Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 5, 1973, edition 1 / Page 16
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1 A VI MmcH $. It 73 Variation 5,. . ' - v iUhdl -1 A A o LA A nmlXl :ViilA " w ' .5 .-.7 : " WHi:- II Iti 4 V Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching. . .UNC Student Battalion presents colors in World Warl. ytffaoiririi IPirt off IHieoiveini ooo And Chop J n no n by Kevin McCarthy Feature Writer In the beginning there wasn't much of anything just heaps of nothing and loads of closet space. Then, a long, long time ago, crashing atoms by the billions appeared admist the cosmic vapors and gases. Often, when two energized atoms chanced to bump into one another, they would pause to gossip, always in hushed tones, about the coming of the earth, Christianity, and the University of North Carolina, in that order. About one to two billion years ago, volcanoes began sprouting up like pimples all over the face of Chapel Hill, and possibly, although the evidence is still skimpy, an ancient seaway flowed in the area. These volcanoes, quite persistent fellows that they were, kept sprouting and erupting, sprouting and erupting. Some say the University has been in turmoil ever since. It came to pass about a half-billion years ago that streams of ill-mannered liquid rock battled their way up through the earth's layers and popped up on the unsuspecting surface. This development is appropriately termed an "igneous intrusion." Lucily for Carolina students, this molten rock crystalized into granite, quite a hard rock, and thereafter, students could tell their parents and friends that they were attending a school with a good, solid educational foundation. 5 : 0s By the middle of December, T798, the North Carolina General Assembly had decided to establish the first state-supported University in the fledgling nation. Choosing a place where land was cheap, the population low (except for the squirrels), but close enough so that the legislators could oversee their brain child, they sent a surveyor to a little place called Chapel Hill to begin laying out the Southern Part of Heaven. By 1822 the Great Spirit of all good squirrels, who visited the are some time between the volcano age and 1789, would have scarcely recognized his old haunting grounds, if he were to reappear. The campus was bustling little village buildings where students roamed among Old East, built in 1793; Person Hall, 1796; South Building, 1798; Gerrard Hall, 1822; and Old West. It might be added that by 1796 there was already a housing shortage. Instead of inventing Residence Life, students rented rooms in Mrs. Elizabeth Puckett's house on East Franklin Street During the Civil War and until 1875, Carolina was as lonely as a cactus in the desert. Only four out of fifteen memebers of the senior class were present for commencement in 1865. During Sherman's occupation of the campus and the surrounding area. Smith Building (now the Playmakers Theatre) was the scene of horses feeding on hay rather than students devouring books. By 1871, only two students remained. When Mrs. Cornelia Spencer, the daughter of Professor Charles Phillips, ran up the stairs to the attic of South Building in March of 1875 to ring the bell, the f 1 4 my f'r rC$ III fcm. jiiii'iifMimiriiii. 1 0 v. lV -as -. as c , -r r If f J r i Illllrl ill Mr li 6 I s i i 5S v w ... " Sjt S: Davie's changed, but theArb's the sum. community knew that the University was back on its feet. Between 1875 and 1920, the University grew slowly but steadily. Carr Building, Bynum (originally a" gymnasium), the Old Memorial Hall, Swain Hall, the YMCA building and Howell Hal (originally the home of the School of Pharmacy), all rose at this time. Also during this era, Emerson Stadium sprouted but was eventually torn down in 1971 to make room for the new Student Union. The Roaring Twenties were no less deafening in Chapel Hill than in the rest of the country. Chznge was visible everywhere. Coeds, admitted between 1910 and 1920 to the previously ail-male University, made their presence known. While they bobbed their hair, Steele Building, Grimes, Manly, Mangum and Ruffin dorms, Saunders, Murphy and Manning halls. Spencer dorm, the Carolina Inn and. Kenan Memorial Stadium appeared, pushing the woods even farther away from the center of campus. By 1930, the student body numbered approximately 3.000. The years that followed the 1920s have also been, years of tremendous expansion. The thirties saw the rise of Woollen Gymansium, the Bell Tower, the Medical School, Lenoir Hall and the School of Public Health. The Old Memorial Hall was torn down because it was found to be unsafe, and a new Memorial Hall erected in its place. Men became scarce on campus as World War II took its toll from the young men of the country. Many changes took place on campus, including the first woman editor of the DTH. Perhaps one of the highlights of the forties was getting the chance to live in the Tin Can which was erected after World War II to house the vastly increasing number of students. Imagine living in a dorm that had no walls to space off individual rooms, where the ceiling seemed miles above and where showers were a couple hundred feet away in Woollen Gym. Life at Carolina became much more pleasant in the fifties when the University decided to pave the walks with brick. No longer did students have to swim to class. The sixties and the early seventies are probably quite familiar to most students at Carolina. Many buildings arose during this time, including Kenan Laboratory, the South Campus dorms, Greenlaw, the new Student Union and most recently Hamilton. The sixties will probably be remembered more than anything else for the antiwar protests, the generation of jeans and bicycles, and new freedoms in dress, education and sexual attitudes. The future? Well, the squirrels are still around with the dogs on campus providing a system of checks and balances. The Univers" y has grown from two students in 1871 to 18,949 in the fall of '72. Prediction: growth. Attitudes: unknown.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 5, 1973, edition 1
16
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