A Reconstructed University
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| A student in 1897. |
The
Civil War left the South and its schools depleted, but philanthropy,
industry, and reconstruction soon brought the University of
Virginia into its turn-of-the-century glory. Virginia football
and baseball teams entered into intercollegiate competition.
Fayerweather Hall opened in 1893, its indoor swimming pool,
bowling alleys, and cantilevered track earning it recognition
as the South's finest physical education facility of
the time. Eighteen fraternities, a daily student newspaper,
the yearbook, and the alumni magazine all started up during
the 1890s.
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| Fire destroyed Jefferson's Rotunda in 1895. |
On Sunday, October 27, 1895, a student noticed smoke seeping
from the corner of the Rotunda Annex. The University's
bell ringer sounded the alarm. Students and faculty thronged
the Rotunda, carrying and throwing precious belongings out
to the Lawn. The entire community gathered as flames engulfed
the Annex. Mathematics professor William H. "Reddy"
Echols climbed up the dome and threw dynamite toward the fire,
hoping in vain to keep it from spreading to the Rotunda. "The
whole dome seemed to shiver," wrote one eyewitness, and
then "the dome dropped solidly into the holocaust below."
Monday classes met as usual, though many in makeshift locations.
University officials swiftly hired Stanford White, the great New York
architect, to rebuild the Rotunda. White took the charge even
further, redesigning the Rotunda interior, adding three buildings
to the foot of the Lawn (Cabell, Rouss, and Cocke halls),
and designing a President's House (Carr's Hill)
to sit atop a hill looking down upon the newly built Rotunda.
The domed building with three stories now had two, the second
opening two flights up to the oculus in the ceiling, with
bookshelves and study tables around the perimeter. |
434.924.0311 / 
