Rhodes College

Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee

Rhodes College Preservation Plan 1 of 2 (PDF) 26.6 MB

Rhodes College Preservation Plan 2 of 2 (PDF) 13.3 MB

Designed by Charles Klauder in the 1920s, the Collegiate Gothic architecture at Rhodes College was meant to convey the ennobling and uplifting spirit of a liberal arts education. Eight of the original campus buildings, made from Arkansas sandstone with limestone trim, are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Planning funds will support Rhodes in its efforts to expand the number of buildings on the National Register to include the historic district planned by Klauder, and to study the adaptive reuse of several key campus buildings.

Rhodes College received a Getty grant in 2004 for $150,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Report Summary

Purpose: The school will study adaptive reuse of campus buildings and continue work toward listing campus buildings and a historic district on the National Register.

Historic Designation: Charles Z. Klauder designed the Rhodes College buildings in a Collegiate Gothic style, using Arkansas sandstone with limestone trim to convey moral advancement--the ennobling and uplifting spirit of a liberal arts education. Klauder proposed an historic district in his original campus design. Eight of the 1920’s buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, comprising the Southwestern at Memphis Historic District.

The school was established as Southwestern in Clarksville, Tennessee, operating for a time as The Masonic University of Tennessee (1846-54) and later the Presbyterian Stewart School. In 1925, Rhodes moved to its wooded, 100-acre site in Memphis, Tennessee.

Site Chronology:

• Ashner Gateway (1925)
• Hugh M. Neely Hall and Kitchen (1925)
• Robb Hall (1925)
• Gordon White Hall aka Calvin Hall (1925)
  • Moravian Tileworks floor
• Palmer Hall (1925)
  • Hardie Auditorium
• Berthold S. Kennedy Hall (1925)
• Frank M. Harris Memorial Lodge (1925)
• Elliott Hall (1925-46)
• Hunt Memorial Gateway (1948)
• Burrow Library (1953, renovated 1988)
• Catherine Burrow Refectory (adjacent to Hugh M. Neely Hall and Kitchen) (1957)
• Bellingrath Hall (1961)
• Richard Halliburton Memorial Tower (1962)
• Gooch Hall (1962)
• Moore Infirmary (1962, designed by C. Henry Hibbs)

Planning Process:

• The team drew on four previous Strategic Plans:
  • The Clinton Parrent Plan, 1944;
  • Harland-Bartholomew Plan, 1964;
  • Architects’ Collaborative Plan, 1986;
  • Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company Plan, 2000
• Team identified National Park Service heritage criteria and preservation briefs
• Team surveyed campus buildings, applying Secretary of the Interior’s standards for significance to the architectural elements
• Team created prototypical reports from the building survey, looking at moisture, hazardous materials, and a variety of maintenance problems

Outcomes: Products

• Maintenance chronology for each building (exterior, landscaping, asbestos abatement, interior, ADA compliance, computer technology)
• Articulation of de facto campus zones
• Causes and recommended treatments for various maintenance problems, with illustrations (regarding ornamental metals, roofs, doors and windows, interiors, masonry)
• Report of data and analysis regarding moisture readings
• List of Prototypical Building Components--illustrated sampler of significant architectural elements significant to the campus and the Collegiate Gothic style
• Limited hazardous materials report
• Sample building survey form
• Curriculum outline for Campus as Mechanism for Teaching Preservation
• Case Study: Renovation plan for Burrow Library

Outcomes: Policies and Plans

Proposed inclusions for the historic district:

• Voorhies Hall (dorm) (1946, Collegiate Gothic – Arkansas sandstone/limestone, by Hibbs-Klauder-Diehl)
  • East Wing contains chapel with distinguished glass: Williams Prayer Room, windows by Charles Connick
• Townsend Hall (dorm) (1955, Collegiate Gothic – Arkansas sandstone/limestone, by Henry Clinton Parrent, Jr.)
• Trezevant (dorm) (1960, Collegiate Gothic – Arkansas sandstone/limestone, by Henry Clinton Parrent, Jr.)
  • Conservatory added ca. 2001
• Alfred C. Glassell Hall (dorm) (1964-65, Collegiate Gothic – Arkansas sandstone/limestone, by Henry Clinton Parrent, Jr.)
• Williford Hall (dorm) (1969, Collegiate Gothic – Arkansas sandstone/limestone, by McGehee-Nicholson Associates)
• Dewitt Clough Hall (academic) (1970, “Gothic with modern touches,” by alumnus Wells Awsumb)
• Hubert F. Fisher Memorial Garden (1941) (permanent stone stage used for commencement)
• Rollow Memorial Avenue of Oaks (1925) (seedlings were transferred from the original campus)

Unique Features

• Approach to campus as a “vast outdoor museum of nature, history and architecture.”
• List of contract resources
• Discussion of vernacular landscape features
• Minimal text explaining maps, photographs, elevations, save in thumbnail illustrations
• Sample building survey form
• Historical evolution of higher education campuses (in general, rather than specific to the characteristics of this college)

Advisors

Contractor / Author: Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company

• Jane Cady Wright AIA
• Gregory L Rutledge AIA
• Doug Campbell
• Deborah Marquardt
• Cathy Mesler

School Planning Counsel: Dr. William E. Troutt, Pres., J. Allen Boone, V.P. Finance and Business Affairs, Mel Richey, Exec. Asst. to the Pres., Beverly K. Bond, V.P. External Programs, Charles Landreth, Assoc. V.P. External Programs, Daney D. Kepple, Dir. Communications, Brian E. Fosher, Dir. Physical Plant, Robert L. Llewellyn, Dean of the College