A history of the University of South Carolina online

that visitors were not often shown the interior. Mills'
Statistics speak of it as octagonal in form.

Professor Williams, who filled the chair of mathematics in
1850, was given in that year the sum of $1,200 for the
purchase of a seven-inch telescope, and at the same time the
board set aside $1,300 for the erection of an observatory, the
dimensions of which were to be eighteen by twenty feet ; the
height from the ground to the dome eighteen feet; and the
diameter of the dome twelve feet. The executive committee
selected a site for the observatory in the rear of DeSaussure
College. Two hundred dollars more were appropriated for
the building in May, 1851, and apparently a second $200
were given in the following December. The observatory was
to have been completed by October 1, 1851 ; but although the
telescope had arrived on time, the track on which the dome
revolved and which had to be made in Massachusetts had not
come by the end of the year. However, in his report for
May, 1852, Professor Williams was pleased to say that the
observatory had been completed, and that the seniors had
been enjoying the study of the heavens.

The telescope and the observatory suffered great injury
during the war of '61. Professor John LeConte, who was
to teach astronomy in the new University, obtained promise
of a small sum from the board to put them in working order ;
but he had to report in November, 1867, that the telescope
had been stolen, and no doubt the thieves had broken it up



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 163

for old brass ; the doors and windows of the observatory were
broken, and the building was otherwise defaced.

In 1884 the observatory was turned over to the students
as a fraternity hall on condition that they put it in good
repair. They kept possession until fraternities were abolished
by law in 1897. During the sessions of 1900-1902 it was
used for the practice school of the pedagogical department.
Golfers stored their clubs in it for a few years. In the spring
of 1909 it was fitted up as an office for Professor W. H.
Hand; the inspector of the rural schools, Professor W. K.
Tate, was given quarters here.

GYMNASIUM.

Governor R. Y. Hayne moved December 8, 1835, that a
committee should be appointed to inquire into the expedi-
ency of building a small and convenient church in the
vicinity of the college buildings or on the college square for
stated performance of divine worship by the professor of
sacred literature and evidences of Christianity. The motion
being carried in the affirmative, the committee was
appointed with instructions to report at the next June
meeting. Here the matter ended.

Professor Francis Lieber, who was acting president at
the close of the year 1851, suggested in his report the
advisability of erecting a new chapel, or of remodeling the
old one. The Legislature granted at that time $10,000 for
a new chapel. In those days the income from fees was so
great that the board could often lay by a considerable sum.
President Thornwell thought at the time of his report in the
May following that in two or three years at the rate they
were then saving there would be $20,000, or $24,000, on
hand, the $10,000 appropriated being counted in, and that
this would build the chapel. He also laid before the board
plans that had been prepared by Mr. Jacob Graves, a local
architect. Messrs. J. S. Preston, J. H. Adams, R. W. Gibbes,
D. L. Wardlaw, J. J. Evans, and John Buchanan were
appointed as the committee to select the site and to erect the
building. These gentlemen reported at the next meeting



164 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

that, the town council having agreed, the chapel would be
built in the center of Sumter street; that the plans of
Mr. J. Graves would be followed; that a contract for the
sum of $23,480 had been made with Troy and Wade, with
October 1, 1853, as the date on or before which the building
should be completed; that the foundations had been laid,
and work was progressing as fast as could be desired. The
board decided that the new chapel should be known as
College Hall.

The progress on the work was so slow that in May, 1853,
the contractors were informed that they must complete the
building by the 1st of October according to contract, else
the board would finish it themselves and hold them liable for
the difference. In December the trustees were informed that
it would take a year to complete College Hall. At the May
meeting of 1854 they ordered that Messrs. Troy and Wade
be informed that it must be ready in time for the commence-
ment exercises in December, even if more hands had to be put
on it. They also directed that the earth should be raised
two feet in front of it, and that the plans should be so altered
as to allow the extension of granite steps across the whole
front. When the board met in November, it had before it
the report of the architect. He stated that Messrs. Troy and
Wade had become cramped for means and were unable to
carry out their contract, and in his opinion the cost of the
completed Hall would be $31,299. These figures the building
committee thought should be changed to $34,265. Mr.
Waring, the architect said, had done the plastering and
rough coating. The trustees directed that the chapel should
be protected by an iron fence. The end of the work was in
sight.

The building committee having been discharged, Governor
Adams was appointed sole committee and directed to give
notice to the sureties of Messrs. Troy and Wade that they
would be required to finish the building; if necessary, he
would hire other persons at the sureties' expense.

College Hall was used by permission of the contractors
for the exercises in celebration of the semi-centennial of the



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 165

South Carolina College. The glass for the windows had not
yet arrived.

Governor Adams reported at the May, 1855, meeting of
the board that Troy and Wade had given up the contract,
unable to comply with its requirements, and their sureties,
Maybin and Howell, had completed the work. Part of the
work he regarded as very defective. "On the day of the
great fire in the woods" a gale of wind carried off part of
the tin roof, and a hard rain coming up later, the plastering
inside looked as if the rain had come through a sieve roof.
Mr. Graves had had the seams of the roof soldered and three
coats of "Blake's metallic paint" applied; but the governor
wished the virtue of this particular paint and of the three
hundred pounds of solder to be tried by a heavy rain.
Governor Adams acknowledged his indebtedness for advice
and help to Hon. W. F. DeSaussure. The granite steps
across the front had been constructed by Riley and Garrison.

Governor Adams was entitled to the everlasting thanks of
the trustees for the public spirit with which he had helped
them out of their difficulty. According to the architect's
calculation, November 28, 1855, the cost of the new chapel
had been $34,764.64; but the report of the building com-
mittee a few days later made the cost to have been $29,482.62.
President Thornwell preached in the new chapel on April
22, 1855, although it was not quite finished; but permission
had been secured from the contractors to use it for all pur-
poses except morning and evening prayers. He reported
on it that it was badly adapted for the transmission of
sound. The building committee also stated in the report
referred to above that the College Hall was entirely unsatis-
factory, not elegant, not well built; that ordinary speaking
could not be heard from the stage, owing not to an echo
but to a general confusion of noises when the hall was filled
with an unquiet audience. Mr. Graves thought carpeting
the floor and ceiling the basement and stuffing the space
between the ceiling and the floor with hair, moss, or some-
thing similar would remedy the defect. For several years
experiments were made at considerable cost in this and in



166 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

other ways; but the hearing qualities could never be
bettered. A storm took off part of the roof the year after
the building was completed. College Hall was never used
as a chapel.

In 1859 the Legislature gave the college the iron fence
that had been around the old State House. It was set up
around College Hall; but it suffered so greatly during the
war that part of it was sold in 1866, since it could no longer
protect the hall, and the rest of it was thrown away as
useless.

The basement of this building was fitted up in 1860 as a
public examination hall. On August 25, 1863, College Hall
was impressed for hospital purposes. It contained 300 beds.
When the United States military authorities took possession
of the college buildings in May, 1865, the new chapel was
used by them. The extra session of the Legislature that
convened October 25, 1865, met in this building, the House
in the main hall, the Senate in the basement. "The House
of Representatives had to leave their room, the auditorium,
because of the imperfect hearing within it. The reverbera-
tion of all sounds was so great within it that the speaker
could not determine from what part of the chamber the voice
came when a member addressed him, unless said member beat
the air vigorously while he called the speaker." A resolution
was passed by both branches that the place for holding the
sessions of the House should be changed to the Clariosophic
Hall, and the Senate should meet in the classroom of Dr.
John LeConte immediately below; but the library was sub-
stituted for the classroom.

The adjutant and inspector general of South Carolina
secured permission from the board in 1870 to use College
Hall as an arsenal and armory, for which purpose it was
used until 1887.

In 1885 the executive committee was asked to find out the
amount for which the outside chapel could be sold, and what
would be the cost of erecting a new chapel inside the
inclosure. The committee's report is not recorded; but the
trustees decided to introduce a bill in the Legislature to be



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 167

given the power to sell it. Nothing further was done. Presi-
dent McBryde reported to the board in May, 1888: "The
repairs to the large chapel on Sumter street are approaching
completion. The building has been strictly renovated within
and without. As now arranged, it contains twenty-eight
rooms, seven on basement floor for mechanical department,
ten on second floor for department of agricultural chemistry,
biology, physiology and hygiene (including microscopist and
bacteriologist of station) and physics, and eleven on third
floor for chemical department and director, chemist, assistant
chemists and photographer of the experiment station. The
repairs, including supplying the building with water and
gas, will cost about $4,000."

The lower floor was fitted up for a gymnasium during the
session of 1892-1893. Since the completion of LeConte Col-
lege the interior above the first floor has been torn out, and
the whole has been turned into a gymnasium.

MARSHAL'S HOUSE.

In 1839 the marshal received $150 in lieu of house rent. A
house was purchased for him apparently in the following
year.

At the first meeting of the trustees in December, 1857, on
motion of Dr. Thornwell, who had been elected a member of
the board after his resignation from the presidency, the
executive committee was instructed to inquire into the cost of
a house for the marshal. In accordance with the committee's
report, the board a few days later appropriated from the
funds at its command $2,100 for the erection of a neat and
commodious cottage for the marshal. Power was given the
executive committee to sell the house and lot occupied by the
marshal for not less than $2,000. It was sold for less, but
the price was not given. Mr. Clark Waring was the con-
tractor for the erection of this house, which stands on the
corner of College and Sumter streets and is now occupied
by Professor L. T. Baker. It was completed in 1858. Federal
officers occupied it immediately after the war. Judge (then
Professor) A. C. Haskell lived here during the session of



168 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

1867-1868. R. Vampill, professor of modern languages, was
in it in 1874. Robert S. Morrison, marshal from 1881 to
1895, occupied it till he was succeeded by Professor F. C.
Woodward in 1890. Professor Woodward was followed by
Professor Patterson Wardlaw in 1897, who moved in 1908
into the building in the rear of this house. Professor Baker
has made his home in it since 1908.

PROFESSOR'S HOUSE IN REAR OF LIBRARY.

An appropriation of $6,000 was made by the trustees from
the funds in their possession November 24, 1858, for a house
for one professor to be located back of the library. A year
later Dr. John LeConte and Hon. William DeSaussure were
appointed to oversee the work. Robert W. Johnson secured
the contract for $6,200, the $200 of which Dr. LeConte said
he would pay rather than see the contract fall through. This,
however, the board did not allow him to pay. The building
was to be delivered to the college authorities by October 1,
1860. Dormer windows were added, gas was introduced,
and servants' quarters, carriage house, and fences were built.
When the final cost was reckoned up, it was found to be
$9,943.50. War coming on, the contractor failed to get
$3,147 due him, as was reported November 29, 1861. This
was to be paid as soon as the funds were in hand After the
close of the war Mr. Johnson endeavored to obtain what was
due him; but the trustees had no funds of their own and
had to refer him to the Legislature, which refused to allow
the claim.

After Dr. LeConte went to California in 1869, Dr. Talley
lived here till 1873; one of the professors named Roberts
occupied this residence during radical control; Hon. R. W.
Barnwell moved into it in 1877 ; his daughter, Miss Eliza W.
Barnwell, occupied it as librarian after his death in 1882;
she was succeeded by her brother, John G. Barnwell, for
1887 and 1888; Dr. J. W. Flinn then made his home here
till 1905, when Dr. G. B. Moore came to live in it. It became
Flinn Hall in 1910.



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 169

INFIRMARY.

The executive committee was asked in December, 1887, to
submit plans for an infirmary. On the 7th of November of
the following year it was approaching completion. No
record as to architect, contractor, or the cost is preserved.
This building was erected in the center of the block on the
south side of College street between Sumter and Main streets.
In 1907 Mrs. Ann Jeter gave the University $15,000, to which
she later added $500, for a new infirmary to be known as the
Wallace Thomson Memorial Infirmary. This was completed
by the opening of the session of 1908. The architect was
Mr. Gadsden Shand, and the contractors were T. S. Berfoot
and Son. It is located at the southwest corner of Green and
Bull streets. The old infirmary was remodelel into a dwell-
ing and is at present occupied by Profesor Wardlaw.

GYMNASIUM AND ATHLETIC FIELD.

In 1836 Major Penci was engaged to teach fencing to the
students. An alumnus of the class of 1840 remembered the
corner back of the library as the gymnasium in his day. This
was an open air gymnasium, consisting of swings, swinging
rings, bar, parallel bars, "volador," and a "flying jinney."
Later the gymnasium was moved to the open space south of
Rutledge and beyond Green street. During the session of
1892-1893 the lower floor of the building known as Science
Hall was turned into a gymnasium under the direction of
Professor Bagby. The whole building was turned into the
gymnasium in 1911.

The present athletic field, Davis Field, was enclosed with
a fence in 1898 at a cost of $600, half of which was paid by
the students and their friends, half by the board of trustees.

NEW HOUSES FOR PROFESSORS.

In 1907 the Legislature granted the sum of $10,000 for
the erection of three new houses for professors. They were
completed before the end of the year. Messrs. Shand and



170 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

Lafaye were the architects; the contractors were Messrs.
Grandy and Jordan. These houses are located on the west
side of Sumter street between College and Green streets.
Professor Snowden occupies the house at the corner of Green
street; next to him is Professor Twitchell, the house now
occupied by Professor A. C. Carson; the third house is the
home of Professor Hand.

R. MEANS DAVIS COLLEGE.

The sum of $30,000 was appropriated by the Legislature
of 1908 for a new building on the grounds of the University
of South Carolina, which the trustees decided should be
devoted to lecture rooms. This was the first building to be
planned and supervised by the University architect. It is
located on Gibbes' Green east of the wall and was built by
the King Lumber Company of Charlottesville, Va., who had
their contract completed and the work accepted at the begin-
ning of the summer of 1909. The first floor has been
assigned to the departments of mathematics and engineering,
history and political economy, and modern languages (one
room) ; the departments of English and ancient and modern
languages have been located on the second floor. The build-
ing has been named R. Means Davis College in honor of the
late Professor R. Means Davis. The formal opening of Davis
College took place on Founders' Day, 1910.

LECONTE COLLEGE.

The Legislature of 1909 gave $20,000, with the under-
standing that a like sum was to be given in 1910, for a
building to contain the departments of biology, geology, and
chemistry. This college faces Davis College in line with the
northern range of buildings.

Mr. George Waring was the contractor. The departments
of physics and engineering and philosophy have been tempo-
rarily housed in this building. On the ground floor rooms
have been given to the laboratory of the State Board of



j. 3 3 a JL









J. 3 3 U J.




OP SOUTH CAROLINA 171

Health, as also to the entomologist of the general govern-
ment and to the State department of agriculture.

FLINN HALL.

The house long occupied by Dr. J. William Flinn was,
after the removal of Professor Gordon B. Moore in 1910,
fitted out for a social center for the campus. Around it
centers the activities of the student body. It is in charge of
the secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. As
Dr. Flinn's home had meant so much socially in the life of
the campus, it was fitting that his name should be commemo-
rated in the hall that was to become the home of the campus.
Mrs. Flinn has bequeathed a sum to be spent on the equip-
ment of Flinn Hall.

CENTRAL HEATING PLANT.

A central heating plant was begun at the southeastern
corner of the grounds, but was moved in 1913 to the rear of
Eutledge and was so far completed as to furnish heat for
Davis College and Woodrow dormitory.

THORNWELL AND WOODROW COLLEGES.

An appropriation of $25,000 was secured in 1912 and
the same sum in 1913 for dormitories. The one in the rear
of DeSaussure College was ready for occupancy by the end
of 1912; it was named Thorn well in honor of the great
alumnus and president, James H. Thornwell. Woodrow,
named for the late President James Woodrow, in the rear
of Eutledge and facing Green street, was opened to students
by the 1st of December, 1913.*



*The building 1 committee, the president being: advisory member, con-
sists of Messrs. James Q. Davis, August Kohn and David R. Coker, mem-
bers of the board of trustees.



172 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY



CHAPTER XV.



THE CURRICULUM.

The first regulation adopted by the board of trustees in
regard to the course of study in the new South Carolina
College was the division of the student body into four classes,
freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, which continued
without change as long as the old College existed. When the
University of South Carolina opened its doors, January 10,
1866, it was with two classes, junior and senior, following
the University of Virginia. The South Carolina College of
Agriculture and Mechanics, which came into existence in
1880 and lived for two years, had a three year course of
intermediate, junior and senior classes. The four years
returned with the South Carolina College in 1882 and have
remained, except that for a brief period after the formation
of the present University in 1906 they were dropped in the
official division of the students : the men were in this period
known as "first", "second", "third", or "fourth" year men.

During the existence of the South Carolina College only
one course was laid down, which all the students were
required to follow. However, while Dr. Maxcy was presi-
dent, the laws permitted "persons wishing to acquire all the
other branches of education taught in the College, excepting
Latin and Greek, or either of them", to join "either of the
three upper classes"; but such persons were entitled to
receive only a certificate at the end of the senior year. A
note of the faculty of April 19, 1808, records the change of a
student, by name Dick, from the "linguist" to the English
course. Graham of Virginia was allowed, in 1814, as "not
a few" others, to study science with the seniors. After Dr.
Maxcy the strict course was adhered to, so that very special
notice was made of the permission once given for a student
to omit Greek on account of his eyes. The laws granted



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 173

attendance on lectures by persons outside the student body
at the will of the professor.

The age for entrance was not fixed in the first editions of
the bylaws. In 1821 it was placed at fifteen, and youths who
were prepared and were not far below the required age could
attend classes until they reached fifteen, when they were
enrolled as students. The laws of 1836 took off one year.
Fourteen remained the age for the next thirty years. The
applicant for a higher class than the freshman had to be
fifteen, or according to the laws of 1853, of an age above
fourteen proportionate to the class he wished to enter. After
1866 no one was allowed to enter below fifteen, except for
very special reasons ; in 1904, the age limit was raised to six-
teen. The laws of the South Carolina College of Agriculture
and Mechanics make no reference to a limiting age.

All applicants for admission to the old South Carolina
College stood an examination whether they came from prepa-
ratory schools or other institutions. The degrees of other
colleges were recognized, so that after the payment of the
fees any one who wished to take the master's degree could
work for the diploma without examination. The applicants
for admission had to be "well acquainted with the prepara-
tory studies necessary to admission into the class to which
they aspired." During the 50's no young man was examined
for any class who "has not read and carefully reviewed all
that is required for admission. When the certificate of his
teacher does not distinctly state this fact, the applicant will
be asked whether or not he has done so, and in all cases in
which a negative answer is given, an examination will be
refused to the candidate." The certificate that was required
related chiefly to moral character and was not necessarily
from the teacher. A certificate admitted only to the exami-
nation ; no one was allowed to enter on the certificate. The
students of Mount Zion Academy of Winnsboro prepared by
J. H. Hudson, who was one of the most successful of teachers,
were permitted as a special mark of consideration to him
after his death in the summer of 1857 to stand the exami-
nation for entrance in October, although they were preparing
to enter in December. Students coming from other colleges



174 HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY

were required to show that they had left those institutions
in good standing. Students from Yale, Harvard, or Prince-
ton, mostly natives of the State, as shown by the records of
the faculty, never entered higher than their rank at the insti-
tution they came from : they were examined in every instance.
The announcement of the South Carolina College for the
year 1894-95 made known that the faculty was authorized
to admit into the freshman class applicants who presented
from superintendents or principals of graded schools or
other "approved schools" certificates of satisfactory exami-
nation on the subjects required for entrance. From that
time students have entered more and more on certificate,
so that few now enter on examination.

Students who applied for advanced standing satisfied the
faculty by examination that they were prepared in all the
studies pursued by the preceding classes, or in studies equiva-
lent to them. The secondary schools prepared so well that
about the beginning of Dr. Cooper's administration students