Campus - Landscape

1991 Campus Map, notice anything missing?
Added since then, Franz Hall (1995), Corrado Hall (1998), Swindells (1999);
and THE WHOLE NORTH QUAD of Portsmouth Avenue, including Haggerty-Tyson, Fields &
Schoenfeldt, Lund Family Hall, The Beauchamp Wellness and Recreation Center !!!!!!!

Campus Growth, 1991-2016

As August closes, the Lund Family Residence Hall still has some roofing, brickwork and maybe some plumbing, polishing, and other fixing too, where the building is still being polished.  That is, our newest building has not yet reached its full-growth as the 2016-2017 academic year begins.

Of course the campus itself has not finished growing either.  The University began in one building long ago and has expanded greatly over the last century.  A notable and major growth spurt occurred twenty years ago, dating back to just before this year’s entering Class of 2020 first opened their bright eyes to regard the world.

As a component of Strategic Planning between 1991-1996 we were able to raze the ‘temporary’ World War II Army Surplus annexes on the academic quad (housing labs, offices, classrooms, health center, student media) moving the Schools of Education and of Business, and science labs into new buildings.  Until Corrado Hall was built in 1998, the newest student residence hall had been Shipstad (1967) from thirty years before.

Aerial View of Campus, 1991
https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/1991-view-from-overhead/96317

Digital Collection of Campus Aerial Views and Maps

There is the wonderful story of the very first day of classes in 1901, when ‘one of the instructors turned to Father E.P. Murphy [the first president] and said: “There are a few boys out there on the campus.  Don’t you think we ought to start operation?”  The president calmly replied: “Oh, I guess we should start.  Ring the bell.’ (A Point of Pride, p.34).

That first building where our school began in 1901 was re-dedicated years later as Waldschmidt Hall.   On that first day it was West Hall.  It was the only building and housed the ENTIRE university: classrooms, library, labs, chapel, cafeteria, and DORMITORY.

A century later the University opened its Eighth Student Residence; the townhouses of University Court, later to be known as Haggerty & Tyson Halls, received students in September 2000; dedicated on March 8, 2001.   Thought not perfect, and not the last word on UP residential life, compared to the amenities from 1904, quite the improvement.

Rev. David T.  Tyson, C.S.C. is our 18th University President.  Peggy Haggerty is a 1975 graduate and proud alumna, who served on the National Alumni Board 1991-1999, and the University Board of Regents, 1998-2010.  Haggerty Hall is named in honor of her parents, Lawrence and Mary Ellen.

Margaret “Peggy” Haggerty died in December of 2010; her benefactions supported many aspects of student life (The Salzburg Center library).  She also left a scattering of Lava Lamps around campus (produced by Haggerty Enterprises — a child of the 70’s, Peggy grew up to direct the company during the nostalgia revival of the 1990s).

Haggerty Hall Dedication Brochure, 2001

Peggy Haggerty and Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C., University President, 1997

Rev. David Tyson, C.S.C., University President; Frau Strobel; Peggy Haggerty, Salzburg 2001

Public Safety Office, Tyson Hall, 2014

University Village, 2014

University of Portland Alumni Reunion, 2001

Peggy Haggerty’s Lava Lamp

Haggerty Hall, August 2008

Tyson Hall, 2004

Before there was a dream of a River Campus, KBVM has been broadcasting from the Gulch since 1989.

A syndicate of Metro Catholic Broadcasting (MCB), Catholic broadcasting came to the Northwest in 1983, and the University of Portland in 1988 (the UP location was the suggestion of Auxiliary Bishop Paul Waldschmidt, C.S.C., our former president).  And so KBVM, named in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Catholic radio station stands today in the gulch between Physical Plant and Mehling Hall.  Ground broke for the KBVM radio station on February 28, 1988 and the building was completed the summer of 1988.   KBVM was dedicated and formally went live on the air in the Portland metro area on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1989.  Today, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Dedication, KBVM (88.3 FM) provides live recorded programming that includes Christian liturgical and sacred music; live interviews with Catholic clergy, including diocesan and Holy Cross priests, local and national speakers and musicians, religious groups, and organizations; prayers and devotions; Catholic news, and even Catholic sports updates.  KBVM’s signal can be heard from Vancouver to Salem and its sister station, KMME (94.9 FM, 100.5 FM), reaches listeners in Eugene, Springfield, and Cottage Grove.  Online audiences can follow KBVM anywhere at www.kbvm.fm.

In 1964 the University of Portland had a projected enrollment of 1850 students.   With the dedication of Mehling Hall (with a planned capacity for 367 residents), we expanded the residence offerings to allow 535 women and 395 men to live on campus.   As we begin the 2014-2015 academic year, we have 1117 women and 905 men living in on-campus residence halls.   And venerable Mehling Hall (capacity 381 students) continues to serve the University community.  The ‘Tree of Life’ mosaic sculpture on the front façade remains an apt symbol of the vitality, joy, and friendships that grow among the 376 students (including RAs) who currently call Mehling home during their years at UP.

Rev. Theodore Mehling, C.S.C. was the 11th president of the University, serving from 1946-1950.  The formal dedication of Mehling Hall on November 22, 1964 featured Mrs. Donald Frazer as the principal speaker.  Gretchen Frazer earned a Gold Medal in Skiing at the 1948 Olympic games at St. Moritz.  As part of the dedication activities, earlier in the month the women’s social sorority, Sigma Beta Phi, sponsored a performance by entertainer Jack Benny in the Mehling ballroom.   Working the college-age crowd, the comedian continued to insist as always on being only 39 years old; though in fact his national broadcasts and celebrity had begun well before any of the students were born.  (Mr. Benny’s radio program ran on NBC & CBS from 1932-1955; his television show, 1950-1965.  Our current Hollywood connection, Kunal Nayyar ’03, lived in Corrado during his first two years on campus).

An eight story residence, at that time Mehling was the tallest building on campus and in surrounding north Portland.  The dedication program notes as a special feature of the hall, “Two high speed Westinghouse electronically controlled automatic elevators.”  The ‘speed claim’ of the elevators is today regarded by many residents as skeptically as Jack Benny’s famous claim to be a robust 39.

On this date in 1806 Captain William Clark and a party of scouts from his expedition investigated the lower Willamette River near the present site of the University.

The bench at the designated smoking area behind Swindell’s Hall is turned inward to campus.  This spot on the Bluff used to be a look-out point, indeed notably as far back as 1806, eighty years before the University was even conceived.  This is duly observed in the February 1944 issue of The University of Portland Bookman, a journal for the Friends of the Library.  In M. Leona Nichols’ article, “Captain Clark Discovers Waud’s Bluff Site of the University” (a review of the explorers’ journals), Ms. Nichols writes,

Captain Lewis says that “… The most important spot is Wappatoo Island, a large extent of country lying between the Multnomah and an arm of the Columbia, which we have called Wappatoo Inlet … which at a distance of seven miles up the Multnomah connects that river with the inlet … “
(History of the Expedition under Lewis and Clark, ed. by Elliott Coues, v. III, p. 928-929).

A note on the history of the expedition by Dr. Elliott Coues says that “The locality which Clark makes ten miles up river is certainly not so far, probably about St. John(s).  The two miles further he goes … would bring him to Waud’s Bluff and Swan Island whence it is still three or four miles to Portland (p. 924)”.

Captain Lewis and party came to the Bluff on April 3, 1806 on the expedition’s return from the coast, and the University campus is an official landmark stop on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (designated by the National Park Service in 1988).

There are three different monuments on the University campus which memorialize this event.

On October 10, 1945 the ‘Clark’s Point’ stone marker was dedicated by the mayor and members of The Oregon Trails Association; one of a series of markers tracing the Lewis and Clark route from St. Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon.  A five and a half ton boulder, the first marker stands at the then far edge of campus, a location that is now the exit where Willamette Boulevard curves toward the city.  The plaque reads: “Clark’s Point / Furthest point up the Willamette explored by William Clark and six men of the Lewis and Clark expedition / April 3, 1806”.

A second, larger monument was established in 1948.  The new location, deeper into the campus proper, better approximates details found in the scouting report preserved in expedition journals.   The new monument, beyond Swindell’s Hall, is an eight ton boulder obtained by Brother Godfrey Vassallo, C.S.C., bearing a plaque designed by Brother Pius Liesing, C.S.C. and fabricated by student Joe Goehler ’48, featuring portrait reliefs of the two explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.   From this spot, on a very clear day, it is still possible to credit the words of Clark’s journal, “I can plainly see Mt. Jefferson”; which stands 100 miles away to the SE.

The third monument, sculpted by University of Portland art professor Michael Dente and dedicated December 11, 1988, is three seven-foot bronze statues mounted on a four-foot platform.

(Note: The Captain William Clark Monument was relocated to protective storage in 2020.)

University Archives: Sources and Holdings Consulted:
The Beacon, The University of Portland BOOKMAN, The Log, The Columbiad,  The University of Portland Alumni Bulletin, The Oregonian, The Washington County Times, Portland: Greater Portland Commerce, The Captain William Clark Monument Brochure; and correspondence from Oregon Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Committee, Oregon Historical Society, Rev. Thomas Oddo, C.S.C., University of Portland president, Office of University  Relations.