coach.
"Is it not permissable to feel that works of art are more likely to recall to our descendants the deeds of their ancestors than swimming pools; memorial trees, or recreational centers? This is not to say that useful purposes necessarily defeat the real object of a memorial; if they are worthy of notice it is because they were also endowed with beauty." - Paul P. Cret, chairman, Committee on War Memorials, Amer. Inst. of Architects.
. "Our own University has a memorial project which I feel certain we all heartily endorse. Every effort should be made by us to help fulfill this most worthwhile and lasting memorial."—Clyde L. Smith, President, Class of 1939.
An Artist's Impression of the Memorial Driveway