Section 03b – Construction of South Wing from 1925-1928

Irvin Hall’s Centennial: 1925-2025
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

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RECENSIO Irvin Hall 1927
GROUND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
FIRST FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
SECOND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
ROOF BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
February 11, 1928 Mr. W. P. Roudebush, Secretary, Board of Trustees, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Dear Mr. Roudebush:- Enclosed you will find prints of the three floor plans for the south wing of Irvin Hall showing the correct layout of all rooms as finally adopted. It is our understanding that you have worked out the room numbering scheme for this building and that you wish these numbers to appear on our working drawings. Would you please have Mr. Everhard mark the correct numbers for the different rooms on these prints and return them to this office at your earliest convenience. We find that it will be necessary in some cases to use some other material for partitions than tile. This becomes necessary because the partitions have been moved from the original locations and proper framing has not been provided to support such a heavy wall. We think it would be best to use metal stud partitions with metal lath on both sides for this lighter framing. If this material will not be satisfactory please inform us to this effect. Yours very truly, Herbert B. Briggs, State Architect and Engineer By Melvin N. Garlough Assistant Chief Draftsman
GROUND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
GROUND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
FIRST FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
FIRST FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
SECOND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
SECOND FLOOR BLUEPRINT FOR IRVIN HALL SOUTH WING CONSTRUCTION
INITIAL ROOM NUMBERING PLAN FOR IRVIN HALL AFTER COMPLETION OF CONSTRUCTION
Into Irvin Hall, named for a long-time trustee from Dayton who had headed the building committee, moved six departments of the college. Soon the new walls were softening with ivy and the rooms were gathering associations: the English classes of Professors Rea, Craver, Ross, Bachelor, and their colleagues; the mathematics of W. E. Anderson and his staff; the political science of Howard White and ex-Congressman French of Idaho; the English history of Professors Robinson and McNiff and the American history of Smith and Joyner. In sunny laboratories in the south wing Professors Evans and Stanfield unfolded the green world of botany, Professor Stark developed a department of bacteriology, and R. L. Edwards began turning out his long line of able physicists. Physics Botany - General & Bacteriology History - English & American Government - Political Science Mathematics English
UNIVERSITY PLANS GOLF COURSE TO ENTERTAIN PROFS The Completion Of Irvin Hall And Of Steel Bleachers To Start Soon With the first signs of Spring our minds turn to the brighter side of campus life and we begin to winder what the next form of improvement will be. According to a statement made by Mr. Roudebush last week the plans already have been drawn up and bids will soon be let for two jobs. First on the program will be the completion of Irvin Hall. Advertisement for these bids will be published in a week or ten days. The whole south side is to be used as a Physics laboratory and as a Botany lab. This will put these two departments in much better environment and better results can be expected. Plans for the steel bleachers to be placed on the west side of the athletic field have been completed and work on this project will begin about the first of April. The other addition to the campus is a golf course. For some time there have been plans for such a form of recreation but never have they been realized. A force will be placed on this through April and May. The present prints call for two holes to be placed in the north end of the Botanical Gardens. Three to be placed in the old Bishop property and the other two to be placed in the Fisher Hall grounds.
GRASS OR MUD? YES, Spring is almost here. Most of the winter weather is over – at least so we hope. Signs of approaching warm weather are prevalent all over campus. Men are appearing without overcoats, some don’t even wear topcoats. Girls are wearing lighter clothes; fur coats are almost out of style. Most outstanding of all indications of spring, however, are the muddy baths across the campus. Despite the fact that the University has cement walks leading in the most direct path to almost all of the buildings, students, particularly men, persist in walking across the dead grass. This is not a “Keep Off the Grass” editorial. It is one requesting the men to use the walks instead of the mud. So many men have been using the paths in front of Irvin Hall that the quadrangle will soon resemble a stock yard. If you have Miami spirit, if you believe in the continued beautification of the Miami campus, for goodness sakes stay on the walks! Next time you see someone cutting across the quadrangle, tell him about it. There is not use to mince terms. Be frank!
SUNLIGHT OF SPRING BRINGS FORTH MANY CAMERAS AND FLIES These warm spring days make us bubble over with verve. We have ceased dragging our heels nonchalantly over the muddy pavements and are developing an elastic step. This is the kind of weather that makes us want to go on long hikes in quest of buttercups, dandelions and bluebirds, — and snapshots. Our feet may be blistered and sore after a five mile tramp, but that doesn't show in the picture. What a lot of satisfaction we got out of having our pictures taken! We’ve been praying for sunlight for two weeks now, so we could put on our smartest-looking togs and have ' our pictures taken with the Big Sis-I tors or the Student Forum. Of course it’s a pleasant situation any way you look at it, but our cup overfloweth if we are fortunate enough to have a group picture scheduled during a class period. What a feeling of superiority we experience as we rise and saunter gracefully out of class to have our picture "shot”. Our classmates rouse themselves from a! deep contemplation of the first spring fly, which is peacefully meandering across the sun-lit windowpane, and throw us an envious glance before they sink once more into their class room lethargy. Safe outside, we heave a sigh of relief from care and amble toward the bleachers on the west side of Irvin Hall. We dutifully pose before the camera and assume what we fondly think to be an “enchanting” smile. After grinning in our most bewitching fashion for a period of five minutes, we learn that the photograph has actually been taken. There’s nothing left to do now but return to class—and we'd so much rather be gamboling on the green. We assume an air of importance and dignity and stalk majestically back lo class. We sink heavily Into our seats and resume our interrupted contemplation of the fly on the window pane.
VARIED EXCHANGE LIST COMPILED BY MIAMPUS Many Humorous Publications Open To Students; Copies Kept At Miampus Office Quite a number of exchanges are being made by the Miampus with other humorous publications. Those copies are kept in the Miampus office in the basement of Irvin Hall. Any students desiring to look thru these numbers may do so by coining to the office. The exchanges are: California Pelican, Denison Flamingo, Annapolis Log, Purple Parrot, West Point Pointer, Georgia Cracker, Pitt Panther, Carnegie Tech Puppet, Princeton Tiger, Pennsylvania Punch Howl, Notre Dame Juggler, Lehigh Burr, Tennessee Mugwump, Ohio State Sun Dial, Brown Jug, Carolina Buckaneer, Reserve Red Cap, Wisconsin Octopus, Missouri Outlaw, Oklahoma Whirlwind, Bucknell Bell Hop, Wabash Cave Man, Boston Bean Pot, Chicago Phoenix, and Wittenberg Witt.
CAMPUS MAP SHOWING A COMPLETED IRVIN HALL IN 1928
IRVIN HALL’S PHYSICAL FACILITIES PARAMETERS IN 1928 Name of Building: Irvin Hall Construction Completion: 1925 Central Section, 1927
South Wing Use: History, Geography, Language Departments, Business Administration (until 1959 when Laws Hall was completed) Cost of Construction: Central Section: 0,000, 
South Wing: ,000, Total Cost: 8,000 Funding Source: State of Ohio - House Bill 622  - Appropriation for Recitation Building Square Footage: 34,432 square feet Cubic Footage: 378,752 cubic feet
SIDEBAR: Across the quadrangle the old Main Building had become a hall of languages, with Professor Clark humorously and learnedly expounding Greek and Hadsel Latin, Handschin and Breitenbucher conducting German classes, Brandon and Irvin teaching French, Jones, Barr and Russell Spanish. The English tongue held on in the lower floor where D. S. Robinson, Patten, and Van Tassell were teaching philosophy and psychology … LANGUAGE DEPARTMENTS IN OLD MAIN - SECOND FLOOR Ancient Languages Greek Latin Romeric Languages French Spanish German
BUILDINGS Irvin Hall, a classroom building for the Liberal Arts college, and the School of Business. The north and east sections provide the classroom and offices, while the south section houses the departments of Botany and Physics. The School of Business is also located in this building. DEPARTMENTAL HEADS Arthur T. Evans, Professor of Botany. 229 Irvin Hall. John D. Rea, Professor of English. 113 Irvin Hall. Howard White, Professor of Government. 213 Irvin Hall. Howard Robinson. Professor of History. 218 Irvin Hall. William E. Anderson, Professor of Mathematics. 118 Irvin Hall. Ray L. Edwards, Professor of Physics. 123 Irvin Hall. Harrison C. Dale, Professor of Business. 208 Irvin Hall. Edwin S. Todd, Professor of Economics. 221 Irvin Hall.
OPEN HOUSE HELD BY PHYSICS, BOTANY DEPTS IN IRVIN HALL Tours Of Inspection Conducted And Demonstrations Made For Visitors The Physics and Botany Departments of the University held open house for all students and faculty in their new location in the completed Irvin Hall addition on Monday afternoon and night. The open-house program Included tours through the departments, where the apparatus and equipment were explained. Demonstrations involving the use of research apparatus were performed for the visitors. The Botany laboratories displayed nature phenomenon. In the Physics department, the new lecture-table galvanometer, which Is an invention of Dr. R, L. Edwards, head of the department was shown. By this instrument the smallest conceivable electric currents are detected, and the indications are plainly visible over the whole lecture room by means of a scheme devised by the department. This instrument together with a thermopile form a sensitive device for the detection of radiation. A demonstration revealed the effect obtained by the radiation from one's hand, held at a distance of a foot or more. Mr. Locher, a new member of the Physics department, gave some demonstrations with his research apparatus. A flash of x-rays from a Coolidge Tube ejects electrons from the atoms of the air in a vessel under conditions such that the paths which the electrons take are made visible and may be photographed. In the laboratories there were apparatus displays of pieces of equipment, accompanied by a card giving full description and explanation. Among these were a working model of the famous "Oil Drop Apparatus’’ by which Professor Millikan determined the charge of an electron. There are six special-circuit switch boards which form a system unsurpassed for convenience and flexibility of operation. Since the commercial type were unsuited to the needs, the department designed, made and wired these switch boards, even to the turning and drilling of the two-hundred and eighty brass terminals, saving incidentally many hundreds of dollars. A Foucault Pendulum is permanently mounted in a shaft near the west end of the building and can be seen in the alcove in the basement. This pendulum enables one to observe the rotation of the earth.
RECENSIO […] To all our many sources of assistance, photographer, engraver, printer and the like, we are sincerely grateful, for the task has been one which has caused much midnight electricity to be consumed in the basement of Irvin Hall and without this valuable aid the thing would have been impossible. […]
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