Blackstone Hall - Gates
Title
Blackstone Hall - Gates
Subject
Blackstone Hall - Exterior
Description
The is a color photograph , June 11, 2002, of the gates between Blackstone and Harlan Halls that lead to Middle Campus. When looking through the gates, Blackstone is on the left and Harlan is on the right. The building that is in the background is part of the Johnson Science Center.
The Benjamin Wistar Morris plan of 1906 envisioned an axial vista through these gates from the main hall of Lake Forest Academy to the southwest through the gates to a new science complex at the north end of what now is North Campus, then the main College campus of Lake Forest University. The architects Frost & Granger had designed similar entry gates and gate posts for Fairmore, the 1906 estate of Mark Skinner Willing, on the lake to the southeast. These are demolished. But they reflect Tudor and Stuart revivals of medieval fortified estates accessed by guarded gates such as these. For the newly-rich Tudors and then the newly rich Chicagoans of the early 20th C. they represented upward mobility, in this case offered by higher education.
"While such Beaux Arts designs are usually carried out with buildings in neo-classical architectural styles, Charles Frost and Alfred Granger (already the architects of the chapel and library next door, as well as of Lois Hall on North Campus) cast their anglophile architectural vocabulary over the buildings envisioned in the Morris Plan. The architectural precedents for Blackstone and Harlan are the Tudor-era college buildings at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. This red brick Tudor style, enlivened with decorative gables and limestone finials on the roof-line, is purposefully less formal than the Collegiate Gothic chapel next door. Blackstone and Harlan both feature Frost & Granger's distinctive brick balustrades, also found on Carnegie. President Richard Harlan's intent in building these men's dormitories was to entice fraternities to move from their off-campus houses onto campus, creating a stronger college community. The College newspaper in 1908 touted both the electric lighting and the oak-paneled lounges of the new dorms, which were the last word in technology and luxury. The first occupants of Harland Hall were the brothers of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity; Blackstone boarded the brothers of the Phi Pi Epsilon. The wrought iron gate, formerly called Fraternity Gate, has never served a practical purpose, but extended the College's symbolic welcome to the students of Lake Forest Academy, then situated on South Campus. Although Harlan had resigned the presidency by the time the dormitories were comopleted, one was named for him at the insistence of Isabella Norton Blackstone, these buildings' principal benefactor. The widow of Timothy Blackstone, who made his fortune in the Chicago stockyards, Mrs. Blackstone in this era also donated the Blackstone Library in Hyde Park, the first neighborhood branch of the Chicago Public Library" (Neal Van Winkle on Blackstone and Harlan Halls in "Lake Forest College, A Guide to the Campus," 2007, pp. 49-50).
The Benjamin Wistar Morris plan of 1906 envisioned an axial vista through these gates from the main hall of Lake Forest Academy to the southwest through the gates to a new science complex at the north end of what now is North Campus, then the main College campus of Lake Forest University. The architects Frost & Granger had designed similar entry gates and gate posts for Fairmore, the 1906 estate of Mark Skinner Willing, on the lake to the southeast. These are demolished. But they reflect Tudor and Stuart revivals of medieval fortified estates accessed by guarded gates such as these. For the newly-rich Tudors and then the newly rich Chicagoans of the early 20th C. they represented upward mobility, in this case offered by higher education.
"While such Beaux Arts designs are usually carried out with buildings in neo-classical architectural styles, Charles Frost and Alfred Granger (already the architects of the chapel and library next door, as well as of Lois Hall on North Campus) cast their anglophile architectural vocabulary over the buildings envisioned in the Morris Plan. The architectural precedents for Blackstone and Harlan are the Tudor-era college buildings at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. This red brick Tudor style, enlivened with decorative gables and limestone finials on the roof-line, is purposefully less formal than the Collegiate Gothic chapel next door. Blackstone and Harlan both feature Frost & Granger's distinctive brick balustrades, also found on Carnegie. President Richard Harlan's intent in building these men's dormitories was to entice fraternities to move from their off-campus houses onto campus, creating a stronger college community. The College newspaper in 1908 touted both the electric lighting and the oak-paneled lounges of the new dorms, which were the last word in technology and luxury. The first occupants of Harland Hall were the brothers of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity; Blackstone boarded the brothers of the Phi Pi Epsilon. The wrought iron gate, formerly called Fraternity Gate, has never served a practical purpose, but extended the College's symbolic welcome to the students of Lake Forest Academy, then situated on South Campus. Although Harlan had resigned the presidency by the time the dormitories were comopleted, one was named for him at the insistence of Isabella Norton Blackstone, these buildings' principal benefactor. The widow of Timothy Blackstone, who made his fortune in the Chicago stockyards, Mrs. Blackstone in this era also donated the Blackstone Library in Hyde Park, the first neighborhood branch of the Chicago Public Library" (Neal Van Winkle on Blackstone and Harlan Halls in "Lake Forest College, A Guide to the Campus," 2007, pp. 49-50).
Date
2002 - 06 - 11
Rights
Format
still image
Type
TIFF
Identifier
BLDG 1.18.2.3
Resolution
228 pixels per inch
Dimensions
3983 × 2776 pixels
Original Format
photograph
Physical Dimensions
15.1 x 10.1 cm (5 15/16 x 4 in)
