June 2000: Vol. 79, No. 3June 2000: Vol. 79, No. 3Campus renovations preserve our history
 Michael F. Adams |
ne of the privileges of working on a campus as beautiful as ours is the opportunity, literally, to stroll through history. I enjoy walking across North Campus on a warm spring day; I can almost hear the footsteps of those who have walked these paths before, the long line of alumni that traces back to 1804. The soul of the University resides here.
Some of the buildings bear the names of storied figures from our history. Meigs Hall's namesake was a fiery mathematician from Yale who taught the first classes here, then quarreled with the trustees and left. Fortunately, Josiah Meigs' passion for educating young people did not leave this campus when he did. Lustrat House was named for a Parisian educated at The Sorbonne who served for 30 years as head of Romance languages. Moore College, whose name speaks to the long tradition of symbiosis between the University and the Athens community, was named for Richard Moore, who led the private fundraising drive to construct the building which would house the State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts.
Even the grass beneath my feet speaks of our past, for Charles Holmes Herty taught chemistry here for nine years at the end of the 19th century. But Dog fans revere him for another accomplishment: organizing collegiate athletics at the University of Georgia. In 1891, students chose red and black as the school colors and traded their goat mascot for a bull terrier named Trilby. On Jan. 30, 1892, the first official football game was played on the field that would bear Herty's name. More than a century later, the site has been converted from a parking lot to an open and inviting greenspace, the first realization of the campus master plan.
 Once a library and then an art museum, the new Administration Building has been restored to its early 20th-century glory. |
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We have begun implementing the recommendations of the new campus master plan, which seeks to transform all of campus into an environment like North Campus: aesthetically pleasing, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, residential, open, and green. The master plan also recognizes the importance of the older buildings on campus and incorporates many of their features into structures proposed for the future.
We dedicated a renovated Meigs Hall in the spring and held an open house for the new Administration Building, which was first a library and then an art museum. This magnificent building now has been restored to its early 20th-century glory and is a fitting front door for the University of Georgia. We have also purchased the Wray-Nicholson House from the Athens-Clarke County government. It will serve as an anchor for our plans to expand North Campus.
Work has begun on Baxter Street near the Brumby, Creswell and Russell residence halls; this project will widen sidewalks, improve bicycle lanes and install buffer plantings between the street and the sidewalk. The improved aesthetics come with an even more important side effect: improved pedestrian safety along a very busy street. We will soon begin work on the Greenway project, which ultimately will preserve a tract of greenspace from the Oconee River at the south end of our campus, through Athens, and on to the Sandy Creek Nature Center to our north.
This all speaks to our responsibility to honor and preserve the past while moving boldly into our future. Our very identity is in the names of those who laid the foundation for our tomorrows; now we must carry them with us as we go forward.
