Campus 1921 - 22

[Turbine]

Louisiana's Campus
1921-22

The 1921-22 session was when the concrete sidewalks finally connected all the campus buildings.

The circular drive in front of Martin Hall was also paved during the 21-22 session.

And the buildings were named. 1921-22 was a very eventful year for the campus.

[NewsCopy]

University buildings named in 1921

The buildings at The University of Louisiana weren’t given names when they were first built. They were known only as “the main building,” or “the dormitory.” That changed in 1921, on the 20th anniversary of the school’s opening.

On Sept. 18, 1921, to be exact, there was what a memorandum in the archives at Dupre library described as “a well arranged and interesting program, successfully carried out” to mark “the observance of the twentieth anniversary of the opening of Southwestern Institute.”

The crowd gathered for a procession across the campus, moving “around the Circle Walk to the Main Building,” where WALTER J. BURKE, (an SLII trustee for whom Burke Hall was later named) rededicated the building as Martin Hall and “paid eloquent tribute to the patriotism and statesmanship of Senator Robert Martin, who by his persistent efforts ... in the State Legislature ... secured the establishment of Southwestern Institute.” Martin himself then made “a brief and modest response.”

Next, the procession moved over “a new concrete walk” to the Boys’ Dormitory, which Burke rededicated as Foster Hall in honor of MURPHY FOSTER (grandfather of the last governor) who was governor at the time SLII was formed and later served in the U.S. Senate. Judge PERCY SAINT of Franklin made “an eloquent response, as a friend of the late Senator Foster and his family.”

Moving on to the Machine Shop, the procession paused to rename it in honor of the late BROWN AYRES, who was a member of the SLII’s first board of trustees. He was a dean at Tulane when SLII was established and later became president of the University of Tennessee. (Brown Ayes Hall burned in about 1970. It stood behind the campus police office where the B.I. MOODY III building is now under construction.) WARREN REED of Morgan City, “an able engineer and a graduate of Tulane under Mr. Ayres’ instruction, responded.”

The next stop was the Girls’ Dormitory, which Burke renamed DeClouet Hall for PAUL L. DeCLOUET of Lafayette, “Confederate veteran, high soul [sic] gentleman, and exemplary citizen,” who as a legislator secured the funds to build the dorm, and who “was ever a devoted and serviceable friend to the Institute.”

The rest of the story

Jim Bradshaw
The Advertiser.
(337) 289-6315 (fax)(337) 289-6443
jbradshaw@theadvertiser.com )

[RaginFan2]

A note about the Brown Ayres Hall. It burned down in the fall of 1972. It was at that time the art building.

[LaCajunsFan]

1921 football team