So very often, I’ve looked at something around campus and just thought, why is it like this? Why are the hallways between Dilworth, Thomas and Kistler so maze-like? Why does the Alumni House share a name with a sports field? Why can no one agree on Kuch’s pronunciation? Why do some books in the library say Atwood Library, not Landman Library? Buckle up, because we have a lot of questions to answer and a lot of building history to go through.
Alumni House – William and Rosemary Blankley
When I first got here, I assumed the Alumni House was just a nice building made to look in the style of Grey Towers castle (the one building I won’t be covering here, it could be an article on its own). But no, the Alumni House is an original part of the grounds! It used to serve as the gatehouse of the estate. If you look at old campus pictures, you’ll actually see an archway just in front of it. Visitors to the estate would enter there, go up what’s now the Walk of Pride, and enter the castle.
The current name comes from William and Rosemary Blankley. Rosemary was a graduate of Beaver College, and returned to help extensively with alumni relations. Her husband, William, was actually a Princeton graduate. However, Princeton never saw a penny from him – instead, he donated to Beaver College because of all the good it had done his wife.
As a bonus, Rosemary Blankley also lends her name to the softball fields towards the back of campus, since she was a star athlete. The Alumni House’s own plaque says that Rosemary Blankley was asked to represent her country and play on the U.S. Field Hockey team in 1955 and 1956, and toured with them all the way to Australia.
Kuch Center – Harry and Catherine Kuch
Harry and Catherine Kuch (who have portraits on the second floor of the library) have a pretty simple story. Harry owned an investment brokerage firm, giving him and his wife plenty of money to work with. Still, he and his wife were both generous enough to donate tons to Beaver College, and sat on the Board of Trustees for over 40 years. Additionally, both obituaries put an end to the debate of how to pronounce their last name and by proxy, the building named after them – it is, officially, “cook”.
Landman Library – Bette Landman
This is likely one of the names that doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction – the woman has a portrait front and center in the library, after all. Bette Landman was the first female president of the college, with a term running from 1985 to 2004. She did a lot with her time here, most notably seeing the school through the transition from Beaver College to Arcadia University in 2001, and the library was renamed in 2003. I say “renamed”, because back in 1962 when the building was constructed, it was the Eugenia Fuller Atwood Library.
Eugenia Atwood was vice president of the Board of Trustees from 1960 to 1966, during a very instrumental part in Beaver College’s history. While her painting isn’t quite as prominent as the late Dr. Landman’s, if you head to the second floor of the library right by the stairs, you can still see it, alongside a long list of donors (many including Atwood’s family).
Boyer Hall – Marian Angell Boyer
If you sift through the Google results for “Marian Angell Boyer” like I did, you won’t really find much relating to Beaver College. She was in Pennsylvania, sure, but she was active in anthropology and archeology – not the sciences and mathematics that her building has now. In fact, she never went to Beaver College. So what gives?
Honorary degrees are what gives. Colleges and universities give out honorary degrees to people who have made huge advancements in a particular field. The reasons why can vary wildly from institution to institution, but Beaver College gave it specifically for Boyer’s support of their nursing department. Arcadia still gives out honorary degrees, in fact (you can Google it pretty easily – it’s a long list, including many other people from this article). Marian Boyer got her honorary degree in 1964, and has lended her name to the building since 1971, when it was built.
Brubaker Hall – Sara Bowman Brubaker
Brubaker Hall is another simple story, but a sweet one. Every other building we’ve discussed today has been named directly after someone related to Beaver College – a graduate, a trustee, a president or professor. Brubaker Hall is a little different.
While initially sifting through Google and obituaries for “Sara Bowman Brubaker”, I didn’t really find anything interesting… or anything at all, really. But doing research like this has a funny way of making you recognize things on campus you never saw before; like, say, little plaques in most of the buildings that have the full name and a description of who they’re named after.
And that, dear reader, is how we know that Brubaker Hall isn’t named after a Beaver College graduate at all. The graduate, Sally Brubaker from the class of 1941, donated a large sum of money to the school (like many other names here). However, instead of the building being named after her, she requested it be named after her mother instead.
Dilworth, Thomas, and Kistler Hall – Mrs. and Mrs. Walter Dilworth, Dr. and Mrs. Morgan Thomas, Dr. Raymon and Edna Kistler
“Wowee, Emma! You sure have a lot of info on campus. I’m sure you could tell us a fun fact about every building!”
Ha! Not nearly.
Look, not every one of these buildings has a slam-dunk winner of a story. Dr. Raymon Kistler was president of Beaver College during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and now lends his name to a building. Regarding the Dilworths, I found nothing. When I was pawing through old yearbooks I thought I saw the name ‘Dilworth’ but I might be incorrect.
However, I do have a bit of a fun fact regarding the physical buildings. If you lived in Kistler, Thomas, or Dilworth, you’ve probably noticed getting between the three buildings is hard. The hallways are a maze, the elevators are a little weird, there’s odd twists and turns.
Well, the reason for that is Thomas Hall was built several years before both Kistler and Dilworth (Thomas Hall, for the record, is named after a couple who were on the Board of Trustees). When Beaver College moved to the Glenside campus full time and began to enroll more students, they quickly realized the one dorm hall would not be nearly big enough. Thus, expansions and renovations occurred, resulting in what we know as our main dorm hall trio.
Heinz Hall – Mrs. Vira L. Heinz
When researching, this one confused me for a while. When Googling the name, you get a lot of things about a woman philanthropist in the Philly area, who donated tons towards women’s education. The name might even ring a bell if you’re a woman looking into scholarships – she lends her name to plenty of those. But then, while scampering around campus looking for name plaques, the one inside of Heinz Hall says it’s in the honor of “Mrs. Clifford S. Heinz”. This name is also corroborated by old yearbooks, which list Mrs. Clifford Heinz as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Well, frustratingly, women only tended to be known through their husbands. That’s why, on so many locations on campus and within this article, you see things like “Mr. and Mrs (Man’s Name)”. The women simply got lumped in with their husbands.
Which is a damn shame! Vira Heinz is fairly well known for making a name for herself in a male dominated industry, supporter of the arts and women’s education and empowerment, at a time when all of that was much more difficult.
What industry did she make a name for herself in, by the way? None other than the H.J. Heinz Ketchup company. Her husband, Clifford Heinz, was the son of the man who invented the brand. I don’t know about you but this actually, genuinely was wild to find out. I remember joking with my mom during the campus tour of “Oh, haha, the building is Heinz like the ketchup”. Now after researching I can confidently say yes, it is like the ketchup.
Murphy Hall – William and Jane Murphy
In my last article, I talked extensively about Stiteler Auditorium (namely the stained glass windows). However, I briefly ran over the history of Murphy Hall as well. This is one of those buildings that’s a lot harder to figure out. The building itself is old, and was used by Beaver College long before any of the others, with the building being named in 1929.
Because of that, we know very little about the Murphys’ that it’s named after. We do know that Jane Murphy donated “in honor of” her husband, likely after he had passed. We do know that they were philanthropists, but any digging into obituaries I tried was pretty useless. Again, not every building will have some big moment where the story clicks into place. Sometimes, names are simply lost to the fog of ages, but we can prolong them a little longer like this. For Murphy Hall, it’s especially important – no plaque of the names exists anymore.
Spruance – Benton Spruance Art Center
Benton Spruance Art Center is my favorite building in my list. Not for any particularly fun history reason – but because Benton Spruance has a Wikipedia page.
That’s right! This man is well known enough to have a short Wikipedia entry on him. He was a long-time member of Beaver College faculty and Philadelphia College of Art, incredibly active in the Philadelphia art world, and innovative in printmaking and lithography (a complicated method of printing that I can’t even begin to describe). If you read my previous article, you might also remember him as one of the men with a stained glass memorial. He died in 1967, with the art building being named in his honor two years later.
Oddities and Outliers – Knight Hall, Easton Hall & The Health Sciences Building
The Health Sciences Building is both weird and simple – yes, it really is just ‘The Health Sciences Building’. However, there are three different wings to the building: the Jane Carlin wing, the Francis Vitetta Atrium, and the George Ruck wing. All three were trustees, though Jane Carlin is notable for being a brigadier general in the U.S. Army(!) and a major pioneer in the physical therapy sphere.
Okay, now, elephant in the room. Why haven’t I mentioned Easton and Knight Hall?
Well, mostly, I couldn’t find anything on them. For all other buildings (even ones like Dilworth and Thomas) I was able to at least find names. This is probably because Easton and Knight Hall don’t truly have names. Easton Hall is likely, somehow, named after Easton Road outside of campus. Also, side note, Easton Hall isn’t even really in the archives – it seems like, at some point, they made a large extension to Brubaker and eventually split it in half, making a “seperate” building. Weird.
Knight Hall was opened in 1997, but I can’t find much else. After a lot of thinking, pondering, and general research, I really think it was just named after the literal Arcadia Knights. It might’ve been something else in the first couple years before the switch to Arcadia, but I haven’t been able to turn anything up. Luckily, Knight Hall is a relatively new building – there are no doubt living alumni who were here when Knight Hall was first constructed. I’ve just yet to find anything.
That covers everything I was able to learn scrambling around campus and digging through old yearbooks. There’s still plenty I missed – what about the Haber Green, the sports fields, named galleries and theaters? I’m not quite sure. If I had to guess, probably more trustees and donors (you know what they say: money doesn’t talk, it screams). I’ll leave that as an exercise for you, readers. See if there’s any stray plaques I missed, keep an eye open. Maybe you’ll finally get an answer for all those “whys”. Or maybe you’ll find some more along the way.
Emma Pegram
[P.S. Quite literally about to publish this, realizing I completely forgot Taylor Hall! Taylor has some fun history, including being renamed in the 1990s from “The Classroom Building”. They polled students and staff for new name ideas, including such gems like “HumEd” Building, (allegedly short for Humanities and Education, but also a play on humid, as the building didn’t have AC at the time), Chipmunk Building, and Hall Hall. The current name comes from Riley Treadway Taylor, third dean of Beaver College. The plaque is shown below.]
(Pictures via Emma and Bill Pegram – thanks dad!)
