W.Va. Colleges Recognized for Historic Architecture
By Kasey, Pam
Historic architecture at five private West Virginia colleges has been recognized on a Web site created by the Council of Independent Colleges.
Buildings and other features on the campuses of Bethany College, Davis and Elkins College, Ohio Valley University, Salem International University and the University of Charleston are listed by the Historic Campus Architecture Project, which bills itself as the nation’s first architecture and landscape database of independent private college and university campuses.
“The campus is more than just a place,” said CIC President Richard Ekman when the Web site was unveiled in November. “It’s an emblem of what the institution values and how it brings its community together, a physical manifestation of educational philosophy.”
The photographs, drawings and descriptive materials assembled for this project – from nearly 370 institutions so far – form a treasure trove for understanding the places where students have learned and professors have taught from colonial times to the present, Ekman added.
Internet users can search the collection by building style and type, architect, time period, state or region, and in many other ways.
Listed among the historic structures on West Virginia campuses is the 1841-42 Pendleton Heights at Bethany College.
The oldest building on Bethany’s campus, Pendleton Heights was once a station on the Underground Railroad, the building’s Web page explains. It has served as the home of many college presidents.
Also listed is D&E’s Halliehurst Hall.
Constructed in 1890 as the summer home of U.S. Senator Stephen Benton Elkins, the building is named for his wife Hallie, daughter of Sen. Henry Gassaway Davis.
“Halliehurst is a 16,000-square foot mansion with 56 rooms,” the site reads. “Halliehurst’s turreted design was patterned after a Rhineland castle that Hallie Davis Elkins admired. New York architect Charles T. Mott added such fashionable features as lapped siding, cut wooden shingles, hipped slate roofs, and sprawling porches.”
The mansion now houses administrative office and hosts special receptions.
More recent buildings are also included among the site’s 31 West Virginia features, including the 1950-51 Riggleman Hall at the University of Charleston, the 1967 Stotts Administration Center at Ohio Valley University and the 1986 Brewster All-Faiths Chapel at Salem International University.
The HCAP is supported by the Getty Foundation.
“The foundation is proud to support CIC’s ambitious documentation project,” said Interim Director Joan Weinstein.
“Through Getty’s Campus Heritage Initiative, we have worked since 2002 to assist colleges in the United States to manage and preserve the integrity of their historic buildings and landscapes,” she added. “With its wealth of material, the HCAP Web site has the potential to advance the interest in campus preservation to wide audiences across the country.”
The Historic Campus Architecture Project database may be viewed online at www.cic.edu/hcap.
Copyright State Journal Corporation Apr 13, 2007
(c) 2007 State Journal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.