The Society of Architectural Historians News Missouri

The Society of Architectural Historians

Missouri Valley Chapter

Volume XVI Number 3B Fall 2010 www.stlouisarchitecture.org

News Letter

ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY’S MIDTOWN CAMPUS, PART II: THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS

by David J. Simmons

St. Louis University from the air, showing the original college build-ings: St. Francis Xavier, the College Church, at the corner of Grand and Lindell; the College Building, later DuBourg Hall, 1881-1889, with its front wing facing Grand and its north or Jesuit wing extending west to frame the original quadrangle. To the north facing Lindell is the Scholasticate, later Verhaegen Hall, 1891. At the far left is the rear wing of the Theologate, later DeSmet Hall, 1898-99, demolished 1977.

THOMAS WARYNG WALSH

Born at Kilkenny, Ireland in 1826, Thomas Waryng Walsh, eldest of six children, received his early training from his father William Walsh, architect and builder. Educated at Trinity College, Thomas Walsh continued his training under a three-year apprenticeship with Wil-liam Dean Butler, master Irish architect. Subsequently, he sailed for Canada. There he found work supervising the construction of the Customs House and Post Office in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He moved to New York in 1847, where he joined the ar-chitectural firm of Joseph French and Jonathan Snook.

During this association Walsh worked on a number of important New York projects: Odd Fellows Hall, Niblo’s Garden (a theatre), and the Metropolitan Hotel. Late in 1849 he came to St. Louis, and the following spring he formed a three-year architectural partnership with Joseph C. Edgar (1810-1893), a builder turned architect who had practiced in this city since 1834. After this relationship, Walsh worked without a partner through the rest of the decade with the exception of a brief partnership with his brother Patrick Walsh in 1856. Between 1856 and 1858, the French architect, Alfred Henry Picquenard, worked for him as an employee. Pic-quenard, conversant in the French Renaissance and Em-pire architectural styles, provided such designs for Walsh as the first Lindell Hotel and the O’Fallon Polytechnic Institute. James A. Smith, an English architect, arrived in St. Louis at the beginning of 1853. In 1860 he formed a partner-ship with Walsh which lasted fourteen years. The last of Walsh’s partners was Edmund Jungenfeld (1839-1885), a German-trained architect. When he came to St. Louis in 1868, Jungenfeld established himself in the civil engi-neering and architectural professions. His brewery de-sign and construction experience soon attracted a large number of local brewers and wine makers who flooded his office with architectural commissions. Two years later Walsh asked Jungenfeld to become his partner. They had a formal partnership for about four years, and afterward, an informal relationship continued until about 1878. During his last eleven years, Walsh practiced alone. After George I. Barnett, Thomas Walsh was the most important architect in St. Louis during the last half of the nineteenth century. He practiced architecture in this city for forty years. Controversy and scandal frequently touched his career with uncertainty and disappointment. His flashing temper, immense ego, and public condemna-tion of others attracted few friends and legions of ene-mies. On one occasion the St. Louis Taxpayers League called him “public enemy number one” for his unwonted extravagance in the construction of public buildings under his charge. As an architect, Walsh’s abilities were seldom ques-tioned, but his methods of operation were always suspect.

Newsletter 2 Fall 2010

He manipulated people and situations through deception to secure commissions and keep projects on track. Some of his architectural business dealings gave the appearance of being dishonest or at best unethical. The question in the minds of his architectural peers and most people in the community was – could he be trusted? In spite of the limitations imposed by Walsh’s personality on his career, he designed and built many fine buildings in St. Louis.

Thomas Waryng Walsh, 1826-1890 Best known for the design and construction of large-scale public buildings, Walsh served on a number of important government positions related to architecture:

Architect for the St. Louis Public Schools 1869-1871 Architect to the St. Louis County Court 1869-1872 Architect to the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanics

Fair 1875-1888 Local Supervising Architect for the United States

Government 1857-1859; 1869-1871, 1873-1878 Although Walsh’s buildings reflect a variety of styles, he preferred the English Gothic mode, especially for reli-gious and educational buildings. On several occasions, he mentioned Augustus Pugin, English architect and writer, as the inspiration and source for his English Gothic interpretations. A careful examination of Walsh’s work suggests other sources for his Gothic Revival de-signs in Pugin’s English disciples, namely William Butterfield (1814-1900) and George Street (1824-1881) and to a lesser extent, Alfred Waterhouse and William Burges. Both St. Francis Xavier Church and the College Building demonstrate their influence on Walsh’s Gothic approach and his mastery of the English Gothic style.

At least 130 projects have been attributed to Walsh’s of-fice during his practice. Some of the most important are these, all long-since demolished: Everett House Hotel, 4th & Olive 1854 Gay Business Bldg., SW cor. 2nd & Pine 1858 Res. of John Howe, 15th & Lucas Place 1859 St. John’s Methodist Ch., Locust & Ewing 1867 Southern Illinois Insane Asylum, Anna, IL 1869 Four Courts Building & Jail, 12th & Clark 1869 Northwestern State Insane Asylum, St. Joseph, MO 1872 Missouri Republican Bldg., 3rd & Chestnut 1873 Zoological Gardens, St. Louis Fairgrounds 1876 Race Track & Jockey Club, Fairgrounds 1885 THE COLLEGE BUILDING: DUBOURG HALL The university Jesuits selected the open courtyard ar-rangement for their new Grand Avenue campus. They wanted the new college building to house college train-ing, high school studies, and a residential area for the Jes-uit community. Where possible, the Jesuit areas needed to be isolated from the educational facilities to provide privacy for the Jesuits. Stylistically, the college building would blend with the new St. Francis Xavier Church and embrace English architecture from the Decorated Period of the 13th century. Cost of the college building was not to exceed $300,000.

The College Building, later DuBourg Hall, 1881-1889 by Thomas Waryng Walsh, looking northwest, with the College Church under construction in the distance. The center section of the third floor was originally windowless. With these instructions, Thomas Walsh made preliminary sketches of the new college building during the fall of 1881. By the following spring, he had formalized the institution’s layout. These plans called for a college


building to run along the west side of Grand Avenue. It would have two wings extending westward. A north wing, designed for the Jesuit community, stretched west to the property line, for 305 feet. The south wing, paral-lel to West Pine, ran west for 170 feet. The college’s educational facilities were to be located in both the Grand Avenue section and the south wing. In Walsh’s plans, classrooms, school offices, science laboratories, and a museum of natural history occupied the Grand Avenue section. This south wing contained a boys’ recreational area on the ground floor and a student chapel on the first floor. A public exhibition hall con-vertible to a theatre complex was in the upper floors of this wing. Walsh’s plans called for a red brick superstructure trimmed with terra cotta, a limestone foundation, red slate roof, and a two-story front veneer of reddish brown Lake Superior sandstone. He confined his decorative features to an array of gables, dormers, and towers, plus special treatments for windows and doors. At the behest of the Jesuits, Walsh relied for effectiveness on restraint. Jesuits liked Walsh’s college plans, but they questioned its costs. Of course, Walsh knew his plans would cost more than the allocated funds. Under pressure, he initi-ated a series of cost-cutting changes to the design through the elimination of the south wing, reduction of exterior ornamentation, and the postponement of interior installations of convenience and necessity. DESCRIPTION Located sixty feet south of St. Francis Xavier Church, the college building faces east from the west side of Grand Avenue, taking the shape of a reversed “L.” Both sec-tions contain a ground floor, three upper stories, and an attic area rising to an average height of 15 feet. Set back 25 feet from the street, the east wing runs south on Grand Avenue for 270 feet, with a depth of 64 feet. The north wing extends west from the east section for 252 feet. Depth of this section varies from 30 to 110 feet.

The south elevation of the north or Jesuit wing of the College Build-ing, later DuBourg Hall, facing the original quadrangle

Walsh was able to use his planned materials, except that the Lake Superior veneer was limited to the ground floor front and sides of the Grand Avenue wing. The porch, double stairs, and extended vestibule of the building’s main en-trance depend on Missouri Red granite for their solid con-struction. The building has a rich display of fenestration encompassing lancet arched windows with hooded mold-ings and plate tracery, rectangle windows of a cross design, oriel windows, and dormers.

Chapel, DuBourg Hall The building’s front (east) elevation divides into three parts – north and south entrance pavilions and a center connect-ing area. The north pavilion measures about 80 feet across, and the center about 105 feet. Originally, the third story of the center was windowless. The south pavilion had the primary entrance to the classrooms. The courtyard side of the east wing is all brick. Although the north side does not directly front on Grand Avenue, it can be viewed from there, forming a courtyard with the south wall of the church. As a result, Walsh has carefully ornamented this wall, with porches and two extensions rising to five stories. According to the building plans, the east wing was devoted to education facilities, while the Jesuit community resided in the north wing. Each floor of the education wing con-tains two east-west corridors, with four or five rooms open-ing onto each. The longer north-south hallway has four rooms on each side. At each end is a cast-iron staircase with fancy cast iron railings five feet tall. A large Wooden Staircase is located at the juncture of the education wing and the Jesuit wing, providing the Jesuits access to all floors in their area. Since this staircase area has no windows, a large skylight is provided.


The ground floor of the education wing originally had both the gymnasium and the science laboratory. Science classrooms, reception rooms, and school offices were on the first floor. Most of the remaining rooms on the upper floors served as classrooms except the museum, a magnifi-cent space located on the third and attic floors in the central area. It measured 98 feet by 58 feet and rose to a height of 52 feet. Large hardwood rafters thrust upward from the corners of the room to form the collar beam. Above the collar beams a pitched-roof skylight of frosted glass and iron, 20 feet by 69 feet, showered light throughout the mu-seum. Additional light came from the windows on the west wall facing the courtyard and the dormers in the east and west slopes of the hardwood ceiling. The floor was pol-ished hardwood. Double-door Gothic decorated entrances with transoms and sidelights on the north and south walls invited visitors into this beautiful space.

Museum Room, DuBourg Hall, showing its original two-story height In the Jesuit wing, 15 private rooms lay south of the main corridor on each floor, some single and some apparently arranged en-suite. A second staircase near the west end of the building was wood with cast-iron railings, lighted by outside windows. Community rooms lay to the north of the main corridor in a series of three protrusions or extensions. The eastern one, measuring 50 by 80 feet, rose through all five floors of the building. It had an assembly room seating 300 students on the ground floor, the Jesuit chapel on the first floor seating 200, and the Jesuit library on the upper floors. The chapel employed certain decorative elements reminiscent of St. Francis Xavier Church. These included arcades on columns with foliated capitals, an apse arrange-ment with altar, and lancet windows. The ceiling height reached 21 feet. The Jesuit library is the masterpiece of the entire building. Imaginative and dramatic, it rises three floors to a height of 62 feet. While the museum has had an extra floor inserted into it and the chapel has been subdivided for offices, the library has been restored (with some changes), and it still

casts its spell on all who see it. Its main features are three cast-iron balconies, rich fenestration, and a hammer beam ceiling. The pitched-roof skylight has been re-placed by a ceiling painting. The largest balcony with a depth of 15 feet surrounds all four sides of the room at the third level. Balconies on the second and fourth levels enclose three sides of the space to a depth of 12 feet. Cast iron columns with foliated caps similar to those in the Jesuit chapel support these and the hammer beam ceiling. Fancy cast-iron railings for the balconies and the cast iron staircase on the south side of the room add deco-rative touches to the room’s layout. Each of the four lev-els contained twelve book alcoves for a capacity of one hundred thousand volumes.

The Museum Room, DuBourg Hall, was cut into several rooms on two floors, but the upper half has recently been cleared of partitions and renovated. The library’s fenestration is another of its notable fea-tures. A large lancet arched window rising four tiers to a rose window dominating the east wall. On the west wall has a round window at the top, three Gothic windows in the half dome, and three lancet arched windows in the three-panel apse. The north wall features five long and narrow lancet windows on each of the four levels. Cast iron columns on the fourth level support the hammer beams, hammer posts, and the tie rods of the ceiling. Large lancet arches spring from the hammer posts rising to the center of the collar beams. Most of the construc-tion uses hardwood with metal fittings. A pair of struts in the center of each collar beam originally held in place the pitched roof skylight of iron and frosted glass. This sky-light measured 15 feet across by 38 feet long, with a height of 18 feet.


Library, DuBourg Hall, looking toward the east wall from the first balcony. Now called the Pére Marquette Gallery. On the west side of the chapel-library complex, the sec-ond extension (25 feet by 50 feet) accommodated recrea-tion and what were called hygienic facilities, including rooms for reading, discussion, and other pursuits. At the west end of the building a third extension (20 by 80) fea-tures a dining room (44 by 80) seating two hundred peo-ple and a tiled kitchen-pantry area (22 by 72), with stor-age space on the lower floor. Yellow pine woodwork, a hardwood floor, and a ceiling with grape medallions for gas connections adorned the dining room. CONSTRUCTION AND COST After the sale of the downtown campus on May 24, 1886, construction of the college building commenced on June 25. The first set of building contracts received approval from the university board of trustees on September 16. School officials allocated $300,000 for erecting the new college. Building contracts for the project amounted to $299,000. Financing this project depended on the purchase pay-ments for the downtown campus made by the buyers, Charles Green and Edward Martin. These payments amounted to $260,000 during the initial construction pe-riod. School officials obtained additional funds through loans from the Missouri Jesuit Province and the State Savings Bank of St. Louis. Since these loans required interest payments, they added significantly to the cost of the building. Construction loans, usually six months in duration, allowed an even flow of money during the construction period.

Library, DuBourg Hall, looking toward the west wall and apse. Now called the Pére Marquette Gallery. The new stained glass was designed by Rodney Winfield. The purchase agreement for the downtown campus re-quired the school to vacate this property no later than Au-gust 1888, at which time the new college building had to be completed and ready to receive students. Dedication of the new building occurred on July 31, 1888 and it opened to receive students on September 3 of the same year. A total of 431 students enrolled. The basic period of construction did not end, however, until April 4, 1889 and even then, the building remained unfinished. By the spring of 1889, college construction costs had reached $359,633, not including interest payments. Tho-mas Walsh’s fee for the school plans and supervision of construction at three percent of the building costs added another $10,798 to the total expenditure. The Daniel Evans Construction Company during the summer of 1889 completed the third and fourth floors of the Jesuit wing and put the finishing touches to the refec-tory at an expense of $11,204. At the same time Luke McLaughlin installed a concrete floor in the furnace room at a cost of $715. On August 27, 1890 the univer-sity trustees approved a contract to fit up a science labo-ratory in the basement of the east wing. The architectural firm of E. Jungenfeld and Co. designed it, and Bothe & Ratterman contractors built it at a cost of $6,423. About two years later the refectory teetered on the verge of col-


lapse. Its roof sagged and its eastern and northern walls leaned several inches out of plumb. School officials hired the Judge Architectural Company to reconstruct the refectory at a price of $6,597. All these supplemental items represent an expense of $24,929. They escalated the final construction price of the college building to $395,412, still not including finance charges. Considering the magnificence of this building and its cost, however, the Jesuits got a bargain. The school building commands our attention for its clean lines, lack of ostentation, and fresh interpretation of a his-torical style. Imagination dictates contrast and variety in its use of gables, towers, massing, materials, and openings. Patterns of movement unfold logically governed by the need for quick and direct access. Every design feature pro-motes convenience. Drama and excitement flash in the mu-seum and the library as the human spirit soars through the glass skylights to the heavens above. In the closing pages of his life, Walsh creates two master-works. His finest effort is either genre – school or church – set side by side to delight and intrigue us. We stand amazed at his farewell achievements.

THE SCHOLASTICATE: VERHAEGEN HALL

St. Louis University, looking southwest from Grand and Lindell, with the Scholasticate, later Verhaegen Hall, on the right. Note the library at the north end of DuBourg Hall.

The consulters at the Missouri Jesuit Province, meeting on November 14, 1881, resolved to establish Jesuit training facilities in St. Louis at the future campus of St. Louis Uni-versity. Two years later, they requested and obtained ap-proval from school officials to erect a Scholasticate there. The new building would be built, owned, and operated by the Missouri Jesuit Province. The province Jesuits selected a site for the new facility on the south side of Lindell immediately west of St. Francis Xavier parish house. Most of the land came from St. Louis University. This transfer resulted in the cancellation of cer-tain debts owed by the University to the Missouri Province.

The province then purchased an additional thirty-foot frontage on Lindell immediately west of their lot. They paid Mrs. Mattingly $17,000 for this addition. After careful deliberation, the province chose the new architectural firm of Barnett and Haynes to design the Scholasticate and to supervise its construction. BARNETT AND HAYNES George Dennis Barnett (1863 to 1923), second son of the noted architect George I. Barnett, received his early train-ing at Christian Brothers College. Between 1880 and 1885, he obtained his architectural training and experi-ence in the office of his father. Afterwards, he became head draftsman for the Building Department of the City of St. Louis. During this employment, he made plans for a new Union Market to be built in the area of Broadway and Lucas. John Ignatius Haynes (1861-1941) entered the office of George I. Barnett as a draughtsman in 1878. During his ten-years in this position, he formed a close friendship with George Dennis Barnett, who married his sister Nellie Haynes. By 1888 Haynes had been appointed Deputy Building Commissioner of the City of St. Louis. Following George I. Barnett’s announcement of semi-retirement in September of 1889, the firm of Barnett and Haynes was born. This fledgling architectural firm started their career with a number of important Catholic institutional commissions. The Barnett and Haynes ar-rangement functioned between 1890 and 1894. In 1893 Tom Barnett, George I. Barnett’s youngest son, entered the firm of Barnett and Haynes. At the close of 1894 he became a partner. During this initial period the firm caught the attention of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which featured several of their early architectural achievements: St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Etzel & Goodfellow 1890 Hadley Building, 819 Lucas 1890 Men’s Sodality Building, Grand & Chestnut 1890 St. John’s Hospital, 23rd & Locust 1891 Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Webster Groves, MO 1891 Visitation Academy & Convent, Belt & Cabanne 1892 Drew Glass Company Building, SE corner 12th & St. Charles 1892 Stores and Flats, Ghio Realty, SW corner Olive & Compton 1892 Our Lady of Good Council Catholic Church, 11th & Destrehan 1894 With the birth of Barnett, Haynes and Barnett, the firm skyrocketed to super-star status by the turn of the 20th century. While they designed all types of buildings in a


variety of styles, it was their legendary mansions, monu-mental Catholic institutions, and elegant hotels that set them apart from other local architectural firms and spread their fame throughout the region. DESCRIPTION In their design for the Scholasticate, Barnett and Haynes blended architectural elements from the church and col-lege and added their own architectural ideas to create a synthesized interpretation of the English Gothic style of the Transition Period. This three-story building uses red brick and brownish-red Lake Superior sandstone walls, white limestone foundation, and pinkish-red terra cotta trim. The front of this L-shaped building measures 95 feet. Its main body measures 60 feet wide and 115 feet deep. The west wing is 45 feet wide by 25 feet deep. Many of the decorative features already seen on DuBourg Hall appear on the façade of this building – gables, tow-ers, dormers, string courses, buttresses, and lancet-arched windows with hooded moldings, dripstones, and plate tracery. The Scholasticate’s three-section front focuses on the asymmetrically placed square tower at its eastern end and the entrance section west of the tower. The octa-gon spire, four pinnacles, vertical and inclined eight-sided walls near the roofline, and the diagonal buttresses at the east end represent the main features of the tower. Some of its design elements can be traced to the north tower of Walsh’s college façade. The modified helm roof and the first-floor large lancet-arched entrance framed in a gable and provided with deep jambs, provoke a considerable amount of interest in the design for the entrance. A large gable and the row of five windows on the second floor add to the interest in that area. Parts of this design find their sources in the center area of Walsh’s St. Francis Xavier Church façade. To offer balance and reflective imitation, the west section depends on its small tower, dormers, and lancet-arched windows for its effectiveness. The Scholasticate’s interior arrangement begins with an entrance vestibule fifteen feet wide that leads into a north-south corridor ten feet wide. Similar passageways traverse the upper two floors. Surrounding these corri-dors are thirty-one sleeping rooms, each measuring 15 feet by 25 feet. In the wing area, a chapel (45 feet by 25 feet) occupies the first floor and a classroom is on each of the two upper floors. The College Building attaches to the rear of the Scholasticate, providing second floor access between the buildings. CONSTRUCTION AND COST Construction of the Scholasticate started in May 1891 and finished six months later. The Jesuits estimated the cost of the project to be $52,100, but they spent $56,543.

Weber and Son, general contractors, did the construction, and Black and Davis did the excavation and foundation work. Barnett and Haynes received a fee in the amount of $1,563 for the plans and project supervision, which represents three percent of the building costs at the base price of $52,100.

The Scholasticate, later Verhaegen Hall, 1891, by Barnett & Haynes, from Examples from the recent work of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, architects (St. Louis: I. Haas Pub. & Eng. Co., 1896), courtesy Missouri History Museum The Scholasticate remained a Jesuit training facility until 1931, when the Jesuits moved out and sold it to the uni-versity. After that, it didn’t have a formal name until the late 1950s, when the university named this building Ver-haegen Hall in honor of Father Peter Verhaegen, the first president of the college. THE THEOLOGATE: DESMET HALL The Missouri Jesuit Province in 1898 purchased a site located on the north side of West Pine adjacent to the west side of university property. They paid Festus Wade, real estate developer, $20,000 for the property, which measured 100 feet by 223 feet, with a house known as the Thompson Place. Subsequently, the Jesuits hired Louis Wessbecher to prepare the plans for a new building on this site. At a theologate, Jesuit students receive training in theol-ogy – the last phase of their studies prior to their ordina-tion into the priesthood. The new building needed to pro-


vide classrooms, recreational areas for the Jesuit community, and residential space for trainees and profes-sors.

St. Louis University, looking northwest from Grand and Pine, showing the Theologate, later DeSmet Hall, on the left, DuBourg Hall center, College Church right, from a postcard. Note how the tower of DeSmet balanced that of DuBourg. LOUIS WESSBECHER Prior to coming to St. Louis in 1882, Louis Wessbecher (1856-1940), a German by birth, had studied at the Poly-technic Institutes of Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, Germany. St. Louis directories between 1883 and 1890 list him ei-ther as an architect or draftsman. In 1888, he worked for Ernst Janssen. Next he formed a three-year partnership (1891-1893) with Charles Hummel, during which his ca-reer began to blossom. Afterwards, he worked alone un-til he formed a second partnership circa 1902 with Edward Hillebrand. This arrangement lasted until 1929. Most of the 58 works attributed to Wessbecher are reli-gious buildings. His most important works include: St. Stanislaus Kostka Ch., 1415 North 20th 1891 St. Engelbert Ch., Marcus & Carter 1893 Bethlehem Lutheran Ch., 2153 Salisbury 1894 Sacred Heart Catholic Ch., Florissant 1895 St. Augustine Catholic Ch., 3114 Lismore 1896 St. Theresa of Avila Ch., 3636 N. Market 1899 Sacred Heart Catholic Ch., Valley Park 1907 St. Henry’s Catholic Ch., 1230 California 1909 St. Francis Regis Catholic Church, East St. Louis, IL 1909 St. Paul Catholic Church, Benton, MO 1918 DESCRIPTION Wessbecher’s Theologate employed a white limestone foundation and half story, a red brick superstructure, and trimmings of limestone and terra cotta. This four-story building with an attic area had a front of 70 feet and a length of 178 feet. A front extension (42 by 23) and a rear extension (30 by 52) graced the west wall of this building, which faced south. Mean width of the building totaled 44 feet.

Using the English Gothic style, Wessbecher’s design centered on its massive roof tower. A steep pitched roof surrounds the tower, adding to its massiveness. The tower with its variety of shapes and elaborate decorations dwarfed its surroundings and created an impression of vertical imbalance. With the placement of the roof tower over a mock tower base – the slightly extending center area of the wall below – the resulting contrast strengthened this sense of vertical imbalance. An octagon-shaped gambrel roof punctuated with small dormers and capped with a crocket finial contributed to the tower’s adornment and heaviness. Other design features included four large pinnacles, octagon-shaped vertical and inclined walls, and the great ogee-arched area filled with plate tracery. Several of Wessbecher’s tower ideas came from the north tower of Walsh’s col-lege building and the east tower of Barnett & Haynes’ Scholasticate. Finally, triangular forms – dormers, gables, and the tower, animated the roof area. Below the flamboyant roof, the front wall of the The-ologate made a simple statement. Its three-section ar-rangement employed string courses, two types of fenes-tration with windows used in pairs, and the primary entrance. Rectangular windows decorated the first, fourth, and attic floors, while four-centered arch win-dows dressed the two intervening stories. Particularly impressive were the stone-faced rectangular windows located on the first floor. In the center of the ground floor, a pair of angled but-tresses flanked the shoulder-arched grand entrance. Two outside entrances on the east wall and another on the west wall provided access to the building. The Theologate’s interior arrangement on each floor consisted of a long central north-south corridor con-necting all rooms. Two staircases located on the west-ern side of the building gave access to all floors. The main entrance on the ground floor led into a vestibule (16 feet by 14 feet) decorated with enameled white tile walls, mosaic floor, and groined oak ceiling. West of the vestibule, double doors gave admittance into the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (38 feet by 24 feet). It had stained glass windows and oak woodwork in the Gothic style. An office (16 feet by 25 feet) lay to the east of the vestibule. Other important rooms on this floor accommodated recreational activities – the maple-floored all-purpose room for social functions (83 feet by 40 feet), the discussion room located in the rear(27 feet by 54 feet), and the two-lane bowling alley. Twenty classrooms on the second floor supplied needed training space. At the rear of this floor the Theologians Hall (40 feet by 83 feet) acted as the cen-


tral gathering place for religious convocations. Both the third and fourth floors furnished living space. Twenty-six rooms on each floor accommodated students and some of their professors. At the end of each of these floors a living room allowed for student fraternization. In the attic area, eighteen rooms could be used for a va-riety of purposes. Eight of these rooms were finished for residential space. Toilet and bathing facilities on each floor were located on the east side of the building toward the rear.

The Theologate, later DeSmet hall, 1898-99, by Louis Wessbecher CONSTRUCTION AND COST After the purchase of the site, demolition of the Thomp-son house followed on October 17, 1898. Construction of the Theologate started the following month and con-tinued until its completion in August 1899. The Jesuits moved in about five weeks later with the advent of the fall term. Several newspapers and other sources list the cost of the building at $70,000. No records exist to validate the actual costs of construction. However, we do know that Mr. Wessbecher received at least $700 for his plans. Students at this facility referred to the Theologate as the West Pine Building. The Jesuit School of Theology va-cated the building in 1931 when they moved to St.

Mary’s, Kansas. Next the Jesuit School of Philosophy became the building’s tenant. They remained on the premises for 25 years. After they moved down the street to the new Fusz Memorial in 1954, the Missouri Jesuit Province sold the West Pine building to the university, who converted it into a faculty office complex. Subse-quently, the university named the building DeSmet Hall in honor of Father Pierre DeSmet’s contributions to the university and the faith. As the building aged, maintenance declined and repair costs increased. Several flawed studies recommended the demolition of the building to save money. During the summer of 1977, the university allowed the building to be razed. CONCLUSION At the turn of the twentieth century, the original quad-rangle campus at the Midtown site had been completed with the exception of the church tower. Construction costs reached one million dollars. This English Gothic cloistered compound must be considered on the finest examples of collegiate design in America of its era. Planned by local architects and constructed for the most part with limited means, these magnificent buildings serve as a tribute to St. Louis University and its Jesuit heritage. If you seek the imitation of an Eastern collegiate para-digm, you must go across town to another campus. If you seek a campus conceived from fresh ideas, you need to look no further than the collegiate quadrangle at Grand and Lindell. Thomas Walsh originated the cam-pus concept. Each succeeding architect approached his idea from a different perspective. Together they fash-ioned a magnificent university campus both unified in spirit and divergent in expression, an oasis of originality placed in the heart of the city.

SOURCES FOR ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY’S NINETEENTH-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE

The following sources were used for both parts of “St. Louis Univer-sity’s Midtown Campus” (Winter 2009 and Fall 2010) as well as the four articles about the earlier campuses found in the Winter 2001, Spring 2002, Summer 2002, and Fall 2002 issues of the SAH Newsletter (online at www.stlouisarchitecture.org): UNPUBLISHED SOURCES Interview: Father William Mugan, S.J., 2001. Father Mugan had lived in the Theologate (DeSmet Hall). Midwest Jesuit Archives: Plans. St. Louis University at College View Station on the Northern Missouri Railroad, designed by Francis D. Lee. St. Louis University Archives: Charter and Minutes St. Louis University Board of Trustees 1832-1914. Box 8. Jesuitica Account Book 1891-1899, Scholasticate Construction.


© 2010 The Society of Architectural Historians. St. Louis and Missouri Valley Chapters. NewsLetter is published quarterly by the St. Louis and Missouri Chapters of Architectural Historians. Please mail editorial correspondence and submissions for publication to: Esley Hamilton, Editor, 7346 Balson Avenue, University City, Missouri 63130 or contact him by telephone: (314) 615-0357 or by email [email protected]. Deadlines for submission of material for publication in NewsLetter are as follows: Spring issue 15 February Summer issue 15 May Fall issue 15 August Winter Issue 15 November St. Louis Chapter, SAH 2009 –2010 Board of Directors John Guenther, AIA President Paul Hohmann, AIA Vice President Mimi Stirtz Secretary Richard Mueller Treasurer Esley Hamilton NewsLetter Editor Memberships: Individual, $10 Student, $5 Supporting, $25 Joint, $15

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Box 20. Library catalogue 1880. Box 25. University Account Book 1840-1907, including the first St.Francis Xavier Church 1841-1848. Box 26. University Account Book 1881-1921. construction of basement church. Box 28. University History 1883-1889. Sale of Downtown Campus. Box 83. University Accounts 1853-1856 and Historical 1853- 1868. Box 84. University Cash Book 1859-1870. Box 86. University Cash Book. 1870-1878. Box 88. University Account Book 1885-1890; DuBourg Hall Construction. Box 89. University Accounts 1892-1927. St. Francis Xavier Construction. Box 92. University Real Estate. College Hill Farm Property & Plat Book 1872-1914. Box 99. University History. Old College Hall. PUBLISHED SOURCES Adams, Rita G.; William C. Einspanier and B. T. Lukaszewski. St.

Louis University: 150 Years. St. Louis: St. Louis University, 1968.

Brooks, Chris. The Gothic Revival. London: Phaidon, 1999. Clarke, Basil F. L. Church Builders of the Nineteenth Century, A Study of the Gothic Revival in England. New York: Mac millan, 1938; A. M. Kelley, 1969. Faherty, Rev. W. B., S.J. Better the Dream: St. Louis: University and Community. St. Louis University, 1968. Garraghan, Gilbert. The Jesuits of the Middle United States. New

York: America Press, 1938; reprinted Chicago: Loyola Univer-sity Press, 1983-84. Volume One, pp. 289-293; Volume Three, pp. 242-243, 248, 438, 446; Letters Annual 1837.

Hill, Walter H.. Historical Sketch of the St. Louis University, the celebration of its fiftieth anniversary or golden jubilee, on

June 24, 1879. St. Louis: P. Fox, 1879. Map of the City of St. Louis 1877, published by Compton & Com-pany, 417 North Sixth Street (Proposed by the Board of Freeholders). Missouri Republican/Republic: Apr. 18, 1843; Oct. 4, 1849; Dec. 10,

1854; Dec. 3, 1871; June 9, 1884; Nov. 13, 1884; June 15, 1888; July 31, 1888; Mar. 1, 1891; Jan. 16, 1898.

Nies, Jay. “DeSmet Hall,” West End Word, January 6, 2000. “Pere Marquette Gallery.” St. Louis University, no date (pamphlet). St. Louis Catholic Review: Volumes 1 and 2, 1918-1920; Volume 5, No. 2, March 1923. St. Louis City Directories, 1883 through 1891, and 1902. St Louis Globe-Democrat: June 1, 1884; October 2, 1886; May 18,

1887; May 12, 1889; March 23, 1890. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Dec. 23, 1882; Apr. 13, 1883; May 9, 1884;

July 31, 1888; Aug. 5, 1888; Nov. 9, 1890; May 5, 1891. St. Louis Star: Jan. 16, 1898. St. Louis Times: July 13, 1871. St. Louis University Medical College Annual Announcements: 1844-1845. Chambers & Knapp, St. Louis, 1844. 1851-1852. Chambers & Knapp, St. Louis, 1851. St. Louis University College Catalogs: 1854-1855. Republican Book and Job Printing Co., 1855. 1858-1859. Hanson & Hurst, St. Louis, 1858. 1862-1863. George Knapp & Co. Printers and Binders, 1863. 1870-1871. Missouri Democrat Book & Job Bindery. 1887-1888. Carreras Steam Printing, 117-19 Locust, St. Louis. 1888-1889. ibid. Waldron, Mary Elizabeth, “An Urban Parish Rebuilds Itself: St. Fran-cis

Xavier (College) Church 1884-1914,” especially chapter “From Cornerstone to Steeple Cross,” Dissertation, St. Louis University 1993.

Waterman, T. G. History of St. Louis Medical College. St. Louis, 1898. Wild, J. C. (John Caspar). The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated in a Series of Views. Edited by Lewis Foulk Thomas; painted and lithographed by J. C. Wild; accompanied with historical descriptions. St. Louis: Chambers & Knapp, 1841; Haw thorne Printing Co., 1948. Woodstock Letters, Vol. 19, No. 3 (June 29, 1890, letter Father

Hughes); Vol. 28 (letter Oct. 1, 1899 and Notes 1899 from St. Louis).

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