Emory Campus Master Plan: History

The Mission of the University Expands

The rapid growth in student enrollment on college campuses following the Second World War seems to have caught many universities by surprise. Emory was no exception. Within a year following the end of the war, 1,500 additional students populated the Druid Hills campus. The influx of veterans, whose educational ambitions had been strengthened by the heroic war effort and facilitated by the GI Bill, were to place demands upon housing, classroom space, university staff and a variety of other resources. In order to meet the requirements of an expanded student-body temporary structures were hastily put up while college officials scrambled to devise more permanent solutions.

Prior to the Second World War, Emory had already begun to expand beyond its original boundaries. In 1938, 200 acres of land north of the Seaboard Railway tracks were purchased by the university expanding the land holdings to 550 acres. In 1958, Emory purchased the 185 acre estate of Walter Turner Candler, "Lullwater House," for use as the official residence of the president of the University. Lullwater had been designed by the firm of Ivey and Crook, in 1926, in the manner of an sixteenth-century English manor house. Situated on beautifully landscaped park land, Lullwater has complimented the Emory campus since it was finally transferred to the university in 1963.

During the War, it became apparent that the University was in need of facilities for physical training and sports. The Hornbostel plan had envisioned an area to the eastern edge of the campus as a location for playing fields and a field house. However, the university's policy banning participation in intercollegiate athletics caused this portion of the original plan to take a back-seat to other campus needs. In 1949, a new Field House was built in the general area recommended by the 1915 campus plan.

In 1950, Alumni Memorial Hall was opened to serve the campus community as a student services center. In the context of hostilities in Korea, it was decided that the he student services building should be dedicated to the memory of Emory alumni who lost their lives in World War I, II, and Korean theater. At the core of the campus, the quadrangle, remained incomplete until the construction of the History Building, adjacent to Candler Library, in 1951, and the Administration Building, in 1953.

Fraternities and Dormitories

Other notable additions to the campus came in the form of expanded residential facilities. Since 1928, Fraternities had begun to maintain houses on the Emory campus. Between 1949 and 1951 several Greek organizations were to move into new houses on Fraternity Row. The architectural language utilized by the Fraternity Row houses were generally a variant of Southern Colonial styles that seemed to be an appropriate response to the context. While Fraternity Row was to evolve a character befitting the university's location in the South, other housing projects on campus were to be built in a more nondescript vocabulary. The permanent housing facilities erected during this period generally appear as a stripped-down version of the original campus buildings -- lacking in the attention to craft, detail and character displayed in the earlier Hornbostel and Shutze buildings. New residential buildings were built during the 1950's to accommodate the housing requirements of graduate students. Many of these buildings were built in haste to replace the temporary housing put up during the war years. "Mudville," as one of the World War II housing projects was dubbed, was perceived as a liability to recruiting highly qualified students to the post-war campus. Clifton Court Apartments (now Turner Village) were built in 1959 (remodeled by Scogin, Elam and Bray 1989) and Graduate and Professional Housing Center in 1964. In 1953, Emory became a co-educational institution thus necessitating the construction of housing for women. Alabama (1919) and McTyeire (1940) Halls were converted from men's to women's dormitories to meet the immediate needs of women on campus. In 1954, the Florence Candler Harris Home for Nurses (now Harris Hall), which had been built in 1929, was expanded. By 1958, Thomas, Hopkins, and Smith Halls had been completed to address the housing needs of female students. Meanwhile the 1950's saw the expansion of men's dormitories. Wesley (1951), Longstreet (1955) and Means (1955) Halls joined Dobbs (1916) and Winship (1916) Halls as accommodations for male students. Following the expansion of residential buildings on campus, Harvey Cox Hall was built in 1960 as a dining facility.

Medicine and Medical Research

Emory's commitment to medicine and medical research was also to play a significant role in shaping the campus. Emory hospital continued to expand its facilities with the addition of the Whitehead Pavilion (1945), the Woodruff Memorial Building (1952-58, additions 1964 & 65), the Emory Clinic (now Scarborough Building, 1956-59, addition 1963), and a parking deck in 1956 to accommodate the public users of the medical complex. In addition to the Emory Hospital facilities, by the 1960's the Egleston Children's Hospital, located on Clifton Road, and both the Aidmore Clinic and Hospital, were to become significant additions on the campus proper that would play a serious role in the future growth of the university. When in 1960, the Center for Disease Control, Phase I, was completed adjacent to the Emory properties north of the Seaboard Railroad tracks, the pattern for future growth of the medical complex had been set -- expansion would take place in a north-westerly direction eventually bringing the Emory medical and research institutions into close proximity with the those operated by the federal government. Often complementing the research efforts of the CDC, in 1965 the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center opened on a isolated tract of land north of the campus.