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PARTNERS IN EDUCATION OLD MAIN AND WAYNE

by Patricia Bartkowski

The history of Old Main is one of walls going up, walls going down, repairs here, repairs there, repairs everywhere. It is the story of people affected by renovations and relocations, people who studied, taught, dreamed, worked, and played in Wayne State University's oldest building. It reflects the University´s growth, development, struggles, triumphs and frustrations. Groundbreaking: December 13, 1894 Cornerstone laid: May 13, 1895 First classes: September 14, 1896 Dedication: January 13, 1897 Architects: Malcomson & Higginbotham Cost: Site..................................$130,845.73 Construction.....................434,485.27 Equipment ............................8,013.55 Total................................$573,345.13

Old Main began as the home of Detroit Central High School in 1896. Because of its Ludowici glazed tile roof, magnificent vestibule, columns, terra cotta arches,maple floors, oak doors, ornate stairways, tower clock, and elevator cars with "neat design" and "great power," it soon became the city´s educational showplace.

The original "T" shaped building had 103 rooms and over 1,600 students. A basement area stored about 500 bicycles. The auditorium, one of the largest rooms, seated over 2,000. Some criticized the broad corridors which were 24 foot wide north/south and 20 foot east/west. The architects replied the road corridors facilitated the heavy traffic flow and actually saved students 90,000 hours per school year in travel time.

In 1903, David Mackenzie resigned as superintendent of Muskegon schools. A year later at age 44, with 23 years of public school experience, he chose the principalship of Detroit´s Central High School over a position at the University of Michigan. Under his innovative leadership, Central High School achieved a national reputation as one of America's best and largest high schools. Mackenzie also changed the shape of Old Main from a "T" to an "H": a large Second Avenue back wing was added in 1908 for gymnasiums, laboratories, and shops.

The Detroit Junior College (DJC) opened its doors in the fall of 1917 with nearly 300 students, one-eighth of the total student population of Old Main. The DJC catalog assured parents that: "Students in their accustomed environment and under home influences accomplish more then when placed under the disturbing influences of new surroundings and the many distractions of college life." Detroit residents paid no tuition. A night school began in 1919 for "the adult public that desires a wider intellectual outlook." By 1923, enrollment had risen from 141 to 1,132.

But all was not a bed of roses. The JC'ers felt true college spirit could not exist with "so many little children bobbing up on all sides;" in particular, ninth and tenth graders. Tension and pranks often tested the spirit. Central High School boys, for example, crashed dances. Finally in the spring of 1920, the faculty suspended dances because of "juvenile rowdyism."

A major problem for the Junior College, and one which has continually plagued Wayne throughout its history, was overcrowded conditions. By 1921, with a rated capacity of 1,800, Old Main housed more than 3,000. Mackenzie suggested renting a floor of the new General Motors Building. The Board of Education investigated and reported Old Main wasn´t that crowded. Mackenzie responded that its report was "too absurd even for consideration."

In 1923 the College of the City of Detroit (CCD) replaced the Detroit Junior College and received more space. This upset high school students who were already crammed into the back of the building. Some protested and put "flaring posters" on Old Main´s walls. The library was enlarged in 1924 to accommodate 300 students. Assistant Dean Albertus Darnell hoped the students "appreciated" the new quarters and would "maintain at all times an attitude of perfect quiet" there.

Central High finally moved in January 1926 but some students, such as adults, could not relocate. To accommodate them, the building then housed the new College High School which reached around 400 students in 1926-27. College accrediting authorities objected and the high school closed in June, 1928, leaving CCD as the sole occupant of Old Main. David Mackenzie, founder of the Detroit Junior College and the first dean of the College of the City of Detroit, did not live to see this triumph. He had died two years earlier at the age of 66.

The movement toward a university gathered momentum in 1929 with the first joint commencement of all the colleges: CCD, Teachers College, Medicine, Pharmacy and Law. When the Detroit Teachers College moved into Old Main in 1930, the building almost popped its seams. The big day finally arrived--August 8, 1933--when a university was organized as the Colleges of the City of Detroit. The name was not popular and was soon changed to Wayne University on January 23, 1934 to honor the Revolutionary War hero General Anthony Wayne.

Replacement and repairs also became standard operating policy. The tower clock was replaced in 1934 at a cost of $1,041. Because "no two clocks in the building were found in agreement," the original clocks, weighing almost two hundred pounds apiece, were replaced with 120 electric clocks in 1936. The project cost approximately $5,000 and required almost fifteen miles of tubing, armored cable conduit and copper wire to completely rewire Old Main.

At times, replacement and repairs to Old Main necessitated relocation or even cancellation of student activities. For example, stage plays were canceled until the Fall of 1936 because the auditorium´s back-stage area had been condemned as a fire hazard.

The unused swimming pool was "rehabilitated" to store theater properties to correct the problem. Another cancellation and relocation occurred in the Fall of 1936: the men´s gym, with only one exit, was condemned as a "fire trap." Home basketball games were moved to Central High School´s gym.

The "big" game in February, 1937 was against Mexico City YMCA, a team with many Olympians. Among the 2,500 fans in attendance were diplomats from Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. They waited and waited for the Mexican team to show. Cab drivers had mistakenly taken the team from their hotel to Wayne, Michigan, not the Central gym. The visitors made it to the gym with five minutes to spare but lost the game 25 to 50.

Change continued in 1937. Workmen spent several weeks chipping away "Central High School" from the front entrance stone. In its place they installed a "Wayne University" sign with aluminum letters, illuminated by darkness-activated floodlights. But not all changes were physical. For the first time, mothers were also invited to the third Parents´ Night which allowed parents "to become acquainted with life in the University."

The 1930s and 1940s saw new walls going up inside Old Main as well as outside. In 1934, additions to the niches behind the Cass Avenue side of Old Main and then a large Warren Avenue wing were constructed. A one-story structure was built for the College of Engineering on the southwest corner of Second Avenue in 1941 and added to in 1949-50.

The Warren Avenue wing, completed in 1937 at a cost of $157,225, joined the verticals of the "H." The wing added 25 rooms including a first floor home economics laboratory and model dining room. Knotty Pine wainscoting gave the room a "homey atmosphere" and lab equipment included ironing boards.

A citizens' committee was appointed in 1936 to study and propose solutions to overcrowding at Wayne University. Its 1937 report recommended that the university remain in its present location and acquire the three blocks north of Old Main. The seventeen acres with its 41 "chief buildings" were purchased, one block at a time, from 1942 to 1945 for $961,357.

While the land was being purchased, Wayne served as Detroit´s "Educational Arsenal of Democracy" during World War II. In 1942-43, for example, the university trained 17,000 individuals on and off campus in 1,707 academic and professional courses "closely related to the war effort." And the Army brought its Specialized Training Program to campus. This 250-man group, with students from around the country, studied at Wayne for seven months during 1943-44.

During the war, Wayne students ate less. In December of 1942, with fewer rations available, Old Main´s cafeteria limited students to one cup of coffee, one pat of butter and one desert. Students were warned that they "should think no more of taking both fish and meat for one meal than of handing in two term papers in place of one."

"Drastic Measures" were instituted for all junior and senior women in early 1943 -- compulsory physical education classes -- creating unexpected problems. Because of war shortages, almost 3,000 students had difficulty purchasing tap and tennis shoes, combination locks and regulation gym suits. Bathing caps seemed "practically non-existent." To solve the problem, the Women´s Health Education Department instituted "a genteel second-hand business, purely non-profit." But the problem continued until the end of World War II.

Air raid drills in Old Main stopped in fall 1944, but war bond drives continued. At the 1945 "Wanna Buy a Duck" bond auction, the First Semester Frosh Board paid $1,000 for a carton of cigarettes. The auction raised $46,000, enough to purchase almost six "ducks" or amphibious trucks. Other students collected books for the merchant marine ship "Wayne Victory." Named for the university, the ship was commissioned in May of 1945. More importantly, however, at least 3,400 Wayne alumni, faculty, staff and students were members of the military during the war --153 of them lost their lives.

Returning veterans wanted a university education. In the four years following the war, enrollment doubled (18,612) and degrees awarded nearly tripled (2,557). Tuition increased from $62 to $75 per semester. Students were crammed into Old Main, including Mackenzie Hall (student center 1947), State Hall (1948), Science Hall (1949), and Engineering (1950). To prevent confusion, the Main Building was officially renamed "Old Main" in 1950.

The university added 24 new buildings from 1946 through 1967, with 17 occupied between 1956-67 at an approximate cost of $37.2 million. With the exception of medical buildings and parking structures, each provided facilities for all units originally housed in Old Main. The 64 year old structure reverted to a classroom
building in 1960. Renovation included two automatic elevators replacing those installed in 1936 and their two operators. One operator, Mrs. Adelle Jones, who retired after working the elevators for 16 years, warned future riders: "The trouble with pushbuttons is that they can't give entertainment . . . There won´t be any more personality in the elevators now." New expanded quarters, not a lack of personality, motivated the College of Pharmacy to leave Old Main in 1965, followed by athletic activities in 1967.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Old Main was still considered a solid building. When the roof was replaced in 1952, the director of buildings and grounds, Alfred C. Lamb, said: "Not a thing is wrong with that building." He figured Old Main had at least 200 years of life left. It would need frequent care, Lamb believed, but little more than routine maintenance. "Structurally, Old Main is rock solid," The Detroit News reported in 1963. "All that is charted in the way of modernization are more superficial changes -- replacing worn maple floors with tile... old blackboards with modern "green" boards." In 1965 it was one of 46 buildings selected as "the best of what´s left of Detroit´s past."

By the early 1980s, however, falling ceilings, peeling paint, arson, vandalism, flooding, and leaky roofs had taken their toll on Old Main. To remedy the situation, the university launched a fundraising campaign in 1985 and later sought state assistance.

Old Main lost one wing through demolition and gained another from new construction, netting an additional 20,000 square feet for a total of 188,000 square feet of space. Inside, the new Old Main includes a planetarium, recital hall, art gallery, rehearsal space for the Hilberry and Bonstelle Theaters, practice studios for the performing arts, anthropology museum and 45 general classrooms. The departments of music, art and art history, dance and geology have their offices in Old Main. Outside a high-pressure water-blasted chemical solution cleaning has returned the exterior to its original bright yellow color.

In 1996, Old Main celebrated its 100th birthday. In April 1997, gala festivities celebrated the completion of the new Old Main. For almost eighty years, Old Main and Wayne have been partners in education. Both have followed the advice of 1926 commencement speaker and dean of the graduate school at the University of Michigan Alfred Henry Lloyd who counseled: "Don´t shut your doors and windows. Open them, and let the smoke and noise and grime come into your halls of learning. Keep alive your contacts in the living community in which you are located. You occupy a unique position. Don´t keep yourself behind cloistered walls in the academic tradition, but become a part of this great industrial center of Michigan."