Memorial Hall recalls fallen alumni, students and faculty
By Daniel J. Fitzgibbons
Thousands pass by Memorial Hall every day, but many students, faculty and staff are unaware that it was the first college hall in the United States to be built in honor of troops who fell in World War I.
Constructed in memory of Massachusetts Agricultural College men who died during the war, Memorial Hall was funded in large part by contributions from graduates and students.
The question of a campus war memorial arose in April 1919 when dean Edward M Lewis invited 20 alumni to a meeting in Boston to consider the idea and other matters of interest to the college.
The alumni later agreed to build a memorial hall to be used as a headquarters for student activities. In May, 288 “Aggie men” attended a Memorial Rally at the Boston City Club to welcome home war veterans and commemorate MAC men who died during the conflict. During the banquet, they unanimously endorsed a plan to raise $150,000 for the building and authorized the executive committee of the Associate Alumni to appoint a panel to secure construction plans and conduct fund-raising.
Former MAC architect James H. Ritchie volunteered to design the building for just half of his usual commission.
By June, the 20-member Building Committee was organizing its appeal for every MAC man to contribute to the project. Each class was assigned a quota of $100 in contributions per living graduate and a four-payment installment plan was approved.
The campaign was formally launched on Oct. 1 when Willard A. Munson ’05 and Howard C. Russell ’18 outlined the project to the entire MAC student body. Enthusiastically embracing the idea, the students raised $26,000 within 24 hours. A total of 620 students, including special and two-year students, signed on as subscribers.
Soon after, an illustrated pamphlet describing the memorial hall project was sent to each Aggie man. Dean Lewis and Willard Munson traveled as far west as San Francisco and Los Angeles to meet with alumni about the memorial campaign.
The movement gained more momentum on Oct. 25 with “World Aggie Night,” when fund-raisers were held in 25 cities and towns across the country. About 600 MAC attended the events and pledged nearly all the $150,000 goal.
Alumni contributed 77 percent of the pledged funds. The committee heard from 1,184 alumni contributors, some from as far away as Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, South Africa, the Malay Free State, Turkey, Serbia and Brazil. Several MAC men still in the army in France and Germany sent donations.
Fifteen MAC men, “many of whom had been overseas and some of whom had been wounded,” gave their $100 state veterans bonuses to the project, noted the MAC Bulletin.
In fact, the drive was so successful that executive manager A.W. Spaulding chronicled the campaign in The Mailbag: A Journal of Direct Mail Advertising.
According to Spaulding, the original memorial committee courageously turned aside objections and warnings about the building project.
“They had seen too many ‘Parade Rest’ statues in too many public squares and village greens — relics of the hasty memorialization of the Civil War,” he wrote.
By December 1919, the plans and specifications for Alumni Memorial Hall were complete, but the committee needed to finance the project until the pledges were received. The American Trust Company of Boston agreed to loan the funds and a contract was awarded for the building’s construction.
Ritchie’s architectural plan called for placing the building on an acre south of the Stone Chapel facing Lincoln Avenue and Olmstead Road.
He wrote that his plan for “classic style with brick walls and marble trimmings” would bring the building “into harmony with the other buildings on campus, at the same time making it possible to obtain a memorial design which will differentiate it from the buildings which are devoted to instruction.”
The east facade of Ritchie’s design was dominated by a second-floor loggia enclosed by large French windows “for a splendid retiring room for use in conjunction with the auditorium.”
According to his plans, the first floor of the building would include a Memorial Room, nine offices, a billiard room and recreation areas. The basement would house bowling alleys, a barber shop and a post office. The second floor was dominated by an auditorium.
Ground was broken on March 30, 1920. The cornerstone was laid the following June 20 after the Baccalaureate Address to the senior class. Speakers at the cornerstone ceremony were Building Committee chairman Atherton Clark, former MAC President William Wheeler and committee member Dr. Joel Goldthwait of the Class of 1885.
The structure was deeded to MAC with the provision that the college maintain the building. Oversight was delegated to a board of managers created by the Associate Alumni, the Board of Trustees and the Student Senate.
Emblazoned with the names of three World War I battles — St. Mihiel, Aisne Marne and Argonne — and the inscription, “We will keep faith with you who lie asleep,” Alumni Memorial Hall was dedicated to the memory of MAC’s war dead on June 21, 1921.
In the Memorial Room, the names of MAC alumni and instructors who died in the war are inscribed above the fireplace. The list is topped by the words “He ventured far to preserve the liberties of mankind” and surrounded by elaborate carvings of eagles and the state seal. Among those on the honor roll is Robert Chapon ’14, the first MAC alumnus to die in action. He was killed near Verdun while serving in the French army.
Although the original drive was intended to honor 49 MAC men who died, two others later succumbed to war-related injuries. Their flag-draped caskets lay in state in the Memorial Room surrounded by flowers and an honor guard.
Following World War II, an alumni group proposed a $300,000 addition to Memorial Hall as a tribute to their fallen comrades. The plan called for a tower, large garden and a new wing with office space, a kitchen and eatery, alumni offices, an extension to the first-floor lounge and a college store.
The memorial tower, according to the design by Clinton Foster Goodwin ’16, would house a “simple dignified stone finished room” with plaques listing the MAC dead from both wars.
The campaign never quite caught on like its predecessor, though Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower beamed as he examined an artist’s rendering of the project during a 1950 visit to Amherst.
Eventually, the idea of expanding Memorial Hall was dropped as plans for a larger Student Union took shape. However, the campus still paid tribute to the sacrifices made by alumni in Europe, the Pacific and Africa. In 1962, Memorial Hall was rededicated to the World War II dead. Speakers included Maj. Gen. John Maginnis ’18 and Brig. Gen. Costas Caraganis ’33.
A bronze plaque was installed at the north end of the main room on the first floor to honor “students and alumni who served our country during World War II and in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice.” The plaque bears 144 names.
Outside the building, plaques commemorating the battles of Normandy, Leyte Gulf and Guadalcanal were placed over first floor windows.
To commemorate Memorial Day in 1978, the Alumni Association funded the placing of new signs and interior plaques honoring those killed in Korea and Vietnam. The plaques, on the south wall of the main room, bear the names of 23 who died during the Korean War and another 55 who were killed during the Vietnam War.
In 1993, a Vietnam War monument of polished black granite was placed on the east side the building. The marker was a gift from the Class of 1968.
Today, except for a new entrance on the west side and changes in landscaping, the exterior of Memorial Hall looks much the same as it did in 1921. Inside, offices have replaced student space and computers, air conditioners and other modern devices abound. But the Memorial Room and nearby plaques remembering the victims of several wars still evoke the Mass Aggie men’s original plans to pay tribute to their fallen classmates.
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May 27, 2005.
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