Slade Hall

by Meaghan Papeika

Built in 1928, Slade Hall was the first structure built by the University of Vermont to be used for women’s housing specifically and marked the beginning of expansion for the women’s campus.¹ Slade Hall was also the second of nine structures built by architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White for the University of Vermont campus. Slade Hall was constructed largely with a gift from Mrs. William Gery Slade in honor of her daughter, Harriet Slade Crombie. Mrs. Slade contributed $50,000 towards construction, and the University contributed the remaining costs.² Though Slade Hall rests at the public entrance of Redstone campus, welcoming passersby to what was once the women’s campus, the first two women to be admitted to the University enrolled in 1871, nearly 100 years after the school was founded.

Established in 1791, the University of Vermont struggled to enroll significant numbers of students during its early years as an institution. Even moving into the 1860s, the campus was falling into disrepair and the University was desperate to admit students and bring in more money.³ At the same time, a larger discussion of allowing women to enroll in higher education was reaching a boiling point throughout New England. Throughout the beginning of the nineteenth century there existed groups of people, including medical professionals, who erroneously believed that women would be caused mental and physical damage by the curriculum should they be admitted to colleges and universities. This idea was perpetuated by one medical doctor in particular who argued that women’s reproductive capabilities “contend with each other for supremacy” and that this ongoing battle within women would prevent them from ever rising to standards set by men in education and labor.⁴ There were also, however, those who believed that women’s “natural” abilities to perform as caretaker, nurturer, and educator would allow them to perform exceedingly well in collegiate spaces. Still others contended that, in an era where women were demanding increasing responsibilities, roles, and a voice in public spaces, equal education for men and women was an absolute necessity in order to move forward socially.⁵

After careful consideration of what it would mean for the University to admit female students socially and financially, the University of Vermont Board of Trustees voted to allow women to enroll in 1871. Lida Mason, of Burlington, was the first woman to enroll at the University of Vermont in the spring of 1872, with Ellen Hamilton, from Brunswick, Maine, following in the next semester. In general, their academic aptitude was considered admirably, almost in equal amount to the “good sense and modesty” in which they carried themselves.⁶ Though, at first, the University culture remained a “boy’s club,” the admission of more women slowly brought change to the campus.

During the period from 1875 to 1900, 118 women received degrees from the University of Vermont. At first, most women sought teaching degrees and many of those who continue to have a lifelong career remained unmarried after leaving collegiate life.⁷ However, as the number of women attending college grew, their studies began to diversify, and women carved out increasingly more space for themselves in academics. This meant that, eventually, the University would need to provide additional amenities for this growing class of students, including more space to live within the campus community.

Architecturally, Slade Hall is a magnificent example of the Colonial Revival style, three-story, rectangular, seven-by-three-bay, gambrel-end student residence, accented by a Doric-columned entry portico and a single chimney piercing the north end of the structure. The main façade faces South Prospect Street, though the view from the street and sidewalk is largely obscured by tall hedges. Slade Hall is composed of Flemish bond brickwork and features string courses that wrap around all four elevations to separate each story of the building visually. Three stone steps framed by curved iron railings lead to the portico. The Doric-columned portico is topped by a triangular pediment with dentils along the cornice line. A large arch springing from the support columns breaks up the bottom line of the portico, accentuating the wooden sunburst pattern that sits above the door. The door is also framed by decorative sidelights and a molded wooden panel that sits between the door and sunburst pattern. The third-story dormer windows are topped by a simple pediment, without decorative details along the cornice.

The opening event for Slade Hall, which took place July 25, 1929, highlighted the “most attractive” finishes of the dorm rooms as well as the first-floor apartment for the housemother.⁸ Each room featured a single bed, desk, desk chair, arm chair, tall dresser topped with a mirror, and four shelves, all made of walnut.⁹ At the time, Slade Hall contained twenty-four rooms, each single occupancy, in addition to the first-floor apartment. Women resided Slade until 1943, when much of the Redstone Campus was occupied by the Army Air Corps in order to receive classroom training during World War II. For the next two years, women were moved to campus fraternity houses while male students found alternative housing in Burlington. Female students returned to Slade Hall in the fall of 1945 as the campus began its shift to a coeducational space.

After the 1940s, Slade Hall was known largely as the French language center, or “la Maison Francaise,” and the smallest co-ed residence on campus. Students living in the building, however, were quick to mention that no one need study French to live among them, they simply recommended an interest and appreciation in the language.¹⁰ It is also during this period of time that students begin to reflect socially on what it meant for male and female students to occupy the same educational and residential communities. This social shift became most easily found in student publications, where women were “berated for the ‘fad of wearing sneakers’ because the habit made them appear unfeminine and sloppy, put them at risk for sweaty feet and fallen arches, but most of all, created unglamorous enlarged ankles. Later writers in The Cynic complained that ‘calfy coeds’ were the ‘result of walking from Redstone.’”¹¹ Though the University of Vermont had made steps towards creating a comfortable, coed campus, opinions published in The Cynic signaled that early attitudes and associations of women attending university had not yet disappeared from campus life.

In 1979 the Environmental Cooperative, formed in 1971, moved into Slade Hall and re-named themselves the Slade Environmental (later changed to Ecological) Cooperative. The Cooperative’s goal has been to live sustainably, most notably in the ways in which they eat. These University students, while not utilizing any student meal plans, have bought, cooked, and shared locally sourced food among themselves and the whomever shows interest in participating, earning themselves a state-wide reputation of sustainability and community.¹² They would remain in the building for thirty-five years, until Slade Hall was scheduled for major renovations in 2013.

The Cooperative residents living in Slade Hall received a letter during the fall of 2013 informing them that the building would be closed beginning in May 2014 for major renovations.¹³ Both residents and University administrators had found “worrying” amounts of black mold, asbestos, and animal droppings throughout Slade Hall, prompting the renovations. The Cooperative, or “Sladers,” were moved between University-owned housing for the next three years, until they managed to find permanent, off-campus housing. As of 2019, the Sladers have established their off-campus presence and regularly host community dinners as well as art and music performances. Slade Hall, under renovations once again to replace windows, repoint brickwork, and to reset keystones, is classified as an “Outdoor Experience” learning community by the University.¹⁴ Despite its long and storied history, Slade Hall has remained largely unchanged in footprint and use and retains twenty-five rooms for student dormitories. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure to the Redstone Historic District in 1991.

Brick and High Service Water Towers

by Meaghan Papeika

Although the high service water towers located on the Redstone campus stand in stark contrast to the residential structures in the area, these structures offer a unique perspective into how municipal properties have been used to make the lives of residents both safer and easier. In the 1860s, Burlington was searching for ways to better serve its growing population and to improve their methods of delivering water to residents, all while fighting the spread of water-borne diseases as best they could. Burlington City Water Works was established in 1867 and immediately began to improve existing water delivery systems in addition to new construction projects.

In 1880 the city of Burlington purchased a lot in the area now known as the University of Vermont Redstone Campus in order to construct a high service water tower. Just two years prior, considering the new Mary Fletcher Hospital was approaching the end of its construction, the city recognized the need for high capacity water service that would increase water pressure and fire safety in the area. The city decided to build a water tower that would house a tank for water storage instead of a reservoir, as they had done in other areas, because a reservoir on the new lot would be too shallow to be effective. Builders B.S. Nichols Company constructed the new tower in 1880–1, known colloquially as the Brick Water Tower, making it Burlington’s first high service tank.¹⁵ The water tank itself was enclosed by a circular red brick tower. The “brick-sheathed” tank originally held 106,000 gallons of water and serviced approximately 200 residents, the University of Vermont, and Mary Fletcher Hospital.¹⁶ In 1890, however, the tower walls were raised twelve feet in order to accommodate an additional 63,617 gallons of water storage.¹⁷ Following this expansion, the tower stood forty-five feet high and approximately thirty-five feet in diameter. The roof remained a “16-sided polygonal roof…covered by red slate shingles with bands of fishscale shaped green and red slates decorating the central portion and a copper finial at its peak.”¹⁸ The rubblework foundation was constructed using stone removed from trenches that were dug for the new water pipes.¹⁹

Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the city of Burlington with Burlington City Water Works took large steps in ensuring public safety and avoiding waterborne diseases in their service areas. Following reports from across the country that treating water through chlorine disinfection had proven successful in preventing cases of typhoid fever, Burlington added hypochlorite of lime to the water filters in 1914.²⁰ Every year from 1883 to 1905, the Burlington City Health Officer reported approximately 200–400 deaths caused by infections found in the water supply.²¹ Typhoid fever, as well as other waterborne infections such as cholera, were both caused and spread by human consumption of water contaminated with sewage. The hypochlorite of lime compound introduced chlorine into the treatment process in order to make the water safer to drink. Cases of typhoid, however, continued to be reported even after the introduction of hypochlorite of lime, and in 1921 the system was replaced with a far more efficient gas chlorination system.²² This marked a new phase of water and sewage treatment facilities and processes that ushered City Water Works into a new era of construction and expansion.

In October 1934, the Burlington Free Press reported that the brick water tower was no longer safe for continuous use and the community that relied on the tower needed higher water pressure for better service and fire protection.²³ To meet the rising demands, Burlington would have the Pittsburgh DeMoines Company build a new, elevated, steel-plated high service water tower. Just one month later, the Burlington Free Press shared details of construction that had begun. Three of the five concrete piers for the new tower were already built, with the addition of calcium chloride to the concrete mix to prevent freezing. Each pier would be nine feet deep, eleven feet wide at the base, four feet wide at the top, and built to withstand winds up to 100 miles per hour.²⁴ By May of 1935 the tower was approaching the end of construction. After being primed in red lead paint, all that was left to accomplish was the finishing coat of “battleship gray” paint.²⁵ The tank itself stands “approximately 37 feet in diameter with a conical roof and a semi-spherical bottom that is connected to the ground by a tube approximately 7 feet in diameter.”²⁶ At its completion the elevated tower stood at ninety feet tall and could accommodate 150,000 gallons of water.

No matter how modern and efficient this new source of water was, residents still experienced the effects of what happens to all metal pipes over time: tuberculation, the natural and inevitable process of metal pipes rusting. When the increase in water pressure took effect in 1935, Burlington residents reported that the water contained rust. While this did not pose any health risks, Department of Public Works superintendent Joseph E. Moore responded that the rust was a result of the higher pressure movement knocking smaller pieces of corrosion within the pipes and that he was confident it would disappear in a short period of time.²⁷ The elevated High Service Water Tower remained the main source of service for the Redstone and hospital areas until 1954, when another high service tank was constructed on the University of Vermont’s main campus. The new tank, able to hold 500,000 gallons of water, served the University’s main campus, hospital, and northern Hill area of Burlington.

Both the Brick and High Service Water Towers have stood on Redstone since their construction and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as contributing structures to the Redstone Historic District in 1991.

Wing-Davis-Wilks

by Meaghan Papeika

The University of Vermont’s President’s Report for 1966 announced that total enrollment, for the first time in its history, had surpassed 5,000 students.²⁸ This jump in enrollment followed predictions across the country that total college enrollment would boom after the end of World War II. In a time of such unprecedented growth and expansion, the University began planning on how to best prepare for its future while considering “the needs and aspirations of [the University’s] constituency of students, parents, government, business, industry, and the public generally.”²⁹ Naturally, this included careful construction of a campus environment for students to live and learn in comfortably. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the University built several new sections of dormitory buildings on the Redstone Campus to achieve that goal. First came Mason-Simpson-Hamilton Halls in 1956, followed by Christie-Wright-Patterson Halls in 1962. Wing-Davis-Wilks Residence Halls were built in 1967 to close an era of student housing construction.

Wing-Davis-Wilks Halls began construction in 1967 under the tutelage of architectural firm Freeman, French, Freeman, who were responsible for many of the residential buildings on the University campus. Each wing stands independent of each other, though they are connected by a central lounge and lobby space. Each wing is a four-story structure of red brick and black metal approximately 145 feet in length and 96 feet in width. The center structure, often referred to as the atrium, is topped by glass-paned pyramid that allows ample natural light into the space below. The atrium, while allowing access to each of the separate wings, also provides a unique space in which students can gather and plants can thrive, giving it an informal and light atmosphere.

The Board of Trustees elaborated on the dedication of names for each wing of the structure in 1968. Wing Hall was named for Margaret Wing, who served as assistant dean of women for the University from 1946 until her death in 1967. Davis Hall and Wilks Hall were dedicated to Gertrude Severance Davis and H. Sylvia Wilks, respectively, in acknowledgment of large monetary donations to the University by their estates.³⁰ The decision to name each wing of the complex after women was deliberate to pay homage to the Redstone campus’s history as the women’s campus.

After its completion, Wing-Davis-Wilks could accommodate 475 students beginning in the Fall 1969 academic semester. Women were assigned housing in Wing and Wilks Halls, while male students were housed in Davis Hall. The Burlington Free Press recorded some of the students’ reactions to living in a co-ed complex after, at long last, they were able to move in. One female student remarked that it was “funny to guys walking around,” while another responded that “the construction of this building woke us up for a whole year in Hamilton. The dust and dirt made our rooms a complete mess…we’re relieved to be moved in.”³¹ The students living in this suite of residential halls managed to create a sense of community that can be uniquely found in close-proximity student housing and reflected the exponential growth of the University at large.

The last time Wing-Davis-Wilks was subject to significant renovation or repair projects occurred in 2005. Over the summer break that year, the University performed work for asbestos remediation as well as repairs to the roofs, windows, finishes, and modifications to services in order to meet ADA (the Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility standards.³² As of November 2019, the University of Vermont Residence Life lists that occupancy of the complex is 528 students, with each hall capable of housing approximately 180 students.³³

The UVM Interfaith Center

by Meaghan Papeika

Nestled in the northeast corner of the Redstone Campus, the University of Vermont Interfaith Center rests between the water towers and The Catholic Center at UVM. Built in 1963 and designed by architect Payson Webber of Rutland, Vermont, this structure has changed hands, though not necessarily use, several times throughout its history. Built first for use as St. Anselm’s Episcopal Chapel in 1963 and then used as worship space for the Christ Church Presbyterian community from 1978–2013, this space has only been utilized as the University of Vermont Interfaith Center since 2016. The footprint of the building has remained largely unchanged even through its different uses over time. The long, one-story brick structure, though unassuming in its regularity and shallowly pitched gable roof that seem to pull the building into the landscape, represents a space that can trace shifts in community and religion at the University of Vermont during the twentieth century.

As early as 1960, the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont had taken note of the rapid growth of the University of Vermont and expressed an “urgent need” for an Episcopal center close to campus specifically for student use.³⁴ In 1962, the University of Vermont Board of Trustees discussed the “possibility and desirability of making available a parcel of university land to religious groups on campus for the establishment of a religious center with separate facilities to be constructed by the denominations. … The President stated that, according to the present site planning, a parcel of land approximately six to eight acres between the University Heights and the women’s dormitories could be made available for this purpose.”³⁵ The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont were the first to take advantage of the offer and in April 1962 the University of Vermont Board of Trustees leased one acre of land to the Diocese for $120 per year for forty years.³⁶ After contributing $75,000 of the $82,000 project costs from the Episcopal Diocesan Capital Funds Drive, ground broke on the new facility, to be named St. Anselm’s Chapel, in 1963. Under the tutelage of general contractor Thomas Oakes, St. Anselm’s was carefully constructed and was then dedicated and available for Episcopalian and Protestant, as well as other congregational services, in 1964.³⁷

In footprint, the Chapel itself was shaped like the Tau cross and provided seating for 150 people. A wing of administrative offices and additional multi-purpose spaces connected to the chapel at the south elevation. Beginning in 1965, a Protestant chaplain opened what became a “popular Friday-night coffee House” in the chapel complex that provided entertainment for students for at approximately five years.³⁸ The addition of a coffee house, where students could also enjoy musical performances regularly, proved the Diocesan theory that University students needed a space where they could not only practice their faith, but also engage in the curation of their own community while living away from home. For a short period of time between 1972 and 1973, the congregation of St. Paul’s Cathedral rented space at St. Anselm’s while their new worship space in Burlington was constructed, following an electrical fire at the original cathedral. During this time, St. Anselm’s leadership and seminary intern reported that they were “intimidated and somewhat smothered by the Cathedral’s presence,” and leadership for the Chapel began to shrink.³⁹ In 1977, Christ Church Presbyterian offered to purchase St. Anselm’s for their parish to use and, after review from the Diocese’s Long-Range Planning Commission, the Diocesan Council approved transfer of St. Anslem’s title to Christ Church Presbyterian for a sum not to exceed $90,000.⁴⁰ Christ Church Presbyterian worshipped in the space for thirty-five years.

The University of Vermont chose not to renew the lease with Christ Church Presbyterian when it expired in 2013 and began considering options for an interfaith center to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. Over the course of Christ Church Presbyterian’s tenure on Redstone campus, students’ general interest in practicing organized religion showed marked decline. While fewer students were attending Presbyterian services, the University was beginning to see more diversity in the types of religion and spirituality students chose to practice, meaning that an interfaith could serve the needs of more students at one time. Christ Church Presbyterian was then invited to worship in the basement of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Burlington.

The University of Vermont Student Government Association passed a resolution in support of creating an Interfaith Center in 2015 holding that “diversity and academic excellence is inseparable” and that students should be provided with the appropriate resources and a safe space in which to practice their religious and spiritual beliefs. The resolution also noted the belief that the University should hire an Interfaith Coordinator “immediately” and creation of the center should take place by the end of the Spring Semester 2016.⁴¹ The University renovated the former chapel space throughout the year and celebrated opening the new Interfaith Center on November 16, 2016.

Though it is located on a university campus, the Interfaith Center has existed as a space that is neither academic, residential, nor administrative, instead operating as a kind of ephemeral structure that is reflected even in its physical location. Tucked into the corner of Redstone Campus yet separated from Main Campus, perhaps the transitory nature of the building and its history make it more uniquely able to follow trends in social and religious change at the University of Vermont than other structures. Built to fill a need outside of strictly university use, tracking the history the Interfaith Center offers a glimpse into how the wider Burlington community has evolved alongside the historic Redstone Campus.

Notes

1. David J. Blow, Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II, ed. Lilian Baker Carlisle (Burlington: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1990), 161.

2. “Slade Hall (Erected 1929),” UVM Buildings Information Files, University of Vermont Silver Special Collections Library.

3. Constance M. McGovern, “Women at UVM,” in The University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert V. Daniels (University of Vermont, 1991), 220.

4. Mary E. Woodruff, “In Search of Usefulness: The University of Vermont’s First Women Graduates,” (Masters Thesis, University of Vermont, 1985), 18.

5. Ibid, 25, 39.

6. Constance M. McGovern, “Women at UVM,” in The University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years, ed. Robert V. Daniels (University of Vermont, 1991), 221.

7. Mary E. Woodruff, “In Search of Usefulness: The University of Vermont’s First Women Graduates,” (Masters Thesis, University of Vermont, 1985), 37.

8. “Slade Hall Opened,” The Vermont Alumni Weekly Vol. 08, no. 31 (1929): 504.

9. Ibid.

10. “Student Association Handbook of the University of Vermont,” (Burlington: UVM Student Association), 1974.

11. Robert V. Daniels, ed., The University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years (University of Vermont, 1991), 200.

12. “History of Slade,” The Slade Ecological Cooperative, https://sladecoop.wordpress.com/history-of-slade/.

13. “Renovations to Oust Slade Occupants,” The Vermont Cynic, October 22, 2013.

14. “Residential Life,” The University of Vermont Residential Life, https://www.uvm.edu/reslife/halls.

15. Burlington Water Resources Division, Water Historical Timeline, The City of Burlington, accessed November 8, 2019, https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/DPW/History.

16. Thomas Visser, Reid Larson, and Ann Cousins, “Redstone Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991), Section 7, page 5.

17. David J. Blow. Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II, ed. Lilian Baker Carlisle (Burlington: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1990), 163.

18. Thomas Visser, Reid Larson, and Ann Cousins, “Redstone Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991), Section 7, page 5.

19. Ibid.

20. Burlington Water Resources Division, Water Historical Timeline, The City of Burlington, accessed November 8, 2019, https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/DPW/History.

21. Burlington Water Resources Division, Burlington Flowing, The City of Burlington, accessed November 8, 2019, https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/DPW/History.

22. Ibid.

23. “Tank Will Rest on 60-Ft. Tower,” The Burlington Free Press and Times, October 24, 1934.

24. “This Tower Has Firm Foundation,” The Burlington Free Press and Times, November 29, 1934.

25. “New High-Service Water Tank Nearly Set for Operations,” The Burlington Free Press and Times, May 16, 1935.

26. Thomas Visser, Reid Larson, and Ann Cousins, “Redstone Historic District,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1991), Section 7, page 4.

27. “Local Briefs: New High Service On,” The Burlington Free Press and Times, June 13, 1935.

28. “President’s Report,” The University of Vermont Alumni Magazine Vol. 47, no. 4 (1967): 4.

29. Ibid, 5.

30. “UVM Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes,” February 17, 1968. UVM Buildings Information Files, University of Vermont Silver Special Collections Library.

31. “’The Boys Clap When We Open the Windows,’” The Burlington Free Press, September 4, 1969.

32. “486 South Prospect Street,” The City of Burlington permit history report, Accessed September 16, 2018, property.burlingtonvt.gov.

33. “Residential Life: Halls,” The University of Vermont Residential Life, https://www.uvm.edu/reslife/halls.

34. Kevin Trainor, Professor of Religion at UVM, “Important Dates and Events in the History of St. Anselm’s Chapel,” Unpublished Research, 2019.

35. “UVM Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes,” February 24, 1962. UVM Buildings Information Files, University of Vermont Silver Special Collections Library.

36. David J. Blow. Historic Guide to Burlington Neighborhoods Vol. II, ed. Lilian Baker Carlisle (Burlington: Chittenden County Historical Society, 1990), 164.

37. “Episcopal St. Anselm’s Chapel Going Up on Redstone’s Campus,” The Burlington Free Press, June 29, 1963.; Kevin Trainor, “Chronology of Episcopal Ministry at UVM,” Unpublished Research, 2019.

38. Kevin Trainor, “Important Dates and Events in the History of St. Anselm’s Chapel,” Unpublished Research, 2019.

39. Kevin Trainor, “Chronology of Episcopal Ministry at UVM,” Unpublished Research, 2019.

40. Kevin Trainor, Notes from report to Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, Unpublished Research, 2019.

41. “Resolution Supporting the Creation of the Interfaith Center,” The University of Vermont Student Government Association, April 7, 2015, http://www.uvm.edu/sga/documents/Passed%20Bills/.