USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > Rochester and Monroe County: A history and guide > Part 13
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The Rush Rhees Library (open to public: during academic year, weekdays 8 a.m .- 9:30 p.m .; Sun. 2-6 p.m .; in summer weekdays, 2-6 p.m.), named for Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the University, 1900-35, dominates the campus by its axial position and the circular tower, rising 186 feet, which, in its exterior graduated tiers of columns and its crowning lantern, is more Roman than Greek. In the tower is the Hopeman Memorial Chime of 17 bells. Illumination of the tower at night makes it a conspicuous feature of the skyline.
The interior is of monumental design. The foyer is of Indiana limestone with a floor of marble mosaic. Heavy
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stone columns mark the entrance to the grand stairway. The lintels of the doors are ornamented.
The library contains (1937) about 175,000 books, but provision has been made for 2,000,000 volumes. The interior of the tower will be filled with book stacks that will be the highest in America.
The "browsing" room on the first floor was designed to encourage recreational reading. It has bookshelves recessed in oak-paneled walls, a large fireplace, and a stained glass window. The main library rooms are on the second floor.
Morey Hall, on the north side of the quadrangle, is named for William Carey Morey, a member of the faculty for 48 years. It is three stories high in front and five in the rear. It houses a number of the academic departments and several administrative offices. Its oak-paneled entrance lobby serves the students as a lounging place.
Lattimore Hall, on the same side of the quadrangle, named in memory of Samuel Allen Lattimore, for 42 years professor of chemistry, houses the department of chemistry. The interior is finished in a glazed fire-proof and acid-proof tile of light tan.
The Bausch-Lomb Memorial, on the south side of the quadrangle, so named in recognition of a gift made by the families of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, is the home of the physics department and of the Institute of Applied Optics, which trains technicians and research workers in the field of industrial optics and prepares stu- dents to qualify as registered optometrists under the New York State law.
Dewey Hall, the companion building on the S. side, named for Chester Dewey, the university's first professor of chemistry and natural philosophy, houses the departments
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of biology and geology. The rear and the south wing are occupied by the Museum of Natural History (open free- weekdays 8:30-5), which also has quarters on the Women's Campus. The geology, zoology, and botany departments are particularly rich. On the first floor are the study collec- tions and the herbarium of the Rochester Academy of Sciences. On the second floor is the geological collection, the nucleus of which was gathered by Henry A. Ward, who established Ward's Natural Science Museum and supplied the specimens for many of the large museums of America. Presented to the university in 1927, the collec- tion still continues as a source of supply for college and school museums.
The Engineering Bldg. S. of the main quadrangle, provides facilities for the work in chemical and mechanical engineer- ing. The scope of the works in hydraulics has been extended recently by the courtesy of the Rochester Gas & Electric Company, which made available a former hydro-electric station in the lower gorge of the Genesee River for use as a laboratory.
Strong Auditorium, on the north side of the plaza, serves as assembly hall and auditorium, in which lectures, enter- tainments, and student functions are held. Burton Hall, on the west, named for Henry Fairfield Burton, professor of Latin, 1877-1918, and acting president, 1898-1900, is a student dormitory. The quarters of the Faculty Club occupy two-thirds of the main floor. Crosby Hall, east of Burton, named for George Nelson Crosby, who bequeathed a large part of his estate to the university, is also a dormitory.
Todd Union, named for George W. Todd, general chair- man of the Greater University financial campaign of 1924, serves as undergraduate clubhouse. The grill at the west end of the basement, paneled in pine, with a beam ceiling
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Burton Hall, River Campus
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and plank floor, suggests an early Colonial taproom. The main dining hall is large, with high ceiling, oak wainscot- ing of antique red, two huge fireplaces, and solid Jacobean furniture.
PRINCE STREET CAMPUS
The College for Women occupies the old or Prince Street campus. The 27 acres, with the vine-covered buildings shaded by elms, form a park in the midst of a residential district. The weathered Anderson Hall, occupying the cen- tral position on the campus, was constructed in 1861 and named for Dr. Martin Brewer Anderson, first president of the university; for a long time it was the only building on the campus. Completely remodeled, it houses several aca- demic departments and serves as principal classroom build- ing. Directly in front of Anderson Hall is a bronze statue of Dr. Anderson erected in 1904. The sculptor was Guernsey Mitchell.
Sibley Hall, directly west of Anderson Hall, the second university building to be erected, serves as the library of the College for Women. It was given to the university in 1874 by Hiram Sibley. By a recent gift of Hiram W. Sibley, son of the original donor, the building has been modernized. A large bust of the first donor stands in the center of the lobby.
The Eastman Laboratories Building, left from Sibley Hall, donated by George Eastman in the days when he first became interested in the university, is occupied by the de- partments of physics and biology.
The Reynolds Memorial Laboratory, directly east of Anderson Hall, completed in 1886 and enlarged and re- equipped in 1915, is the home of the department of chem- istry.
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Cutler Union. Social and Recreational Center, Schiff Prince Street Campus, University of Rochester
The Carnegie Laboratory Building, R. from the Rey- nolds Memorial Laboratory was provided by Andrew Carnegie for the department of mechanical engineering; with the removal of this department to the River Campus, the building was remodeled to serve the departments of geology and psychology.
Cutler Union, R. of the University Ave. entrance, named for James and Katherine Cutler, whose benefactions made it possible, was formally opened on June 10, 1933. Its tall, graceful, well-designed English Gothic tower dominates the entire campus.
The entire building, monumental and imposing, of Eng- lish Collegiate Gothic architecture, is constructed of shot-
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sawn limestone. The solidity of the structure as a whole is relieved by the delicate tracery and ornamentation of the lofty tower with its tall window openings and slender spires.
The building is approximately 165 feet long and 145 feet wide; the tower rises to a height of 135 feet. The structure was planned to balance the Memorial Art Gallery. It was designed by Gordon and Kaelber.
The large assembly room on the main floor, called Cutler Hall, two stories high, with beamed ceiling, paneled walls, and decorative detail, is used for major college functions. The lounge, of the English "great hall" type, is paneled in pine, with stained glass Gothic windows reaching al- most to the ceiling. The murals are the work of Ezra A. Winter, who also painted those in the Eastman Theatre and the Rush Rhees Library.
Catharine Strong Hall, on the SW. cor. of University Ave. and Prince St., was given by Henry A. Strong in memory of his mother. Before the removal of the men's college to the new campus, it was the main building of the College for Women; now it houses the department of edu- cation, the offices of the extension division, and the summer school.
Anthony Memorial Hall, adjacent to Catharine Strong Hall, named for Susan B. Anthony, serves as the women's gymnasium.
MEMORIAL ART GALLERY
The Memorial Art Gallery, 490 University Ave. (open to. public, free, daily 10-5; Sun. and Mon. 1:30-5), presented through the university to the people of Rochester by Mrs. James Sibley Watson in memory of her son James G. Averell, was opened in October 1913 and enlarged in 1926. The archi-
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tects of the original building were Foster, Gade and Graham of New York City; the addition was designed by McKim, Mead and White. The structure is of Italian Renaissance architecture, built of Indiana limestone. The Palladian loggia forming the main entrance is similar to that of the Morgan Library in New York City. The bronze door is elaborately designed. The bas-relief panels in the entrance facade symbolize Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, and Music.
On the main floor are a foyer and eight galleries assembled around a stone-paved fountain court. In the galleries are exhibited collections of the late Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance periods, including a notable group of 15th, 16th, and 17th century tapestries.
The lower floor contains an art library with 5,000 volumes for public use, an auditorium, a lecture room, service and storage space, and studios and classrooms for the extensive educational work which is carried on for the public, mem- bers of the Gallery, and the students of the university. Here are held the 30 weekly classes in painting, drawing, model- ing, and the history of art which are offered free of charge to school children and special membership groups. The Gallery is widely known for its creative-expression methods of art education.
The permanent collections of the Gallery include paint- ings by old and modern masters, departments of Egyptian, Classical, Chinese, Medieval, and Renaissance art, including painting, sculpture, and such important fields of allied arts as furniture, ceramics, stained glass, tapestry, and prints of the historic periods. Among the most notable possessions is a pair of stained glass quatrefoil medallions, dated about 1270, from La Sainte Chapelle, the Gothic chapel which St. Louis built in Paris to house his treasures from the Crusades; a Gothic tapestry, The Judgment of the Emperor
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Otho, of about 1500, from the original furnishings of Knole House when it was the palace of the Archbishops of Canter- bury, before Queen Elizabeth presented it to the Earl of Sackville; and an early 14th-century Madonna in stone, which came out of Rheims Cathedral.
These collections are augmented by a series of ten monthly exhibitions each year which bring to Rochester works of art of many countries and centuries and furnish the illus- trative material for an active educational program. Lectures, gallery talks, and loan collections of lantern slides, mounted prints, and exhibition cases illustrating various period arts and art processes, serve thousands of school children and study groups annually. Each year the Gallery holds an ex- hibition of the works of the artists and craftsmen of Roch- ester and vicinity, selected by a jury of three out-of-town artists and teachers of art. Twenty-four such events have been held under the auspices of the Gallery, continuing the 31 previously sponsored by the Rochester Art Club.
THE EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND THE EASTMAN THEATER
THE BUILDINGS
The Eastman School of Music and the Eastman Theater are in one building occupying the larger part of the block on Gibbs St. bet. Main St. E. and East Ave. Completed in 1922, the structure was designed by Gordon and Kaelber, with McKim, Mead and White as associates.
The exterior of the structure is of modified Italian Renais- sance design. The two lower stories are of rusticated stone- work, with an elaborate metal marquee extending the whole length of the building above the first floor. The third and fourth stories, of light gray Indiana limestone, are
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Eastman School of Music
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adorned with three-quarter engaged Ionic columns set on the curve of the building over the main entrance to the theater. The design is repeated in a series of pilasters alter- nating with pedimented and square-headed windows. An entablature, an attic story, and acroteria crown the entire building. The attic story over the colonnade is in the form of a paneled parapet.
The Theater, with main entrance at the cor. of Main St. E. and Gibbs St. is the largest unit in the building. Kilbourn Hall, with entrance on Gibbs St. is at the opposite end of the building. Between the two, a central corridor, 187 feet long, forms the entrance to the School of Music. At the Kilbourn Hall end, the grand staircase leads to the second floor corridor, so large that it serves as ball- room for large school functions. On the wall panels are hung works of art borrowed from the Memorial Art Gallery and changed from time to time. The rest of the building is devoted to classrooms, practice rooms, recital halls, and offices.
THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC
In 1918 George Eastman acquired the property and the corporate rights of the Institute of Musical Art. The next year he purchased the site of the present building and pro- vided funds for construction and endowment. Later con- tributions increased his investment in the project to about $8,000,000. In his will he bequeathed an additional $2,400,- 000 to the School.
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Title to the Theater as well as to the School of Music is vested in the University of Rochester. The faculty of the School of Music is separate from the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, but there is a close co-operation be- tween the two schools, and tuition paid to one entitles the
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student to take approved courses in the other. The director of the School of Music is Dr. Howard Hanson, well-known composer.
Besides its space in the main building, the School of Music occupies a ten-story annex across Swan Street, con- nected with the main building by overhead runways, which provides 120 additional practice rooms, classrooms, and a gymnasium. The equipment includes about 200 pianos and 18 organs and electrical recording apparatus which makes available for repeated study recordings of individual and group performances.
The Sibley Musical Library (open to public), presented to the University by Hiram W. Sibley, contains about 35,000 volumes and a large number of musical scores and manu- scripts. A new building to house the library, under con- struction (1937) on Swan St. just E. of the main building, will be the first in the country devoted exclusively to a musical library.
The Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and the East- man School Chorus, made up of students, give public per- formances in the Eastman Theater and broadcast regularly over the radio. The opera department offers a schedule of entertainments each year.
In the department of theory and composition, the school has a dozen eminent instructors headed by Dr. Howard Hanson. From 1932 to 1937 four of the six Prix de Rome awards of the American Academy in Rome were given to students of the composition department of the Eastman School. In 1937 one of its students was awarded the New York Philharmonic prize for the best symphonic composi- tion in a country-wide competition.
The members of the student body of the Eastman School come from all over the world. In one year 45 percent of the
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new students came from 77 different musical institutions. The school offers both degree and certificate courses and courses leading to advanced degrees. The tuition fee is $300 a year, with additional fees for the use of pianos, organs, and practice rooms. After a student has applied for admis- sion to the school and has been accepted, he undergoes a placement test in theory and an audition.
Kilbourn Hall, a memorial to Mr. Eastman's mother, Maria Kilbourn Eastman, is the assembly room of the school. The design of this audience chamber is in the Italian Renaissance style, embellished with colored ornamentation. The decorations were painted by Ezra Winter and the sculpture work done by Paul Jannewein. The side walls are paneled in wood to a height of 21 feet, above which the smooth stone is hung with old tapestries. The ceiling is blue and gold in grille designs with heavy beams delicately orna- mented and colored. It has been called a "perfectly planned concert hall." The seating arrangement is somewhat un- usual in that while the seats rise in tiers like those of a Greek theater, the rows are straight instead of semi- circular. The hall is equipped with facilities for motion pictures and has a four-manual organ. In it are held student and faculty recitals and chamber music concerts.
EASTMAN THEATER
The Eastman Theater occupies the whole Main St. end of the main building, with entrances on Main and Gibbs Sts. An adjacent five-story building, directly connected with the stage, provides shops for the construction of scenery. The auditorium seats 3,380 people.
In the interior, a sweeping mezzanine balcony over the rear of the orchestra floor takes the place of boxes and is usually occupied by permanent subscribers. Above the
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Entrance to Strong Memorial Hospital and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
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UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
mezzanine rises the grand balcony with its hundreds of seats. The acoustics of the theater are excellent.
The side wall spaces, unusually large because of the elim- ination of boxes, are finished in Caen stone and decorated in the Italian Renaissance style. High above the rusticated walls are the murals of Ezra Winter and Barry Faulkner. Mr. Faulkner's murals represent the four symphonic move- ments: the andante by St. Cecilia at the organ; the allegro by a hunting scene; the pastoral by a youth playing the pipes to a girl partly hidden by a canopy, with a young girl dancing nearby; the gay scherzo by dramatic music- two figures in the masks of Comedy and Tragedy. The four panels by Mr. Winter depict four types of musical composi- tion, festival, lyric, martial, and sylvan.
Hanging from the dome, weighing tons but light and fragile in appearance, is a single crystal chandelier with 267 globes made by Viennese glass-blowers. From a central control these can be made to suffuse the entire auditorium with a brilliant light or to glow with a soft radiance.
Outside the auditorium, in the foyer, the lounging rooms and parlors, the grand promenade, in nooks and corners, have been placed paintings and works of art; at a turn in the grand stairway is a panel by Maxfield Parrish; in other corners are fine pieces of period furniture, rare Japanese tapestry, and a fountain.
THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY
The School of Medicine and Dentistry occupies a 60-acre tract bet. Elmwood Ave. and Crittenden Blvd. adjoining the River Campus. The main building houses both the medical school and the Strong Memorial Hospital, to facilitate close contact. The building, with many wings and pavilions, is about 400 feet square, six stories high, con-
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structed of red brick, its massive bulk visible from almost any point in the southern section of the city. Connected with it is the Municipal Hospital, built by the city in co- operation with the school, staffed by the same physicians and nurses that serve the School of Medicine and the Strong Memorial Hospital.
The two hospitals provide the School of Medicine with clinical facilities of more than 500 beds and out-patient departments and clinics that give medical and surgical treatment to more than 100,000 people annually. The school is also active in medical and surgical research. Its dean, Dr. George H. Whipple, was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his research into the causes and cure of perni- cious anemia.
The School of Medicine was opened in 1926. The initial gifts included $5,000,000 from the General Education Board, $4,000,000 from Mr. Eastman, and $1,000,000 from the daughters of the late Henry A. Strong for a teaching hos- pital as a memorial to their father and mother. The Roch- ester Dental Dispensary, with building and endowment valued at $2,500,000, was affiliated with the new institu- tion. Other funds and endowments were donated in the last ten years.
THE SCHOOL OF NURSING
The School of Nursing is conducted in connection with the School of Medicine. It offers a five-year course, including three years of college work with preliminary instruction in the theory and practice of nursing and two years of clinical work, class instruction, and supervised practice of nursing. Graduates are awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science and a Diploma in Nursing.
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Helen Wood Hall, the nurses' dormitory, is on Crittenden Boulevard, directly across from the School of Nursing.
THE ROCHESTER DENTAL DISPENSARY
The Rochester Dental Dispensary, 800 Main St. is now affiliated with the University of Rochester as its School of Dentistry. For completion of its 4-year course the School awards the degree of D.D.S. Its school for dental hygiene, instituted in 1916, trains women for service in oral hygiene in schools, hospitals, and industries.
The first dental clinic in the United States was opened in 1901 by the Rochester Dental Society with funds provided by Capt. Henry Lomb. After Lomb's death in 1908, Mr. Eastman became interested in the clinic's activities and made his first donation. By the time of his death his sub- scriptions totalled more than $3,000,000. He established similar dispensaries in several European countries.
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THE ZOO
Location: Seneca Park Transportation: St. Paul St. car line Hours: 10 to 6, weekdays; 10 to 8, Sundays
s one enters the zoo grounds the first thing to catch the eye is the outdoor cage of the polar bear. Here he leads a secluded bachelor existence, seemingly content and free from care, as he swims expertly and tirelessly about his pool, now on his back, now diving under water for unbelievable minutes. He has received so much attention that, like a spoiled child, he enjoys "show- ing off." Probably he would be lonely for lack of an audi- ence if he were returned to his native polar sea.
The first apartment inside the north entrance of the Zoo Building is the living room of Sally II, the young elephant. She sways rhythmically from side to side as if keeping time to a music which we cannot hear. Occasionally she rouses from mysterious meditations to extend a pleading trunk for peanuts. When a child teases her by offering a peanut and then withdrawing it, Sally rebukes this example of bad manners by blowing through her trunk. Over the entrance of her pen is a sign: "Sally II. Presented to the children of Rochester, N. Y., by the Rochester Times-Union May 1,
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1932." Her predecessor, Sally I, also presented by the Times- Union, died several years ago, and many a Rochester child, now grown beyond childhood, remembers her. Sally II is a young lady of 11 summers, but she will not attain her full growth until she has reached the age of 25.
Across the aisle from Sally II is the great tank where the three sea lions swim around and around in a fury of energy as if trying to make a new speed record. Apparently they waste no time mourning for the two comrades who recently departed this life, killed by a generous public which per- sisted in feeding them choice tidbits of burnt matches, cigarette stubs, and peanut hulls, in spite of numerous placards: "Please do not feed the animals."
The Guinea baboons with their intellectual, tufted eye- brows have the look of thoughtful college professors. Mother Nature has ornamented the face of the Mandrill baboon with the blue tattoo markings of an Indian medi- cine-man.
The Rhesus monkeys are mild little fawn-colored crea- tures with black cat-faces. Perhaps it was from watching the solemnity with which these monkeys dart about the cage and pull each other's tails that some of our popular screen comedians evolved the idea of contrasting comedy with a melancholy expression.
The sooty Mangebey monkey from Africa is a bored old gentleman with Dundreary whiskers, who looks as if he were worrying about his income tax. Even when he hangs from the cross-bars by his long tail he still wears a grave expression of dignity.
The little gibbons in the next cage have no tails. Their most amusing antic is wrestling. The bout consists in a tangle of spidery arms and legs in which no holds are barred.
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It is catch-as-catch-can until the one who is getting the worst of the tussle suddenly springs away out of reach and leaps to the swinging bars where he performs a bit of skill- ful and intricate trapeze work. These little black and brown gibbons have furry, pansy-blossom masks for faces.
The clowns of the zoo are two chimpanzees from far-off Congo; before their cage an amused crowd of visitors gathers to laugh at the ridiculous antics of these parodies of humanity. If Mr. and Mrs. Chimp are homesick for their native African home they seem to bear it philosophically. The Old Man has a subtle sense of humor. He waits until an audience has collected, large enough to make his efforts worth while, meantime ignoring the encouraging whistling and gesturing of those strange human animals outside his cage. Then, when everyone decides to walk away he suddenly springs to the side of the cage and drums with his feet against the steel paneling to announce that the great one-man act is about to begin. The crowd rushes back, and he comes to the front of his "stage" and goes into his dance, brandishing his long hairy arms and stamping his feet in a fantastic impromptu sort of jig. His droll little eyes watch the crowd, evidently enjoying their laughter, but during the whole performance he is as grave as a judge. Those strange human animals who stand outside his cage dressed in queer hats and incomprehensible clothes are his chief entertainment. When he has succeeded in making them laugh he watches them with a curiosity as frank as their own, and finally dismisses them by retiring to the back of his cage where he droops, bored, waiting for a new audi- ence. Possibly he and his little family debate as to whether chimpanzees care to claim the human race as relatives.
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