This aerial view (below) of the central campus is from 1962. Notice how familiar and yet how far campus geography is from the characteristic University of Portland academic quadrangle. Buckley Center was added in 1969, with the Chapel of Christ the Teacher in 1986, Franz Hall in 1995 closing the ends of the modern quad.
[Photo: Digital Collections, Clark Library: Campus Aerial Views and Maps. This is a segment from the image, ‘1962 – View from the East’,http://up.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15458coll2/id/16/rec/1 ]
In 1962 the four corners of the quad are Science Hall (Romanaggi) at the bottom left, and then the pre-renovation Commons and Shiley Hall along the top, with half of the present Library bottom center. 1969 saw a redesign of the center of campus. Also pictured here beside Science Hall are Science Annex and the Steam Plant (with smoke stack), which were taken down to make space for the construction of Buckley Center and Buckley Auditorium. And then fire removed Education Hall and Music Hall (the two complexes at the right side of the photo) on April 18, 1969.
On this date in 1969 a fire, which broke out in the early hours of the morning, destroyed Education Hall and damaged other nearby wooden structures. Education Hall had served not only as an assembly space for the University but for many years had also been the theatre. The fire destroyed not only the facility itself but most of the equipment used in theatrical productions including a large stock of costumes. Students helped to move pianos from attached structures that had housed the music department and its practice facilities. The wooden buildings stood along the western side of the main parking lot in and near the area that now is occupied by Mago Hunt Center, which replaced the old hall and some of its attached facilities. The buildings had been transported to the University in 1945 in an effort to accommodate quickly the expansion of enrollment that came following the Second World War. Classes for the Columbia Preparatory School were held in these buildings until the removal of the high school to the former Wilcox Estate in the West Hills. Several University departments had their offices and classes in these buildings before the opening of Buckley Center in February of 1969. With the expansion of the library in 1978 some of the buildings that remained were moved to the western side of the main quadrangle. The larger of these buildings, known as Columbia Hall, served as a center for continuing education on the campus before being razed at the time of the construction of Franz Hall. The last building standing on its original site, known as the Student Communications Building in its final days, was razed also for the construction of Franz. The last of the wooden structures on the campus, Chemistry Annex, stood at the northwest end of Engineering Hall and was razed after the construction of Swindells Hall.
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