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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 30
AUGUST 8,1975
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
250-Year-01d Trent Room
Travels Again to New Home
Over the past three weeks, hospital carpenters have been busy in an unusual
task—disassembling the medical school library’s Trent Room and
reassembling it in the heart of the new Seeley G. Mudd Communications
Center and Library.
Their job consisted of painstakingly removing the 250-year-old knotted
white pine paneling from one end of the reading room in the present library
and then piecing together a complex and delicate jigsaw puzzle a quarter of a
mile away.
According to Pedro Seagroves, head of the carpentry shop, the lumber
which composes the room is both delicate and expensive. It was brought to
Duke in the middle 1950’s to provide a suitable home for the School of
Medicine’s sizeable collection of rare medical books, and at that time, the
paneling was already 230 years old.
An English carpenter removed the paneling from a house in the south of
England. That stately structure, built in 1725, was being torn down, and Mrs.
James H. Semans saved a part of it by bringing it to the United States.
The English carpenter accompanied the paneling here and set about
restoring it into a room. Seagroves said he helped the Englishman with the
task.
Of the current move, senior carpenter Joe T. White said, “It was definitely
like putting a 1,000 piece jigsaw together. The new Trent Room is almost
exactly the same size in circumference as the old one, but is also shorter and
wider.”
As a result, there wasn’t any extra paneling to correct mistakes. A local
woodcrafting company told Seagroves that they could furnish duplicate
molding with new lumber, but that molding, which would have to be
hand-carved, would cost between $300 and $800 per foot.
Pointing to minute chisel marks put in when the original craftsmen carved
the molding 25 years before this country declared its independence. White
said, “You can see someone took pride in making this stuff.
“We took pride in putting it back together again.”
Registration Time Is Here Again
Urging as many employees as
possible to form car pools for the
coming year, the Parking and Traffic
Office has announced that
September 1 is the deadline for
re-registration of employees’ cars.
‘‘The Traffic Office strongly
recommends the forming of car
pools,” said a recent memorandum,
“especially since the loss of parking
spaces at the H Zone parking lot on
Fulton Street and the increase in gas
cost. This would also be a savings to
individuals participating.”
The office entitles two or more
persons to register their vehicles to
form a car f>ool. A fee of $20 will pay
for a car pool pass, which is
transferable between car pooling
vehicles. Payment for these passes
can not be deducted from the payroll.
All other medical center personnel
must pay $20 for the year for each
vehicle registered, with a limit of two
vehicles per person. The registration
fee may also be paid by payroll
deduction at a charge of $1.67 per
month for 12 months.
Motorcycles may be registered for
a charge of $10 per year. No payroll
deductions are allowed for
motorcycle registration.
All House Staff must re-register at
the House Staff Office, Rm M-131,
Davison Bldg. No payroll deductions
are allowed for the House Staff.
The Parking and Traffic Office
reminds all employees to bring the
necessary documents for registration:
—alid driver’s license
—Current vehicle registration card
—^Social Security card
“A vehicle can not be registered
without all necessary documents,” the
office said.
The memorandum also stated that
reserved parking patrons will be
notified by mail of regulations and
fees for re-registering.
Vehicle registration will begin
August 18 and will take place in
various buildings on the medical
center campus. Intercom will carry a
detailed listing of registration times
and places next week.
PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN—Piece by piece, the antique white pine
paneling and moldings of the Trent Room were brought the quarter mile from the
medical center's library to their new home in the almost completed communications
center. Carpenters J. T. White, right, and Pedro Seagroves have spent the better part
of the past month painstakingly recreating the room, which houses rare books.
(Photo by Margaret Howell)
From Puke Endowment Trust
$11 Million Committed to New Hospital
The Duke Endowment and the
Nanaline H. Duke Trust of New
York have made an $11-million
commitment to the university for the
financing of the new $96.3 million
Duke Hospital North, president
Terry Sanford announced last
Friday.
Construction of the 616-bed facility
is scheduled to begin on Sept. 1. •
Trustees of the Duke Endowment
have approved support of as much as
$8 million over the next several years.
Another $3.3 million has been made
available by the Nanaline Duke
Trust.
These grants provide the
university with the necessary
minimum equity funds of $30 million
to proceed with construction, a
minimum established last May by the
university trustees. Fhe remainder of
the construction costs will be raised
through sale of bonds.
‘The Endowment and Duke Trust
pledges are the keystones for
financing the new hospital,” Sanford
said. “Construction of the facility will
enable the university to strengthen its
commitment to the health of the
region and the nation.”
The Duke Endowment has granted
more than $200 million to the
university since its founding in 1924
by James B. Duke.
Other beneficiaries of the
endowment include Johnson C.
Smith and Furman universities,
Davidson College, hospital and
childcare institutions in the
Carolinas, and Methodist churches,
ministers and their families in North
Carolina.
The two gifts come to Duke
through its Epoch Campaign, a
$162-million development drive.
Commitments to the campaign now
total more than $74 million.
Bowlings Ladies?
The Duke Ladies Bowling League
will hold their organizational meeting
on Tuesday night, August 26, at 6:30
p.m. at the Fairlanes Bowling Alley
on the 15-501 by-pass. The
1975-1976 bowling season will begin
on Tuesday night, Sept. 2, at 6:30
p.m. Anyone interested in joining the
league is urged to attend the
organizational meeting. Additional
information' may be obtained by
calling Linda O’Neal at 684-5732 or
Lessie Welborn at 684-2727.