University Daily Kansan, October 17, 1980
Page 5
Strong Hall's main entrance still mystery
By KATHY MAAG Staff Reporter
Architects, faculty, students and alumni have argued for years whether Strong Hall was built backward.
Yet the question is to remain unsolved. Old newspaper records indicate that the original design had the entrance facing north toward the Campanile and the Stadium, but floor plans show that the designs for both entrances are identical and either could be considered the "main" entrance.
He envisioned the campus growing northwest from Jayhawk Boulevard.
In 1904, Kansas City city landscapeor George Kessler drew up an elaborate plan for the future expansion of the University.
"It it was assumed the University would grow in that direction," Thomas Ryther, 1922 KU alumnus, said. "But the other side of the building became the front, despite the main entrance on the other side."
BOT SOME disagree with this architectural "mistake."
"The way the interior is laid out, looking east or west, the building is identical," he said. "You can argue that this was built it with an entrance that's on a hill!"
Barry Bunch, KU Archives employee, said that the floor plans prove either entrance could be the front of the building.
“Besides, there was no road back there at the time because Memorial Drive was constructed later. It makes a great difference and make good common sense,” he said.
Strong Hall took 15 years to build. Ground was broken in 1909 and the building was finished in 1924. The total cost was $644,730.
Others think the entrance switch was made during the numerous building modifications.
BECAUSE OF THE difficulty in
collecting information on the
plans were altered frequently.
Originally designed in a Classical-Renaissance style, Strong Hall was to have hive a domed auditorium fronted by stucco columns and supported by manly ollers.
Whatever the reason for the building's construction, students today primarily use the south entrance.
Take a stroll down Memorial Drive and decide for yourself.
By BRAD STERTZ Staff Reporter
War turned spigot on KU patriotism
In 1918 the "European Conflict" with its implications of mustard gas, trenches and the "new war baby" aviation caught less attention than did the question of freshmen wearing or not wearing "little cap."
Names such as Naimishm, Green,
Templin and Strong were names of
men, not buildings on the KU campus,
and outbreaks of typhoid and scarlet
The 1910s
fever made the headlines until KU's football team finally best Nebraska after five straight years of defeat. But within a year all that had changed and the world had to be made safe for democracy.
The first indications on Mount Oread that the spectre of the 'war to end all wars' was creeping into the American Missions is severe chemical shortage in early 1917.
FORTUNATELY, THE department of chemistry and the School of Pharmacy had sufficient stocks to last the year.
"The situation is no worse than it was last year," said Dean L.E. Sayre of the School of Pharmacy in the Jan. 31, 1917 issue of the University Daily Kansan, to predict what will happen next year, I am hoping that the war will be over.
But the war was not over. In fact, within two weeks the Germans increased attacks on American merchant ships and sea and the war scare increased.
Others, such as Capt. F.E. Jones, wanted military training to be compulsory on campuses as an alternative to gymnastics. Jones was captain of the women's team and had students originally formed to quell the Mexican threat on the border.
By Feb. 2, 1917 discussion on whether military training should be introduced on the KU campus was widespread. Many, including B.F. Moore, professor of history, thought it was too late to start training at the universities.
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COUNT CANALS WIDOW DAYS
Moore said that such training developed a "type of tin soldier" who merely learned how to "right about" and "soldier arms." The only benefit, he came in the form of the physical exercise and the control it demanded.
Nationwide, the threat of war raised questions about the plight of the college or university man. By the middle of March, Harvard University declared that it would close if war came. Programs allowing for full course credit and no exams for enlisters were set up by the Senate. Even in high schools, teachers began discussing war training.
Far from the days of the importance of "whipping the Cornhuskers," the world of the Western front suddenly became closer to KU students after the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany and the infamous Zimmerman Note was published.
A KANSAK ARTICLE from Feb. 6, 1917 said that "Students of Kansas University and of all colleges are showing much interest in the break of relations and the future development. In case of war or the introduction of military training in the schools, they will be the ones most affected."
By Feb. 8, 1917, Chancellor Strong announced that the University was ready to fight and that he expected the University to be a big factor in the war movement because of its being at the center of the important supply source for the country.
While the flags of patriotism were flying high at the University, some anti-war sentiment appeared. In March, 1917, cards were distributed on campus asking, "Why be a soldier? You have nothing to gain and your life to lose."
The importance of the possibility of American entry into the war filled the pages of the Kansan in the months of February, March, April and May. Editorials speculated on what KU's answer would be to the quick rise in patriotism and need for quick militarization.
In reply, a Kansan editorial said that
a soldier for democracy was a noble
person.
Fraternities and sororites became desperate for new pledges and many faced a critical shutdown stage. Of the schools within the University, the School of Engineering lost 30 to 40 percent of its enrollment to the war. The School of Law had a similar attrition rate.
Finally, KU students mobilized on Sept. 24, 1917. The "march on Hindenberg's line" began with the movement of two Lawrence companies to the heat of the action - in Oklahoma. By Jan. 15, 1918, two years after the life of books, whipping the Cornhuskers and relaxing at Lee's Inn, 496 KU students were in the service and 37 were on the lines in France.
In a farewell message to KU students leaving for the army, James Naismith, head of the KU physical development program and father of basketball, said, "We're going to face an army life. Neither are sob letters needed for the tough life facing you."
Truck gardens, or as they later became known, victory gardens, were planted in almost every available plot of land on the campus. The KU campus became a veritable "sito tech" as cows and sheep allowed to graze on campus grounds.
But as the pigs and cows increased in the KU community, the draft and enlistment lowered the student and faculty sector of the population.
COMPANY M was the University's unit in the United States Army.
The University of Kansas was asked to help out in the war effort in many different areas. French orphans needed food, "truck gardens" required tending and men needed strengthening. Many area cities offered bandages and garden plots to the soldiers training at the University.
better sense of responsibility as citizens.
But as the prospects of the war increased, the need for experienced units such as Company M also increased. Within a matter of weeks Company M was transformed from a standing unit in the Kansas militia to a part of an Engineering Company in the United States Army. They were to be used to put the "great volunteer army" into shape.
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