1870s College Academic Building

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awomanwithahammer
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1870s College Academic Building

Post by awomanwithahammer »

MC_AndersonHall2015_Dusk (3).jpg
MC_AndersonHall2015_Dusk (3).jpg (1.82 MiB) Viewed 790 times
I'm feeling nostalgic as I wind down my last days at Maryville College, and this seems like an appropriate forum on which to share a picture and some of the history of the building in which I have worked for nearly 18 years. Anderson Hall was built in 1870 and named after Isaac Anderson, who founded the college in 1819. Anderson's tower features in the college logo, and is iconic. The college was told about 2009 that, left untouched, the building was in danger of collapsing in the next few years. Money was raised, and Anderson was completely renovated in 2014-15, in essence building a new building inside the shell of the old building, leaving it seemingly untouched on the outside.

The challenge presented to the architects was to bring the building, not only up to code, but completely into the 21st century to accommodate the newest learning technology, while at the same time retaining its architectural character. Many conversations between the architects and the building's residents took place, and the final result walks a fine line between old and new, but is beautiful.

The biggest challenge was how to install HVAC in a brick building which had never had anything but steam radiator heat. Their worry was that the new drywall would end up with mold from damp between the brick and new walls. The solution was to leave a 6-inch gap between the two walls and install vents at intervals in the baseboards. Air circulates up and behind the walls, preventing moisture from collecting. So, as I say, they built a whole new building inside the old!

The original staircases were wonderful, but scary. Climbing 3 stories in a building with 12-foot ceilings, believe me, with no elevator, you felt every step of those 3 stories! The steps creaked and sagged in the middle from generations of students. The handrails were only about 30 inches tall, and from the third floor, you could look all the way down to the first floor. I generally hugged the wall when going up or down! We knew they would have to put in an elevator for code, and the stairs would have to be replaced, and with higher railings. We lobbied to make sure they kept the look of the old staircases.

All the doors had transoms over them, and the new doors have transoms as well. Non-functional, but then the old ones were, too, from years of neglect and layers of paint. The old 8-inch baseboards were recreated. All 144 windows in the building were replaced with period look wood windows. Where they had to patch brick or create new entrances, they were able to match the 140-year-old brick and mortar almost exactly. I know where the new brick is, and I have a hard time telling it apart from the old.

The contractors who did the work truly bought into the building's history. The craftmanship is excellent. One of the foremen took some of the original pine flooring from the second and third floors and created a lighted display cabinet for the first floor, in which our college historians display memorabilia from the college archives on a revolving basis.

The students who were here pre- and post-renovation bemoaned that they missed the creaky floors and the character of Anderson. I, however, do not miss the plaster ceilings that dropped bits almost daily, or the air conditioning units that hung out of the windows, or the floors that were 7 inches out of level from one end of the building to the other! Anderson is still here, and hopefully will still be here in another 140 years!
Bonnie

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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by Olson185 »

Nice pic of a nice bldg. Thanks for the synopsis.
~James

Fourth generation in a family of artists, engineers, architects, woodworkers, and metalworkers. Mine is a family of Viking craftsmen. What we can't create, we pillage, and there's nothing we can't create. But, sometimes, we pillage anyway.

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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by Lily left the valley »

It's always nice to read about a building being saved from demo and replacement.

The venting solution reminds me of exterior rain screening to an extent. All the details make for a wonderful personalized story too. Thank you for sharing this, Bonnie.
--Proud member of the Industrious Cheapskate Club
--Currently pondering ways to encourage thoughtful restovation and discourage mindless renovation.

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Lily left the valley wrote:It's always nice to read about a building being saved from demo and replacement.

I'm just grateful that the college administration saw the value in restoring it. So many wouldn't.
Bonnie

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Vala
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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by Vala »

Beautiful building, I'm also glad it was restored. I tried googling, but are there any good sources of interior photos? Preferably some before and after type shots.

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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

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The inside-vented cavity construction is tricky too. In TN it'll probably work fine but in a colder climate it's likely to make matters even worse by letting warm, humid room air into the cavity where it condenses on the colder brick wall.

Edit: I'm a bit surprised to hear that a brick building of that magnitude, particularly a public building, didn't have stone stairs! In Europe I'd have expected stone steps with (depending on age and amount of money spent) either stone or cast-iron railings, the latter with a wooden handrail.

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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by JRC »

That looks very nice! I think I'd miss the creaky floors, too. :-) But I'm glad the building was restored, and attention was paid to making it look period appropriate.

Kent State began reinvesting in their older buildings (the area known as "front campus" has the original KSU buildings from the first quarter of the 20th century) during my last few years there. (late 90s) Unfortunately, their idea of saving the building meant that only the exterior masonry walls were saved, and a new building was built within.

Texas_Ranger wrote:Edit: I'm a bit surprised to hear that a brick building of that magnitude, particularly a public building, didn't have stone stairs! In Europe I'd have expected stone steps with (depending on age and amount of money spent) either stone or cast-iron railings, the latter with a wooden handrail.


Generally, before 1900 or so, most buildings were built using the same techniques and materials as houses. Only the most monumental buildings (state capitals, courthouses, etc.) would have had stone stairs.

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awomanwithahammer
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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by awomanwithahammer »

Vala wrote:Beautiful building, I'm also glad it was restored. I tried googling, but are there any good sources of interior photos? Preferably some before and after type shots.

Vala, I'm trying to create a gallery, but the pictures I have are on my Google drive, and I'm not sure how to upload them to the gallery.
Here are a couple of links: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BT0 ... 3NGWll2SUk
And one of the exterior pre-renovation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BT0 ... 0lPVEE2clk
Stairs pre- and post-renovation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BT0 ... C1MNnY3c1k
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BT0 ... 0RQUkNHWVE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8BT0 ... nByM01Cd1U
Texas_Ranger wrote:Edit: I'm a bit surprised to hear that a brick building of that magnitude, particularly a public building, didn't have stone stairs! In Europe I'd have expected stone steps with (depending on age and amount of money spent) either stone or cast-iron railings, the latter with a wooden handrail.


Generally, before 1900 or so, most buildings were built using the same techniques and materials as houses. Only the most monumental buildings (state capitals, courthouses, etc.) would have had stone stairs.

Maryville College started out as a seminary; this building was constructed after the Civil War. The college relocated from its original location, which had been occupied and ruined by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It was not a grand university, just a modest college without funds to build anything fancy.

No pressure, but if you're at all interested, here's a link to the college's founding story: https://www.maryvillecollege.edu/about/ ... ing-story/

Thanks for all the kind words. It's a very special place to me, and I feel very proprietarial toward it. I actually contributed the design of our office suite, which was improved on by the architects and used.
Bonnie

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Re: 1870s College Academic Building

Post by Texas_Ranger »

Generally, before 1900 or so, most buildings were built using the same techniques and materials as houses. Only the most monumental buildings (state capitals, courthouses, etc.) would have had stone stairs.


That's definitely different in most of Europe. Austria (or actually the former Austro-Hungarian empire) went even a step further - apparently wooden stairs were flat-out banned in any structure larger than a single-family home or more than two storeys tall, at least that's the only explanation why you don't ever see an apartment building or public building with wooden stairs. Even upscale single-family homes in the 1880-1950 time frame usually have stone or terrazzo stairs. I suppose they really wanted to make sure the stairs were the last thing to fail in a fire!

I should probably note that none of those buildings are frame construction. Quite a few cities banned wooden houses fairly early on, after catastrophic fires. South and east of France and Belgium even interior walls were usually brick or timber-framed with brick infill rather than plaster and lath. In Austria stud walls really only appeared in the 1980s with pressed steel studs. Prior to that they were only used in finished attics.

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