Clark Atlanta University

Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia

Clark Atlanta University report to the Getty (PDF) 65MB

Together with Morehouse and Spelman Colleges (both previously awarded Campus Heritage grants), Clark Atlanta is part of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), the largest consortium of historically black institutions in the U.S. Clark Atlanta was formed in 1988 with the merger of Atlanta University, chartered in 1867, and Clark College, founded in 1877. Despite the historic significance of the buildings on the campus, little is known about aspects of their original appearance or previous alterations. Clark Atlanta will conduct archival research to document its historic resources, examine overall building conditions, and develop treatment guidelines.

Clark Atlanta University received a Getty grant in 2005 for $90,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Historic Designation(s): Atlanta University Center District (college included within the boundaries, National Register of Historic Places); Fountain Hall (also a National Register site at Morris Brown College).

Report Summary

Clark Atlanta University (CAU) is located on a 104-acre campus west of downtown Atlanta, Georgia within the center of the Atlanta University Center District (AUC). Along with Morehouse, Spelman and Morris Brown colleges and the Interdenominational Theological Center and Morehouse School of Medicine, Clark Atlanta is part of the AUC, the largest consortium of historically black institutions in the U.S. Clark Atlanta was formed in 1988 with the merger of Atlanta University, chartered in 1867, and Clark College, founded in 1869 by the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church and chartered as Clark University in 1877.

Despite the historic significance of the buildings on the campus, little was known about aspects of their original appearance or previous alterations. In 2005, Clark Atlanta received a Getty grant of $95,000 to conduct archival research to document its historic resources, examine overall building conditions, and develop treatment guidelines.

Purpose: The goals of the Clark Atlanta University Campus Heritage Plan were to craft a preservation plan to retain, protect, and preserve the distinguishing characteristics of the historic buildings, sites and landscapes; to establish rehabilitation standards that will preserve these characteristics; and to strengthen the Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives and Special Collections.

The purpose of this study was to document the research and planning efforts conducted as a result of the grant. These efforts, detailed in the planning process section below, consisted of four components: archival research, historic photographs; historic landscape and architectural drawings; campus development, land use and landscape preservation; and historic building analysis.

How the Plan Is Organized:

The plan consists of an inventory and assessment of the existing historic landscape and recommendations for its treatment, an inventory and assessment of existing historic buildings and recommendations for their treatment and disposition, and coordination with the 2005 campus plan (master plan).

Planning Process:

Archival Research – The purpose of the archival research was to obtain background information on the history of Clark University, Clark College, Atlanta University and CAU and the development of the campus landscapes and the historic buildings. Resources held at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Atlanta History Center were reviewed. This review included University bulletins and course catalogues, college yearbooks, administrative records, campus histories, historic photographs, Sanborn Maps, historic site and building plans and miscellaneous magazine and newspaper articles.testing this

Historic Drawings – Drawings of site plans, landscape plans and building plans were collected, catalogued and scanned into computer files to create computer image files and/or CADD files.

Campus Development, Land Use & Landscape Preservation – Using data collected during the archival research phase of the project, the Jaeger Company developed a chronological narrative to explain the physical evolution of the CAU campus from 1867 to the present. Concurrent with the archival research, Grashof Design Studio, the project team of a preservation planner and a landscape architect, conducted a site assessment of the historic campus spaces and existing landscape conditions. A synthesis of the research and campus assessments culminated in the recommendations for appropriate future development of the identified landscape character areas of the CAU campus.

Historical Analysis of Buildings –Historic buildings associated with CAU were assessed and presented in two different formats—detailed condition assessments and pictorial histories. Detailed condition assessments were prepared for twelve buildings on the CAU campus that played an important role in the history of CAU. Detailed field inspections of the campus were made in the spring of 2006 to assess its existing conditions. A follow-up visit was made in February 2007 as the plan was being finalized. Additional comments on the existing conditions of the campus were added following the 2007 visit. The primary goal of this effort was to determine landscape elements that are part of CAU’s historical development.

Historic Designations:

The CAU campus contains a variety of historic landscapes that reflect the pre-institutional character of the area, as well as the evolution of the school from its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century though the present day. The identified historic landscape resources are located within the existing National Register Historic District boundary for the Atlanta University Center Historic District. Portions of five adjoining college campuses comprise the district, including Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center. Most of the landscapes are connected in some way with the development of the CAU or to other schools adjacent to the CAU campus property, whether the associated landscape was acquired by the institution or developed explicitly by the school.

Twelve buildings on the CAU campus were identified in the National Register of Historic Places nomination as contributing to the Atlanta University Center Historic District. Detailed condition assessments were prepared for two additional buildings on the CAU campus that have become eligible for listing in the National Register since the Atlanta University Center Historic District was established in 1976.

Three pictorial histories were developed for an additional twenty buildings, many of which no longer exist: the buildings on the old Clark University/Gammon Theological Seminary campus in south Atlanta; the early buildings on the original Atlanta University Campus that are now part of Morris Brown College, and miscellaneous buildings of CAU. These buildings are included in the Campus Heritage Plan because they played an important role in the history of CAU and the University administration wanted to acknowledge and record that history, even if only briefly, along with the buildings documented with detailed condition assessments.

The historic landscape study also identified four character areas; all important because of the role they play in establishing the historic character of the CAU campus.

Relationship to Master Plan

In 2005 the Sizemore Group of Atlanta completed a new Campus Plan Study for CAU. When the Campus Heritage Study began in the fall of 2005, the Clement & Wynn team was asked to review the Campus Plan Study, and to make appropriate comments for integrating the two studies. The team devoted a chapter of the Campus Heritage Study to providing a framework for permitting the proposed new developments to co-exist with the historic landscapes and buildings already established on CAU’s campus.

The Sizemore Group had evaluated twelve Campus Plan options either for maintaining the campus, or radically altering and re-configuring the campus over the next 10 to 20 years. In most of the options presented, the historic landscapes and buildings of CAU were placed in jeopardy. The CAU administration chose a Campus Plan option that maximizes the use of existing facilities and calls for the first increment of growth within the existing campus boundaries. The proposed plan includes both new development and preservation of the historic quadrangles. The four major components that comprise the Phase 1 Plan are a Student Center addition, an Auxiliary Services Building, a new student residence hall and renovation of the existing dorms within the existing residential quadrangles (former Clark College campus, now referred to as the Residential Quadrangle) and the academic quadrangle (former AU campus).

The CAU Campus Heritage Plan supports the implementation of the Phase 1 Plan. Preserving both the historic landscapes and the historic buildings, while maintaining ties to the significant, earlier history of both Atlanta University and Clark College, is vitally important now and in the future.

Outcomes:

• Excellent documentation of the history and evolution of what is today Clark Atlanta University
• Locating and preserving valuable drawings and photographs for future planning purposes

Product

An excellent history of the early beginnings not only of the campus, but of the entire Atlantic University Center complex and the uniqueness of the consortial arrangement among its colleges

Policies

Explicit linkage directed by the administration between the campus heritage plan and the campus master plan

Plan: Campus Heritage Plan

Unique Features:

Substantial archival research and explicit acknowledgement of links to the 2005 Campus Plan

Individuals of significance:

• Gottfried L. Norman, a highly regarded Atlanta architect and designer of Stone Hall
• William C. Richardson of Hartwell, Richardson and Drever, Architects, Boston, the architect for Oglethorpe Practice School, Furber Cottage and the Carnegie Library
• James Gamble Rogers architect from New York City, designer of the library [Trevor Arnett Library], administration building [Harkness Hall] and the Atlanta University president’s home on Beckwith Street—Holly Hill— all completed in 1932. Rogers also designed the two dormitories to be built as part of the new AU Campus. In addition, he designed four new Clark College buildings completed by September of 1941 on a 9.5 acre site to the east of the Atlanta University quadrangle with supervising architect Otis C. Poundstone and Associates of Atlanta.
• David A. Williston, an African-American landscape architect from Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, provided landscape design services for Holly Hill and other locations on the new Atlanta University camp. Williston earned his degree from Cornell University in 1898 and later taught at the State Colleges of North Carolina, Missouri, Tuskegee Institute, Fisk University and Tennessee State A & L. Opening his practice in 1934, Williston became one of the most prolific African-American landscape architects.
• H. Boyer Marx and Associates, a local landscape architecture and city-planning firm in Atlanta, completed the planting plan for Holmes Hall.

Advisors:

Clement & Wynn Program Managers

In association with:
The Jaeger Company, Landscape Architecture & Historic Preservation
Grashof Design Studio, Architecture/Historic Preservation

Credits and Links:

The consultant team was assisted throughout the project by staff members of the CAU Office of Institutional Advancement and University Relations, Assistant to the President for Management Services, Enrollment Services and Student Affairs, Facilities and Operations, Administrative and Customer Services, and General Accounting; as well as by Professor David Organ and his students in the CAU History Department in the archival research. A wealth of information is housed at the Archives and Special Collections Department of the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center and without the students' help much of that information might have gone unstudied.

Finally, the authors were assisted by staff of the Archives and Special Collections Department of the Robert W. Woodruff Library in locating information on the buildings and for digitizing and copying the necessary photographs and documents used in the preparation of this report.

Campus Contact:

Victor Panchuk Director of Facilities and Operational Management
Telephone: (404) 880-8016
E-mail: vpanchuk@cau.edu