Kirkland Hall, designed by William Crawford Smith, was built in 1874 as the first teaching building at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Located on the then 74-acre Vanderbilt's Main Campus, it burned down in 1905 due to a large fire and was rebuilt in 1906.[1] In the following years, many renovations and reconstructions took place on a variety of scales. In 2015, the FUTURE VU Initiative was proposed, with one of the projects being the Kirkland Hall renovation.[2][3] Initially projected to be completed in October 2023, the project was only finalized in the early months of 2024.[3]
The original Kirkland Hall – also named Main Building, Old Main, University Hall, and College Hall[1] – was built originally in Victorian Gothic style,[4][5] with two towers flanking the centered gable, here protruding out, much like a pediment.[6] After the 1905 fire, Kirkland Hall was rebuilt in Italianate style, with only one tower reconstructed. A new bell was funded to replace the previous old bell with donations from alumni, Vanderbilt students, and across Nashville.[1] In 1937, chancellor James Hampton Kirkland ended his leadership and he died on August 5, 1939. The board, out of respect for his contributions to the university, renamed the building from Old Main (called College Hall in recent years) to Kirkland Hall.[4]
Until March 2024, the Kirkland Hall renovation has still remained closed, allegedly due to construction. Protests took place inside and outside of the building, leading to several students suspended.[7]
History
In July 1874, Bishop McTyeire commissioned William Crawford Smith to design and build the first buildings of Vanderbilt Campus. In April 1874, he joined in laying the cornerstone of the first Main Building (now known as the Kirkland Hall). The building housed classrooms, libraries, laboratories, seven new faculty homes, and a small observatory.[4]
1875–1905
The Main Building
From the Main Building's onset, its design was concerned by the first Chancellor Landon C. Garland, who was put in charge of the design of the first buildings together with William C. Smith by Bishop McTyeire. Not worrying about the Victorian Gothic style in general, Garland was primarily preoccupied with the supervision of the design of scientific rooms in the Main Building.[4] However, even with careful projections and inspections, the Main Building faced the problem of overcrowding. During 1878–1879, Science Hall, by accommodating geology labs, helped end the overcrowding problem in Main Building.[4]
In 1884–1885, Vanderbilt University met its low ebb. Enrollment dropped, and arsonists set fire to the Main Building and others.[4] The building withstood this disaster and stood as one of the most imposing architectures on campus. About a decade later, in 1899, with the help of a new endowment (totaled $1.2 million), the heating and sewage systems on campus were rebuilt. The Main was connected to Science Hall via pipes, and water closets in Main met the demands of water supply for the college.[4]
Kirkland Hall After the Fire
On Thursday, April 20, 1905, Vanderbilt students had their morning classes as usual, not knowing what was forthcoming. At around 11 a.m., they smelled the smoke and later when the blaze was discovered, it was already uncontrollable due to the ineffectiveness of the water system. Students fled out of the building, some of them bringing their books with them. Many of them threw books and lab apparatus, the precious assets that Chancellor Garland brought back to Vanderbilt decades ago, out of windows. The Nashville fire department came, but was unable to save the building. The Old Main, proudly erected for almost 20 years, was burnt to only the outer shell.[4][8]
Fortunately, casualties were minimal and many books and machines were saved. The main library next to the top floor originally contained around 22,000 books, 4,000 of them saved by the students.[4] On that day, Chancellor James Kirkland addressed the calamity in a letter to the anxious student body, reassured them that the academic program would not be interrupted, and praised the student body which stood with the Vanderbilt University bearing unmoved confidence. Next morning on Friday, the classes began normally at 8 am in substitute buildings.[4][8]
1906–1939
Kirkland Hall
The year 1905 had been a critical year for Vanderbilt. Even though its Main was burnt to the ground, the morale of Vanderbilt community was high. Prior to this fire, the university was in a serious financial crisis, and failed to meet proposed academic expenses. Chancellor James Kirkland, seeing opportunity out of crisis, deemed the fire a perfect time for fundraising. William K. Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, contributed $150,000; the citizens of Nashville pledged over $50,000; alumni contributed around $10,000. Even children of the campus collected $553, enough for a new clock and bell.[4]
The raised funds were able to met the restoration costs of the building. He and his engineers directed the project. Even though the rebuilding of the Main failed to include a new library due to a turn-down of expected grant from Andrew Carnegie, the restoration in general was satisfying to the Vanderbilt community. A flat roof replaced the original gables, one tower was erected, and perhaps most importantly, the interior was of reinforced concrete, finally fire-proof.[4] Still lacking the old magnificence, the construction of the new Main (then called College Hall) nonetheless manifested the solidarity of the Vanderbilt community.
In the following years, the College Hall constantly faced the pressure of limited spatial capacity. By World War I, the enrollment soared and the four class buildings had exhibit inadequacies to meet the booming academic needs of all students.[4] In 1925, 162 law students occupied the top floor of the College Hall and over 1,000 students crammed into the four class buildings - Main, Furman, Science, and Engineering.[4] The circumstances got even more dire in 1927, as an additional 20,000 volumes of selected books came into the College Hall to replenish the 50,000-volume repertoire.[4] In 1933, the College Hall had to spare its space for engineering students, as the Engineering building was unable to house them all.[4] The critical moment came on February 19, 1932, when Wesley Hall burned. The reconstruction cost for the Wesley Hall was too great to be met, and it was not rebuilt. The student body had to be disseminated to other classrooms, worsening the situation.[4]
With all these years of challenges, the College Hall stood still. A non-neglectable contributor was James Hampton Kirkland. In the years when he led Vanderbilt, he helped boost the enrollment, grew the faculty, developed the campus, raised the funds, and saved the institution from many crises. On January 2, 1937, Kirkland submitted his official resignation letter. Two years later in 1939, he died on August 5, shortly after he moved to his lakeside cabin in Ontario. Out of due respect, the Board of Trust renamed the College Hall to Kirkland Hall.[4]
1940–present
Recent Kirkland
In the 50s, fraternities and sororities took much space of the Vanderbilt student life. By the year 1959, 76 percent of men and 79 percent of women students were involved in social fraternities and sororities.[4] Then Chancellor Harvie Branscomb wanted a reformation, one that overturned the social structure so that students felt more belonging to the university instead of their fraternities and sororities. The reform began early in 1951 but received much resistance. In April and May 1959, violence broke out. The students orchestrated a prank on Sunday, May 17, hacking the new carillon installed in Kirkland Tower and making a ghostly indictment of the new fraternity scheme in the name of the "Ghost of Kirkland".[4] The joke got worse when 500 boys gathered in front of the tower, many in pajamas, shooting off firecrackers, throwing water-filled bags, and threatening a "panty raid" after moving to the women's dorm.[4] On Tuesday, a more determined group of around 250 indeed tried to get into two dorms, and this led to the deans taking serious action. As many names of the boys were collected for disciplinary actions as possible, the "Ghost of Kirkland" was accused, and the hackers were initially expelled, only later did who make up for the semester while remaining on probation.[4]
In 1960, another picketing took place at Kirkland Hall. In early march, Divinity School students picketed Kirkland Hall in support of James Lawson, then a Divinity School student who was expelled from Vanderbilt due to racial conflicts.[4] As early as November 1959, a number of black college students hosted sit-ins at Harveys and Cain-Sloan department stores, demonstrating an injustice and asking to talk to the owners. Lawson took part in this series of activity, applauded the students' efforts, taught the students how to perform nonviolent sit-ins with great self-discipline, and tried his best to secure them success. However, he was identified as the leading organizer and as the tension brewed, he was accused of advising young people to violate the law. In face of immense pressure, Chancellor Branscomb held board meetings and discussed the action on Lawson, which eventually led to his expulsion.[4] The debate over the controverted decision was relentless, and Kirkland Hall was one of the locations where protestors gathered.
Six year later, an expansion and renovation of Kirkland Hall began to take place in 1966, following ambitious academic facility expansions.[4] In 1968, the rear entry stairs, the rear 4th and 5th floors, elevators and dock ramp were added.[9] Current HVAC and electrical systems were installed in 1988.[9]
2023 renovation
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Vanderbilt's founding, Vanderbilt dedicated over $20 Million into finishing the fifth project of FUTURE VU, the renovation of Kirkland hall, starting in 2022 and ending in 2023.[3][10] In a 2023 debrief, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier admitted that Kirkland Hall had not been touched for around 25 years, and there were problems with water system, windows, instabilities of floors, and so on.[11]
The project, led by Centric Architecture, a Nashville-based design firm, sought to enhance accessibility and inclusion, connectivity and community enhancement, and sustainability. Some project details include: making the entrance accessible, repairing of the roof and drainage system, and redesigning the restrooms to be gender-neutral.[9] Initially the project was predicted to be completed in Oct. 2023, but was only finished in early 2024.[3]
During his tenure, he raised funds, developed the campus, and led Vanderbilt University through various crisis. Two prominent contributions of his included the 1905 Main Fire and 1910 Methodist warfare.[12] In the former crisis, he helped boost the morale, raised renovation funds, and resumed the normal academic schedule as fast as he could; in the latter one, he managed to get rid of the Methodist's church's right in naming board members and gained Vanderbilt relative independence from the church.[12] In 1937, he ended his tenure and two years later, he died in Ontario.[4] Kirkland was regarded as one of the most important chancellors in Vanderbilt History. The board, after his death, renamed the Main Building after him.[4]
Present day
Today Kirkland Hall is primarily used as an office building, no longer assuming the responsibility of holding regular academic classes. It has been, however, a heated place on campus where celebrations of festivals happen together with protests. In recent years, sit-ins and picketing have taken place many times.
2012 Protest: Tent City
2012 protest
To end Vanderbilt's investment in an African agricultural corporation that was accused of land-grabbing, Vanderbilt students organized a sit-in at Kirkland and a two-month long "tent-city" starting mid-March 2012.[14][15] The university allegedly eliminated the company from its endowment in 2013, and Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos personally responded to the letter submitted by the activists.[14]
2015 protest
In 2015, Vanderbilt's Hidden Dores, under the leadership of Akaninyene Ruffin, silently marched to Kirkland Hall. Each student presented a signed list of demands to Zeppos, advocating for a more prominent student role in discussions regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. They also emphasized the necessity for improvements in mental health assistance, curriculum, staffing, accountability, and policy.[16]
2016 protest
On Nov. 11, 2016, hundreds of members of the Vanderbilt community met to protest Donald Trump’s election as president.[17]
The demonstrators marched across campus, passing through Rand Hall, Sarratt Student Center, the Divinity School, Law School, Warren and Moore Colleges, Wilson Hall, and finally reaching Kirkland Hall.[17]
5 days later, students sat outside of Kirkland Hall and demanded Zeppos declare Vanderbilt a “Sanctuary Campus” for undocumented immigrants. From 12:30p.m. till 4:30p.m., the students hosted a sit-in to pressure Chancellor Zeppos, who happened to be out of office.[18]
2018 Legend's Tour
On Oct. 24 at 5:30p.m., outside Kirkland Hall, students celebrated Halloween by Spooking each other.[19]
2019 Protest
2019 protest
Dr. BethAnn McLaughlin, a professor at Vanderbilt Medical School, who was advocating for tenure, had her previously approved tenure decision overturned due to her involvement in multiple Title IX investigations, reportedly by retaliation from some members of the university. The only remedy was to have Chancellor Zeppos, who had the final say on this matter, overturn her rejection. Students in support of Dr. BethAnn McLaughlin held sit-ins in front of Kirkland Hall.[20][21]
2022 protest
Dores Divest organized a climate walkout at 12 p.m. CST, February 16, 2022, in front of Rand Dining Hall. The walkout ended with a march in front of the Kirkland Hall. The purpose was to act against the university's investment in fossil fuels.[22][23]
2024 protest
2024 Protest
On March 26, 2024, a group of students entered Kirkland Hall with intention to protest while it was still closed under construction, reportedly in demand of a higher degree of free speech.[dubious–discuss] The sit-in continued to 6 a.m. the next morning, resulted in 27 students suspended. Eli Motycka, a reporter for the Nashville Scene, was arrested by VUPD near Kirkland Hall while covering student protests. Many students rallied outside the building in support of the suspended peers throughout the coming week.[24]
Up until April 9, the protest continued. Some students got arrested and expelled.[25] More marches happened while picketing were constantly staged. There have been no trend of this protest leveling off.
Related Research Articles
Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966.
James Morris Lawson Jr. is an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s, he served as a mentor to the Nashville Student Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University for his civil rights activism in 1960, and later served as a pastor in Los Angeles for 25 years.
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With 18,410 students, it is the 57th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students.
The State University of New York at New Paltz is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an academy in 1833.
Kirkland College was a small, private liberal arts women's college located in Clinton, New York, from 1965 to 1978. It was a female counterpart to Hamilton College, at that time all male, and its campus was adjacent to Hamilton's. It was named for Samuel Kirkland, who founded the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, origen of Hamilton College. It was not successful financially, and Hamilton absorbed Kirkland on June 30, 1978, and now maintains its archives and financial endowment, and supports its alumnae community.
FirstBank Stadium is a football stadium located in Nashville, Tennessee. Completed in 1922 as the first stadium in the South to be used exclusively for college football, it is the home of the Vanderbilt University football team. When the venue was known as Vanderbilt Stadium, it hosted the Tennessee Oilers during the 1998 NFL season and the first Music City Bowl in 1998 and also hosted the Tennessee state high school football championships for many years.
Landon Cabell Garland (1810–1895), an American, was professor of physics and history and university president three times at different Southern Universities while living in the Southern United States for his entire life. He served as the second president of Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, from 1836 to 1846; then professor from 1847 to 1855, and then third president of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from 1855 to 1867; and first chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1875 to 1893. He was an apologist for slavery in the United States before the Civil War, but afterward became a vociferous spokesperson against slavery.
Hamilton Hall is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University on College Walk at 1130 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, serving as the home of Columbia College. It was built in 1905–1907 and was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the Neoclassical style; the building was part of the firm's original master plan for the campus. The building was the gift of the John Stewart Kennedy, a former trustee of Columbia College, and is named after Alexander Hamilton, who attended King's College, Columbia's original name. A statue of Hamilton by William Ordway Partridge stands outside the building entrance. Hamilton Hall is the location of the Columbia College administrative offices.
James Hampton Kirkland was an American Latinist and university administrator. He served as the second chancellor of Vanderbilt University from 1893 to 1937.
Nicholas S. Zeppos is an American lawyer and university administrator. He was the eighth chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. On April 2, 2019, Zeppos announced that he would be stepping down from the position on August 15 of the same year.
The Blair School of Music, located in Nashville, Tennessee, provides a conservatory-caliber undergraduate education in music performance, composition, or integrated music studies within the context of a major research university, Vanderbilt University. Blair also provides music lessons, classes and ensembles to over 800 precollege and adult students each semester. Blair is the youngest and smallest of Vanderbilt's ten constituent schools and colleges.
Richard C. McCarty is a professor of psychology and the former provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to serving as provost, he was dean of Vanderbilt's College of Arts and Science.
Bennett Harvie Branscomb was an American theologian and academic administrator. He served as the fourth chancellor of Vanderbilt University, a private university in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1946 to 1963. Prior to his appointment at Vanderbilt, he was the director of the Duke University Libraries and dean of the Duke Divinity School. Additionally, he served as a professor of Christian theology at Southern Methodist University. He was the author of several books about New Testament theology.
Occupy Vanderbilt was a collaboration that included demonstrations and an occupation located at Alumni Circle Lawn at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Occupy Vanderbilt engaged in organized meetings, events and actions through March 2012. The occupation was in solidarity with the global occupy movement and Occupy Nashville, and is notable as the first protest encampment at Vanderbilt, the spread of which in countries like Argentina, Greece and Spain originally inspired the Occupy movement.
Henry C. Hibbs (1882–1949) was an American architect. He designed many buildings on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He also designed the libraries of Fisk University in Nashville and the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the recipient of several awards for his architectural work.
Edwin Mims (1872–1959) was an American university professor of English literature. He served as the chair of the English Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for thirty years from 1912 to 1942, and he taught many members of the Fugitives and the Southern Agrarians, two literary movements in the South. He was a staunch opponent of lynching and a practicing Methodist.
Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. In 2011, The New York Times reported that "S.J.P., founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, has become the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus."
Memorial Hall is a historic building on the Peabody College campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. It was built in 1935 as a dormitory hall for female descendants of Confederate States Army veterans. Its former name resulted in multiple lawsuits and student unrest. In August 2016, Vanderbilt announced it would reimburse the United Daughters of the Confederacy for their financial contribution and remove the word Confederate from the building.
Daniel Diermeier is an American political scientist and university administrator. He is serving as the ninth chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Previously, Diermeier was the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he also served as provost. He succeeded Eric Isaacs on July 1, 2016, and was succeeded by Ka Yee Christina Lee on February 1, 2020.
Jack Petocz is an American student activist. He is the founder of Recall FCSB and a political strategist with the nonprofit organization Gen-Z for Change. He identifies as gay and speaks about his experiences as an LGBTQ+ person.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
