A Brief History of Rollins Architecture

By Jack C. Lane, College Historian and Professor Emeritus

            From the day of the founding of Rollins College on April 28, 1885, President of the Faculty Edward Hooker (1885-1892) and President of the Rollins College Corporation Frederick Lyman, were given six months to hire a faculty, build a curriculum, recruit a student body, and construct classroom and residence halls. Miraculously, by November 4 they had achieved all by the last two. The classroom building and the residence hall were still under construction. When time arrived to start classes, with no buildings complete on the campus, classes opened in various parts of Winter Park. Larrabee House at the present corner of Morse Blvd. and New York served as a boy’s dormitory and the Ward House (presently a home on the corner of Osceola Circle and Osceola Ave.) was used as the girl’s dormitory. Classes were held in two places: for the first few weeks students attended classes at the Congregation Church but later moved into the unfinished loft above Ergood’s general store (later called White’s Store) on Park Ave.

            In the second term of the first year, the College moved to its present location on Lake Virginia. The classroom, Knowles Hall, named for the principal donor, and the women’s living quarters, called the Ladies Cottage, had been completed and were dedicated on March 9, 1886. Knowles Hall dedication ceremonies, beginning at 3:00pm, contained the traditional collection of music, prayers and orations, followed by the principal speaker, A.J. Russell, Florida Superintendent of Schools. After presenting the keys to the building to President Hooker, Frederick Lyman seized the occasion to seek sorely need funds. Just before the ceremonies, he said, he had been handed a note from Francis Knowles stating that if sufficient funds were subscribed at this meeting to furnish the girl’s cottage with appropriate furniture at sixty dollars per room, Mr. Knowles promised to build the men’s dormitory. Incredibly the necessary funds were raised in fifteen minutes.

                 Knowles Hall quickly became the college landmark and center of campus activity. A large hall capable of seating 300 people was used for recitations, assemblies, daily chapel service, entertainments and college functions. A large veranda served as a central gathering place for students between and after classes and also the preferred backdrop for annual class pictures. But it was the two-story bell tower that gave Knowles is greatest distinction. Purchased from Cincinnati in June 1886, the bell served as the college timepiece, awakening the students in the morning and sending them to bed at night, and in between marking their classes and mealtimes. With a good east wind and bright sunny day, Orlando residents could hear its peal five miles away.

            The girl’s living quarters, located beside Knowles Hall, emphasized the “cottage” concept because the administration wanted to distinguish their residential plan from the large dormitory system of lodging popular in the universities. Rollins offered cottages of moderate size where a matron or member of the faculty lived, allowing for close supervision of the students. “Social relations between ladies and gentlemen,” the college literature emphasized, would be supervised by matrons who would make certain that students studied properly and engaged in “wholesome recreation.” The College promised “to surround the students with the influences of a cheerful, well-ordered Christian home.”

            Before the end of the first school year two more buildings had been constructed. Lakeside Cottage, the men’s residence hall was completed in time for the 1886-1887 school year at a cost of $10,000. Lakeside, in style a replica of the Ladies Cottage, was the college’s first building on Lake Virginia and was a short distance from the Ladies Cottage. In between the two cottages, the College built its first dining hall, known as the Commons. Both buildings were the result of large donations by Francis Knowles who was rapidly becoming the college’s chief benefactor. Before the construction of the new dining hall, students took their meals in a small lean-to kitchen attached to south end of the Ladies Cottage with meals served in two former bedrooms on the west end of the first floor. The new dining hall, described as “a bright, cheerful building with a kitchen in the rear,” allowed the former kitchen to be used as a library.

            Thus, by the end of 1887 four imposing buildings stood on the east side of the horseshoe-shaped commons, and Rollins had indeed begun to resemble a permanent institution of higher education. Hooker had made significant gains but incredibly the first president managed even more. In 1891, using funds gathered by his diligent effort, the College constructed another and larger women’s hall, later called Cloverleaf, placing it on the horseshoe opposite Knowles Hall. Although called a “cottage’ Cloverleaf was an impressive three-story, ninety-room, three-winged structure resembling a large dormitory. The trustees had discovered it was much less expensive to construct a single, large living facility than several smaller ones. Young men were now housed both in Lakeside and in the former Ladies Cottage, now named Pinehurst. Hooker’s last addition was a gymnasium made possible by a gift from Frederick Lyman. Lyman Gym, place between Lakeside and the Dining Hall, contained a fifty-by-seventy feet exercise room and an inside gallery guarded by an ornately decorated balustrade. With Lyman Hall the College completed its initial building phase. A graphic drawing in 1892 showing all the buildings gave a feeling of permanence to the fledgling little college.

            No new buildings would be added to the College for another decade. Hooker’s successor, George Morgan Ward (1896-1902), whose family resided in several rooms in Pinehurst, directed his energies toward improving the existing physical plant because after several years of deferred maintenance many of the buildings were in a state of disrepair. During the early years of Ward’s presidency, the College refurbished the interior of buildings, repainted the exteriors, and for the first time landscaped the entire campus. New physics and chemistry laboratories were installed in Knowles Hall, and the library moved from Knowles to four connecting rooms in Pinehurst and filled with newly purchased tables and chairs. All this renovation put an additional strain on the budget, but Ward argued it was necessary for recruitment and retention purposes.

                 Rollins’s second building phase came in the presidency of Ward’s successor, William Freemont Blackman (1903-1913). During his ten years as president, Blackman added three large buildings to the campus. The first, Chase Hall, came as a result of a gift from Loring Chase, and Frederick Lyman, co-founders of Winter Park and major players in the founding of the College. The two-story brick dormitory, finished in 1908, was the college’s first non-wooden building.  Placed on the south side of Pinehurst, it contained fourteen rooms and a large terrace overlooking Lake Virginia. For over a half century, in promotional literature, the building was used to interpret the college’s unique setting.

            One year later, the prominent American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie offered a matching grant for the college’s first library building. Carnegie Hall, a two-story, sand-lined brick building with a red tile roof, contained an interior richly decorated with stained, carved wood. The first floor housed a library reading room and space for bookshelves, while the second floor was used for administrative offices, including the president’s office. Blackman and the trustees felt the library should be placed in the center of the campus, and surveying the grounds, they decided that Cloverleaf occupied that spot. Therefore, Cloverleaf was moved southeast of its original location, and Carnegie Hall constructed in its place. The third building came as a result of a catastrophe, reminding the College of the hazards of building with wood. On the early morning of December 2nd, 1909, a fire destroyed Knowles Hall, leaving the College with no classrooms. With a small gift from Andrew Carnegie but primarily with funds donated by the Francis Knowles family, the College replaced the first Knowles in the year following the fire.  Placed on the east side of Cloverleaf, Knowles II, a two story building, contained, in addition to classrooms, a large chapel and science laboratories. In many ways, Knowles II replaced Chase Hall as the identifying building on campus. Blackman retired in 1913, ending the College’s second building phase. Except for the purchase of some residential homes near the College, no new major structures were added for over a decade.

            After experiencing severe financial crisis owing to the outbreak of World War I in 1917, and the loss of most male students, the College began to recover economic stability in the mid-1920s with the appointment of Hamilton Holt (’49H) in 1925 as Rollin’s 8th president. Holt gave the College a new direction by introducing a new progressive curriculum and encouraging new ways of teaching. Thus, when he received funds for a new dormitory, the new president was determined to find an architectural style that would reflect the new progressive educational changes and in turn take advantage of Rollins’s semi-tropical location. He chose the Spanish-Mediterranean style because, he thought, that style blended best with “palms, bamboos and brilliant sunshine.” He once told a group that he was looking “for the most beautiful buildings of Mediterranean type in Florida, then find who designed them, then get that man to design every building on our campus…, all in harmony an all parts a unified whole.” The College’s unified curriculum purpose, Holt argued, ought to be reflected in its architectural style. Holt also maintained that since the College was located in the land of sunshine its buildings should be designed with spacious and open breezeways. Holt hoped that one day Rollins would have a logo that would proclaim that it was the “Open Air College of America.”

            Holt found the architect he wanted in Richard Kiehnel of Miami. Kiehnel, a native of Germany, by the 1920s had established a national reputation in South Florida for adapting the Spanish-Mediterranean style to the Florida landscape. In Kiehnel Holt had found a perfect match for his new architectural vision. When the cousin of one Rollins’s chief benefactors, Alonzo Rollins, gave the College a generous donation, Holt immediately hired Kiehnel to design the College’s first Spanish-Mediterranean building. Rollins Hall was completed in 1929. The following year came two more dormitories—Mayflower and Pugsley—both designed by Kiehnel. 

            But the piece de résistance of Hamilton Holt’s contribution to the physical plant came two years later in 1932 with the construction of a theatre-chapel complex. When Francis Knowles’s daughter, Frances Knowles Warren, agreed to donate sufficient funds for the construction of a chapel, Holt immediately set out to acquire the services of the world renowned college and church architect, Ralph Adams Cram. Incredibly, Cram agreed provided he could design a chapel similar to one he had seen in Toledo, Spain. Holt agreed, and the result became the College’s signature building, the spiritual center of the community. During the Holt era, the chapel was not only filled for Sunday services, but also used for weekly meetings as forum for expressing college concerns. While the chapel was under construction, the College received a gift from Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist for a theatre to honor her friend Annie Russell, a highly successful nationally known actress. The Annie Russell Theatre was placed along side the Knowles Chapel separated by a formal garden. Physically, spiritually, and academically, the theatre-chapel complex now stood at the center of the campus representing the college’s commitment to intellectual, artistic and spiritual values. Holt’s other major addition to College community came with the construction of the Student Center in  ?. This beautiful Florida style room became the true social center of the campus with its stylized Spanish-designed interior and whirling ceiling fans, snack bar and post office boxes. For the next fifty years the Student Center served as a central gathering place, where the faculty and students gathered daily for coffee conversation.

            By the time Holt retired in 1949 after 24 years of service, he had added thirty-two buildings to the campus---four dormitories on the east side of the campus connected by covered walkways, and five on the west side also connected by covered walkways; one classroom building—Orlando Hall, designed to accommodate the conference plan curriculum; Warren Administration Building, Student Center with an alumni house attached, two buildings for language study—Casa Iberia and French House finally two one room buildings for social/academic meetings: Woolson House and Sullivan. Thus, in addition to the building of quality progressive academic institution, Hamilton Holt had left the College with architecturally unified campus. The two accomplishments were deeply intertwined: the educational program was based on the progressive principle of individual student interest and perennial innovative change, while the prevailing and unified Spanish-Mediterranean style of the buildings reminded the College of its harmony of purpose.

            The fourth building phase came under the presidency of Hugh McKean (’30 ’72H). A graduate of Rollins during the Holt era and later hired by Holt to teach art, President McKean was determined to carry on the Holt education traditions. Moreover, as an artist he was well aware of the importance of continuing Spanish-Mediterranean style of architecture. During his long presidency, McKean added five dormitories (Rex Beach Hall, Elizabeth Hall, McKean Hall, Holt Hall and Ward Hall.) Ward Hall, named for the College’s third president, holds a unique place because it replaced historic Cloverleaf. On the day of demolition a large numbers of students and faculty gathered to pay homage to the venerable “cottage” that served the College well for over seventy years and stills holds fond memories for countless alumni.

            In addition to the dormitories, President McKean made two significant additions to the College’s physical plant. In 1965, as a result of a gift from Roy E. Crummer, a well-known Florida businessman, the College built a home for its burgeoning business school. Crummer Hall became the home of one of the leading MBA programs in the nation. Within a year the College also began construction on a new science center. Made possible by a gift from Archibald Bush, CEO of 3M Corporation, the Bush Science Center at the time of its construction was considered a state-of-the-art structure. It holds the distinction of being the largest building on campus.

            Hugh McKean’s successor, Jack B. Critchfield, made three significant contributions to the Rollins landscape. In 1973, the College constructed its first swimming facility, Alfond Pool, and one year later built a new building for the foreign languages named Hauck Hall, and another for the Music Department named Keene Hall. In 1977, the College constructed a home for the Art Department—Cornell Fine Arts Center. These last two building were important additions to the College, because music and the fine arts since the founding of Rollins had been the central part of the College’s educational program. The two Spanish-Mediterranean structures reflected the contributions these two programs had made to the College over the past 100 years.

            The latest building phase occurred during the presidencies of Thaddeus Seymour and Rita Bornstein. With a grant from the Franklin Olin foundation, the College constructed four-story library. By the early 1980s, the College had outgrown Mills Memorial Library and desperately need space for its burgeoning collection. Olin Library doubled the space of Mills. But to make way for the new building, Knowles II had to be demolished. Except for Pinehurst, it was the last remaining wooden structure on campus. Although another venerable old edifice that had once been the defining building on campus was gone, it was replaced by what many consider the most beautiful building on campus. However, the Social Science Division that had been housed in Knowles was now without a home. This problem was solved with the construction of Cornell Social Science Hall in 1988 and placed along side Crummer Hall.

            A very active building program took place in the presidency of Rita Bornstein. The College expanded to downtown Winter Park with the purchase of the Rosen Family Center on Lyman and Fairbanks, the Sarah B. Lawrence Center on Interlachen and New England Avenues and the building of the SunTrust Plaza and Parking Garage on South Park and Lyman Avenues, the land once occupied by the Park Avenue Elementary School. Additionally, the College expanded to the east with the purchase of Sutton Place Apartments located at 500 Osceola Avenue. The apartments were converted in dormitories. Several buildings were renovated during this period. The old Student Union building was converted into the Rice Family Bookstore and Café. Several athletic facilities were given a face-lift. These included the swimming pool bleachers, the baseball field, the soccer field, and the tennis courts. The most dramatic renovation came with the reconstruction of Alfond Sports Center.  The new renovation gave the Sports Center more classrooms, a new basketball court, a second level basketball court, a new workout area, new concessions stands and a Hall of Fame room. Additions to existing buildings included the Bush Executive Center added to Crummer Hall, Thomas P. Johnson Psychology Center attached to the Bush Science Center, and the Mary Jane Mitchell Plaza at the rear of the Bookstore. Two major buildings were added to the campus at this time. With the completion of the Cornell Campus Center in 1996, for the first time since the 1980s the College now had the kind of community-gathering place that had been so characteristic of the old Student Union. Built around the existing Rose Skillman dining hall, the new building contained, in addition to dining facilities, a large lounge and several socializing areas. From the beginning the building was destined to become the hub for spontaneous interaction among the various constituencies of the College. By the fall of 2005 the College had its first on-campus President’s home. The Barker House built on Osceola just east the Sutton Place Apartments, provides a first floor entertainment area and a second floor living quarters for the president’s family. Finally, two special additions enhanced the campus landscape: the Nelson Rose Garden next to the Warren Administration Building provides the campus community with a peaceful retreat and year round splashes of color; the McKean Gateway on Park and Fairbanks Avenues gives the College its first highly visible entranceway, and suggests the architectural beauty that the visitor will find throughout the campus.

            As this short narrative indicates the growth of the campus from two wooden buildings in 1886 to its present condition of over seventy structures provides visible evidence of the College’s distinction in the world of higher education. Through these decades, particularly since the Holt era, the College has been extremely fortunate to have leaders who recognized the significance of architectural style for the educational process. By making certain that new buildings retained a harmony of design, these leaders left present and future generations a deeply profound legacy: architectural beauty and unity create a spiritual sense of place that inspires the entire educational and social life of a college.