ALUMNI NEWS - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

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