ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University
ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University
ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University
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<strong>Cornell</strong> Alumni News<br />
VOLUME 61, NUMBER 14 APRIL 15, 1959<br />
Boardman Hall Goes Down For<br />
New Research Library Building<br />
WITHIN a fenced-off space at the edge<br />
of the Quadrangle, between Stimson<br />
Hall and the Library where the new Research<br />
Library will rise, Boardman Hall<br />
is reduced to rubble. Giant clamshell<br />
cranes chewed into the roof, walls, and<br />
floors of the old building, loading a fleet<br />
of trucks that carted the debris away in<br />
preparation for the new structure.<br />
But the blocks of Cleveland sandstone<br />
that made the walls of Boardman Hall<br />
sixty-six years ago are being saved to<br />
face the first floor terrace of the Research<br />
Library that will overlook the<br />
Quadrangle, and the stone heads and<br />
carvings that decorated Boardman Hall<br />
were carefully removed and saved to be<br />
used on the new building. General contractor<br />
for the $5,700,000 Research Library<br />
project is the Perini Corp. of<br />
Framingham, Mass., whose vice-president<br />
in charge of the building division is<br />
Marcus SagaΓ21.<br />
Fraternity Council Shows Support<br />
Amid the controversy over the demolition<br />
of Boardman Hall and as indication<br />
of the interest of undergraduates in<br />
the new Research Library that will replace<br />
it, the Interfraternity Council<br />
voted to give $5000 to provide and furnish<br />
a Faculty study in the Research Library.<br />
This sum was the proceeds of two<br />
public concerts given during Interfraternity<br />
Week End and fines levied by the<br />
Council on member houses for rushing<br />
violations. The gift will be memorialized<br />
with a plaque in the Faculty study that<br />
it provides.<br />
stands has been selected as the site of the<br />
new Research Library which will rear itself<br />
there just as soon as somebody supplies the<br />
relatively inconsequential millions which the<br />
project requires.<br />
Responsibility for the many details incident<br />
to the removal of the old and the creation of<br />
the new lies in hands younger and more competent<br />
than those of this reporter. But we<br />
can assure the handful of ancients who care<br />
about such matters that adequate steps have<br />
already been taken by those in high places to<br />
WHICH ONE<br />
BOARDMAN,<br />
provide that before the wreckers start their<br />
grisly task there shall be carefully removed<br />
and lovingly preserved all the charming little<br />
carved corbels, heads, and gargoyles tucked<br />
away under the eaves of Boardman Hall and<br />
now mostly concealed by the ivy. We suspect<br />
that generations of profound jurists and<br />
shrewd practitioners were well grounded in<br />
the principles of the common law within that<br />
building without their ever observing the embellishments<br />
upon it.<br />
Berry attributed the carvings to "four<br />
young English sculptors [names unknown]<br />
who were imported to that end<br />
and were permitted to chip away on the<br />
site as they saw fit. . . ." Other research<br />
indicates that the sculptor, or one of<br />
To Preserve Stone Carvings<br />
In September, 1956, after it had been<br />
decided that the Research Library<br />
would replace Boardman Hall, the late<br />
Romeyn Berry '04 wrote about it in his<br />
<strong>ALUMNI</strong> <strong>NEWS</strong> column, "Now, In My<br />
Time!" He said:<br />
Boardman Hall, the old Law School, is<br />
doomed to demolition. The place where it<br />
This Cartoon, by George McMeen '60, appeared in The <strong>Cornell</strong> Daily Suh February 23,<br />
the day that demolition of Boardman Hall was scheduled to start. For those not familiar<br />
with the Campus now, the building at right is Day Hall, the administration building.<br />
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