Greek columns traded for hodgepodge of architecture
UNL in the ’90s
fails to match
1920 plan
BY ALAN PHELPS/STAF F_REPORTER_
In 1920, University of Nebraska officials drew up a bold plan for the future layout of the
school — a plan that was never realized.
According the 1920 Cornhusker yearbook, planners envisioned the construction of that new
university by 1940.
Today’s university is far from the dreamy counterpart of the 1920s. While the real UNL is
marked by a hodgepodge of architectural styles, the 1920 design consisted of classically
inspired buildings clustered around a central mall.
The Nebraska Mall, a tree-lined
boulevard, was to run the east-west
length of the campus, down the center
of what in reality became a parking lot
and is now the area around Love Li
brary North. At one end would have
been a Greek Amphitheater, in keep
ing with the classical style, built on the
natural hill that today slopes down
ward between Neihardt and Pound
residence halls.
"... if surrounded by tall-growing
trees,” the plan said of the theater,
“and given proper architectural dig
nity, a theater nere placed could and
would become not only the crown of
the campus, in the matter of beauty,
but the center of all those line activities,
dramatic and festal, which the glori
ous sunshine of Nebraska invites to the
out-of-doors.”
In the opposite direction of the mall,
an imposing engineering hall was
proposed for about the same location as
the present one-story 501 Building.
The authors of the 1920 plan were
enthusiastic about the prospect of
a mall as the focal point of UNL.
“This mall would become the veri
table campus center,” they wrote, “af
fording a site not only for the varied
student life of passing generations, for
the processionals of commencement
day and other academic functions, for
flftes and celebrations as picturesque
as fancy could make them, but also for
constant beautification with statuary,
tablets, fountains or other memorials,
as the grateful classes should leave
these monuments behind them.”
An imagined conversation between
two university graduates visiting their
alma mater in 1940, printed in the
1920 Cornhusker yearbook, also
What the Roman
Forum was to
Rome, the Acropo
lis Road to Athens,
the mall is to the
U. of N.
—1920 Cornhusker Yearbook
mentions the proposed mall.
“What the Roman Forum was to
Rome, the Acropolis Road to Athens,
the mall is to the U. of N. We’ve had
some wonderful spectacles here, I can
assure you,” one of the alumni says.
Intersecting the mall in the 1920
plan was the main north-south avenue
through campus, 12th Street. The
street was to be called the “Street of
One Thousand Columns” because of
the column-laden buildings proposed
for either side.
A Social Science Hall (now the Col
lege of Business and Administration),
Avery Hall, and Bessey Hall had al
ready been constructed bv 1920 along
the lines of that plan. If the rest of the
design had become reality, similar
structures would have been built
where the Sheldon Art Gallery and
Hamilton, (Jldfather and Burnett halls
now stand.
Square with 12th Street at its north
terminus would be Memorial Gym,
one of the proposed campus’ most im
portant buildings.
“The Memorial Building,” the plan
said, “will be a magnificent architec
tural creation, adequately expressive
of the wealth of admiration and ven
eration felt by Nebraskans for the men
who marched to battle to vindicate the
principles of democratic govern
ment.”
A huge marble-encrusted Memo
rial Hall would have been the
main interior feature of the
gym, immortalizing in stone the
names of Nebraska’s fallen World
War I heroes. The entrance to the gym
“could become a columned court of
great majesty, in fact, it might well be
called the Court of Columns,” the
planners wrote.
Near Memorial Gym would be
Memorial Stadium, which actually
was the only building to be constructed
on its site as planned.
At the end of 13th Street, between
the Nebraska Mall and R Street, was
to be the cornerstone of the UNL of the
future, the university library/mu
seum/fine arts college. The combina
tion of these three entities, the planners
wrote, “would not only be of continu
ous service to the students of the uni
versity, but especially in its museum,
would invite visits from the savants of
many lands.”
And, the imaginary returning
alumni from the 1920 yearbook
lauded the plan, saying, “The core of
every college is its books, printed by
man on paper, by nature in the rocks.
Here we bring them together.”
Despite the enthusiasm of planners
and students, only a library eventually
was built on the site.
Facing the State Capitol at the end of
15th Street (today’s Centennial Mall),
where the Nebraska State Historical
Society now stands, was to be another
monumental structure, the Nebraska
State Auditorium. Bristling with clas
sically inspired columns, the huge
building would have seated 6,000.
The location was chosen to serve
both the university and the state.
“Facing the Capitol ... is the logical
site for a monumental building, and
the needs, not only of the university
and the city, but also of the state, call
for a large assembly or convention
hall, more than for any other struc
ture,” planners wrote.
In the aftermath of World War I,
located across the mall from the Audi
torium. Those sites were necessary,
they wrote, to “enable that training in
the use of arms which all free states
must have, not for the encouragement
of militarism, but for the preservation
of the national liberties.
Rounding out the campus, at the
north edge of the Drill Plaza,
was to be the Girl’s Quad, a dor
mitory area complete with tennis
courts and softball fields. Between the
Girl’s Quad and the Gym would have
been the Men’s Quad.
The residents of those dormitories
were to be inspired with a sense of pride
in their university and its proud, clas
sical hallmarks.
The yearbook's imagined 1940 con
versation between two university
graduates called on alumni to help
make the new campus a reality.
“You surely have transformed
things in 20 years — unimaginably,”
one of the fictional characters says.
“What I should like to know is how you
did it.”
“It was the grads’ part to do that,”
answered the other, “and ’20 did her
share.”
“I’m proud of the old class, I can tell
you!” said the first. “True to the dot!
But I wonder, when I look about, what
there is left for . . . the class of 1940 to
do. The university seems so — fin
ished.”
However, with or without the help of
alumni, the university was never to
reach this “finished” state. The inter
vention of the Great Depression and
World War II meant that such a
campus was not to be. New genera
tions of administrators, new technol
ogy and the proliferation of the auto
mobile — the 1920 plan doesn’t men
tion parking lots —■ brought with them
different ideas about how the campus
should grow.
B Transportation
building
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17H ^ i To so
| It. Haymarket fInstructors^
■ hou^gH
John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
The combination of
these three entities,
the planners wrote,
“would not only be
of continuous serv
ice to the students
of the university,
but especially in its
museum, would in
vite visits from the
savants of many
lands.”
—1920 Program of Development