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Architects
Changing Architecture over the Years
The architectural history of Jesup Hall has long
been surrounded in myth and uncertainty. Of all of
the mysteries, the greatest source of speculation
has been the origin of the exterior
color. In stark contrast to most other Williams
College buildings, the exterior of Jesup is almost
entirely comprised of painted brick. How the
present-day pinkish-gray color was arrived at is a
story that spans nearly the entire history of the
building.
Completed in January 1900, the architectural
design by George Tilden
incorporated numerous architectural elements of the
existing Thompson
Laboratory buildings while adding several of
its own to the laboratory campus. The building's
rectangular construction, roofline cupolas,
ornamental stone entryways, marble keystones,
prominent dormers, and single hip roof are the most
noticeable architectural features borrowed from the
laboratories. To these, Tilden added a broad,
sweeping porch, two sentinel columns, and a large
central dormer bounded by massive chimneys. To
further offset the building from the Laboratories,
he cast Jesup Hall in old gold brick, a color dark
enough that some mistook it for a shade of orange
(OO). All of these elements combined with the
siting of Jesup Hall at the far eastern end of the
laboratory campus served to create a building
that serves as both an anchor and a focal point for
the quadrangle.
But before Jesup Hall could fully fulfill this
role, something had to be done about Kellogg Hall.
Sited
just to the northwest of Jesup Hall, Kellogg Hall
was a plain, utilitarian structure which had served
the College as a dormitory since its erection in
1847 (B). Even prior to the completion of Jesup in
1900 discussions were underway among the Trustees
about Kellogg Hall's future. At that time the
building was widely considered to be well-worn and
in need of repair in the near future. With the
addition of Jesup Hall, the building became an
aesthetic mismatch with the remainder of the
quadrangle. Thus, shortly following the completion
of the new building, the Trustees authorized
Kellogg Hall's demolition. Kellogg Hall was razed
during the summer recess of 1901 (B).
During the first ten years of its existence,
Jesup Hall was plagued by structural problems. In
1904-05, the College spent nearly $6,000 shoring up
the main floor of the auditorium which had been
progressively sagging (BBB). This initially had
been estimated to be an $875 project, but
unforeseen difficulties were encountered driving
the costs higher. At the same time other projects
such as renovating the auditorium and replacing the
gas lighting in the auditorium and reading room
with electric fixtures were undertaken, adding to
total cost. Another renovation, similar to the
1904-05 changes, occurred in 1910. This renovation
brought several additions to the building: it
extended electric lighting throughout the building,
constructed a dormer window on the northwest corner
of the 4th floor, and provided new toilet
facilities to the dormitory resident on the 3rd
floor. Outside of these improvements, the primary
reason for this renovation was to reconstruct the
stairs on the north side of the north side of the
building, to reinforce the walls, and to strengthen
the central staircase by replacing the wooden one
with a stair of iron construction (EEE). To
complete the list of structural problems, a
renovation in 1908 (primarily focused on the
exterior of the building) also had to replace the
front porch with a more sturdy one of reinforced
concrete (W).
Outside of the structural modifications to the
building in the early 1900s, the College radically
changed the exterior of the building in 1908. What
resulted from this renovation
was a colonial-style building which, from the
outside, closely resembles the Jesup Hall of the
present. During this conversion, the roofline was
reconfigured: the cupolas and the dormers were
removed and were replaced with dormers windows
designed in the colonial-style. The front porch was
removed and a new one of reinforced concrete
constructed. This new porch was squared and lacked
the sentinel columns which had graced the original
design. To complete the conversion to the colonial
style, the main entry way was reconstructed in such
a way that the stone arch was removed in favor of a
squared entry way supported by iconic columns.
Above these, a large colonial window replaced the
stone seal of the College. Finally, the exterior
"old gold" brick was coated with a layer of yellow
paint (A, W).
The reasons for the exterior changes of 1908 are
largely unknown. Given the tight finances of the
College at this point in its history, spending such
a large sum as $5,000 on what appear to be mostly
superficial changes seems suspect. A possible way
around this dilemma is to postulate that the
changes were brought about for more practical
reasons. For example, the internal addition of the
fire escape was likely brought about by the need
for an additional exit from the auditorium.
Furthermore, the emphasis in the historical
documents on the new porch being constructed using
reinforced concrete brings into question of the
sturdiness of the original porch. This would lead
one to believe that such a reconstruction was
indeed necessary and that the sentinel columns were
merely causalities of the reconstruction. Now,
given the persistent structural problems in the
early years of the building, it is not farfetched
to postulate that the dormers and the cupolas may
have been deteriorating faster than anticipated
(especially given the fact that cupolas are
notoriously difficult to maintain). This may have
necessitated the changes in the roofline. The
remaining changes to the west face of the building,
could have been made to accommodate the colonial
architecture of the roofline and porch changes.
Similarly, the decision to paint the exterior
yellow would have been necessary as the "old gold"
brick would not have interacted well with the
colonial architecture.
Compared to the first ten years, very few
changes were made to Jesup over the ensuing years.
The first major work on the building came about in
1918 to repair the damage caused by a fire which
broke out on the 4th floor. During the repairs, the
College changed the configuration of the 4th floor
to create office space for student groups such as
the Gargoyle Society and the musical clubs (Z, DD).
Following these repairs, there was no major work
done to Jesup Hall until a significant
reconstruction was necessitated by a fire which
broke out in the basement in 1937. The blaze
scorched the center section of the building all the
way up to the second floor (Q, JJ). Though the
blaze was costly to the College and created a
significant inconvenience to students while the
building was repaired, it did provide an
opportunity for the Student Activities Council to
act upon a plan to reconfigure the student group
spaces in the building (R).
A renovation of Jesup Hall's largely unused,
dungeon-like basement was proposed in 1949. The
converted space was to have been a social space for
students, containing a food counter, dance floor,
ping pong tables, and seating for roughly ninety
people (Y). All indications are that this plan
never made it to fruition as numerous students from
that era do not recall the existence of such a
space (HHH, III, JJJ).
As evidenced by the 1949 proposal, demand for
such a "student center" space was high on campus, a
demand which was fulfilled with the opening of
Baxter Hall in 1954 (A). Thus, when Jesup Hall was
restored in 1959, the work focused on improving the
office and auditorium spaces within the building,
rather than creating new student spaces. While the
bulk of this work focused on the interior of the
building, the exterior was painted for the second
time in Jesup Hall's history. This time, the color
chosen was pink with a slight hint of beige (A, BB,
CC).
Between 1959 and 1984 few architectural changes
were made to Jesup Hall. Then in 1984, a total
renovation of the building was undertaken. Under
the guidance of John
Jordan, the entire interior of the building,
save the floors, was gutted. Fire stairways and an
elevator were added on the north and south ends of
the building. The third floor was extended through
the space created from the removal of the
auditorium (H, BB). The building prior to the
renovation had primarily contained offices and the
auditorium; afterwards Jesup Hall housed the campus
computer and network equipment, computer center
offices, and classrooms.
Again in 1984, the exterior color of the
building was repainted.
This time only a slight change was made to the
existing color (III). The new color was similar to
the pinkish beige color applied in 1959 except that
the new color contained a stronger purple element,
making it richer. Supposedly, this slight change in
color came about from the recommendation of a
professional color coordinator whom the College
hired at the time of the renovation.
While the slight color change in 1984 was
scarcely acknowledged, the source of the original
pink coloration is still the object of much
speculation. The most prevalent rumor is that Mrs.
Jesup preferred this color and requested that the
building be painted this shade. As attractive as
this might be, it is simply that, a myth. The fact
of the matter is that Jesup Hall was not painted
pink until 1959, long after Mrs. Jesup had passed
away. It is possible that the original yellow paint
color was chosen by Mrs. Jesup, especially given
her involvement in the 1910 renovation,
unfortunately there is no historical documentation
to support this theory.
The most plausible explanation for the myth
surrounding the pink color is that it is a
half-truth. At the time of the 1959 renovation, the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees was Henry Flynt.
Flynt and his wife were keenly interested in
colonial architecture, having founded Historic
Deerfield outside of his role at the College. It is
believed that Mrs. Flynt chose the pinkish-beige
exterior color used in the 1959 restoration as it
was her favorite (O, HHH, III). This explains both
the myth and the color choice as it would be quite
easy for Mrs. Flynt to be confused with Mrs.
Jesup.
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