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Buildings
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Power House Built in 1903, the original campus power house provided the production of steam heat until 1951.
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Power Plant The power plant was enlarged in 1967, and by 1987 they had a cogeneration system installed. In 1998, the electrical generator produced 60% of EMU's needs at a cost of 2.8 cents per kilowatt hour versus 7.2 cents per kilowatt hour that Detroit Edison would charge.
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Pray-Harrold Building When it opened in 1969, Pray-Harrold was one of the largest classroom buildings in the United States. It had been built with an appropriation from the State Legislature for $5.6 million. The exterior was designed to match the architecture of the University Library and other buildings around the center of campus. The seven-story building accommodated 4,500 students each hour in its 75 classrooms and four lecture halls. Fully air-conditioned, the structure provided office space for 407 faculty members. Functionally, the building was designed with the most heavily used areas, the classrooms and lecture halls, on the first four floors while the offices were located on the top three floors. Today, the building remains devoted to classroom and office space, housing the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of African American Studies, Department of Computer Science, Department of Economics, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of History and Philosophy, Institute for Diversity and Business Services, Department of Mathematics, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology.
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Putnam Residence Hall Residence hall adjacent to the Eastern Eateries, Sellers Hall, Walton Hall, and Phelps Hall, also known as the First-Year Center.
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Quirk Dramatic Arts Building Quirk Dramatic Arts Building was named for Daniel L. Quirk, Jr., a member of one of the founding families of Ypsilanti, and also a philanthropist who not only supported EMU but also was patron of the little Theater movement in Ypsilanti. When it opened, newspapers called Quirk Dramatic Arts Building the "most modern building of its kind." The theater was originally built for the Department of English and Speech and included a theater with seating for 400, classrooms, television and radio studios, and an outdoor amphitheater. Journalists also praised the exterior design. One viewer stated that, "The Theater is severe in outline, following classical architectural lines as interpreted by contemporary art." Today, the austerity of the modern style speaks clearly, even if the classical elements appear non-existent. Architecture of this period sought beauty through simplicity and minimal ornamentation. The most dominant feature of the building is the multi-story, windowless rectangle of the backstage area.
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Rackham Hall Normal College established the Special Education Department in 1915. Originally housed in Welch Hall, the department received a building of their own in 1938 with a donation made by the Horace H. and Mary A. Rackham fund of $350,000 to commemorate the work of Charles M. Elliot in the area of Special Education. Mr. Rackham, the lawyer who drew up the contract that incorporated Ford Motor Company, had died leaving a fortune of $12 million dollars from Ford stock. Following his death in 1933, his will directed that the trustees of his fortune use the money to "promote the health welfare, happiness, education, training, and development of men, women, and children, particularly the sick, aged, young, erring, poor, crippled, helpless, handicapped, unfortunate, and underprivileged regardless of race, color, religion or station." The new building met the criteria set by Rackham's will. The new building contained impressive facilities for the study and practice of special education. Rackham was the first facility in the nation built specifically for teacher training in special education. The new building not only housed the Special Education Department, but also a Laboratory School where teachers learned techniques for educating students with special needs. A dormitory connected to the Laboratory School housed students during the week while they took classes. Student teachers taught classes for the deaf and hard of hearing, blind and partially-sighted, cognitively impaired, and physically handicapped. The building also contained a speech and hearing clinic. Architects selected the bricks to match McKenny Union in an effort to create a sense of visual unity on campus. Placed near what was then the outer edge of campus, the building stood in a natural setting overlooking an area known as Sleepy Hollow, now the location of Bowen Fieldhouse and the parking structure. To the south, Rackham overlooked the science gardens that were once planted behind Sherzer. Architects sited the building so that all the entrances to the building were made from ground level, relieving children, especially the disabled, from climbing steps to enter the building. The ground slopes downwards to the north allowing both the ground floor and the first floor to be completely open in the back with a view out over the countryside. Inside, Franklin Tiles decorate the areas around water fountains and along walls. Designs include fish, frog, crabs, a cougar, cranes, and leaves. Some of the tile designs are listed in the Franklin design sheets as early as the 1920s. The school could accommodate more than two hundred children. A dormitory attached to the building could house 24 students as well as a housemother. The dormitory was open to children requiring special education who lived too far for the daily commute. The ground floor contained six classrooms as well as a gymnasium and auditorium. Separate recreation rooms for boys and girls, laundry room and incinerator were also located on the ground floor. The first floor housed classrooms for the deaf, physiotherapy and orthopedic therapy rooms, office space, and a clinic. The building also included a lunchroom that could house all two hundred pupils. The laboratory school closed in June 1982 because of Michigan's mandatory special education act that delegated administrative responsibilities for special education programs to local school districts. The Special Education department, however, continued to use the building for classroom space. Today, most of the Special Education classes are housed in the Porter College of Education. Rackham was home to the Children's Center until 2011 when it underwent renovations. It now houses the recently established physician assistant program, whose inaugural courses were held in May 2014.
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Roosevelt Hall At its opening in 1925, Roosevelt High School, the new laboratory school, housed grades 7-12. The Normal College had opened its first laboratory classes in 1900. That year the Normal High School Program started, with classes for 9th grade only. Student teachers taught in the South wing of the main college building. By the 1920s, however, the high school laboratory program was over-crowded and the school began looking for alternatives. In 1923, the state purchased the Owen property, on the southeast end of campus as the site of the new high school building. The following year, the state appropriated $708,421 for opening of Roosevelt High School. When the school opened in 1925, it provided instruction for grades 7-12. High school education was becoming more common in the United States. Speaking a conference culminating in the dedication of Roosevelt High School, Dr. Charles Judd stated that, "In 1890 one out of ten American young people were in high school. By 1926 there are one out of three boys and girls in secondary schools." The enrollment in the laboratory school rose dramatically to 400 students by 1930. Elementary grades were added to the school. 1930 was also the year the school was officially named Roosevelt School, after Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, 1901 - 1909. When it opened, Roosevelt School was exceptionally designed. Like nearby Pease Auditorium, architects designed the exterior of brick and terracotta but they used a modified Georgian Revival idiom. Inside, the building contained all the amenities of a modern high school. The north wing contained the high school offices, clinic rooms and a library. The first floor of the west wing housed a 430-seat auditorium that included a stage, orchestra pit, projection booth, and restrooms. The ground floor had a swimming pool, shower room, locker rooms, cafeteria, and labs for home economics and natural and physical science departments were located on the ground floor. Upstairs on the second floor, the Junior High School had classrooms, while the Senior High School had classrooms on the third floor. The library, located in the north wing, opened in 1926. It housed 2,000 volumes and could seat approximately 85 students. The upper parts of the walls were painted white while the lower walls were of greenish-brown stained woodwork. Roosevelt did not have an easy time remaining open. It was first threatened with closure in 1929, but it weathered the threat and continued to grow for the next two decades. During the 1950s, however, education trends began to shift away from university maintained laboratory schools. Roosevelt was again threatened with closure; it survived, but time was running out. In 1966, the Educational Appropriation Act (Public Act 285) passed the state congress. It required that Roosevelt School be completely phased out by June 1969. Roosevelt School's use as a university high school had come to an end, as had the tradition of university laboratory schools. The laboratory school began in 1853, with cramped classrooms in the Old Main building. One student, saddened by the close of the school published this eulogy in the Rough Rider, Roosevelt School student newspaper: "Since it must go Let it go out in a style Typical of Roosevelt With dignity The school is dead Long live the school."
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Rynearson Stadium The first game played in Rynearson Stadium was Sept. 27, 1969, when EMU upset the University of Akron, 10-3. The stadium was dedicated a few weeks later on Oct. 25, 1969, when EMU lost, 17-7, to the University of Tampa. Just over two million fans have seen EMU play in Rynearson. In 21 of the 40 years, Eastern has averaged more than 11,000 fans per home date. The 1995 season proved to be the record-breaking year for Rynearson Stadium attendance. A single-game record crowd of 25,009 was on hand, Sept. 16, 1996, to watch the Eagles dismantle UNLV, 51-6. That four-game '95 season also proved to be a best for season average attendance of 22,602.
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Sellers Residence Hall Residence hall adjacent to the Eastern Eateries, Phelps Hall, Walton Hall, and Putnam Hall, also known as the First-Year Center.
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Sherzer Hall Named for Dr. William H. Sherzer, professor of geology and head of Department of Natural Sciences (1892-1932). According to legend, Dr. Sherzer sketched a plan for the new Natural Science Building on the back of an envelope based on the science buildings he saw when he studied in Germany. Dr. Lewis Henry Jones, president of the university 1903-1911, dreamed of expanding Michigan Normal College. He hoped to build not only a science building but also an auditorium and a new laboratory school. By the turn of the century, there were three other teacher training programs in the state and funding was becoming restricted. Jones only managed to finance the new science building. Original plans placed classrooms on the first floor and offices for the professors above. Plans of the building show that some of the second floor offices were connected to the classrooms below by small private staircases. These private staircases allowed the professors to avoid the crush of students in the hallways before class. Enrollment expanded rapidly at the turn of the century and overcrowding became a problem at Normal. Classes sometimes had more than 60 students and the halls were filled between classes. The building provided for the growing needs of the college. In 1922, the Natural Science Building was further updated when a 10-inch refractor telescope was installed on roof of building.
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Sill Hall Sill Hall is perhaps the finest example of the International style on campus. The plain boxy shape and the steel girder bridge at the front are all emblematic of the simplicity and purity of line reflected in the International style. Most of the buildings built from the mid-1950s to the 1980s have similar characteristics. Plain surfaces that emphasized utility above decoration seemed practical and durable. The concrete paneling on Sill's exterior combined an interest in new building materials, with a desire to show that the building was supported from the inside not by the exterior curtain walls. Sill Hall was designed to house the Fine and Industrial Arts programs in the high style of the 1960s. It cost approximately $1.5 million dollars to complete. The two-story wing designed for the Fine Arts Department including classrooms, studios, and offices. The one-story wing housed industrial arts classrooms including a variety of shop facilities and offices.
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Smart Physical Plant The Smart Physical Plant houses offices, the grounds, custodial, carpentry, plumbing, welding and electrical offices and a warehouse for delivery and storage.
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Snow Health Center Snow Health Center replaced the old building in the context of a rapidly expanding university. The building cost $750,000 and was financed through funds the University borrowed against student fees. Architects designed it to facilitate the practice of preventative medicine on campus. Snow Health Center contained three times the number of beds as the old health center. In normal circumstances, it could house 30 patients in quarters on the third floor but it had space for up to 150 in a disaster situation. A brightly colored abstract mosaic decorates the entryway of the otherwise sober International style exterior. In 1958, the school held a competition in which it invited fine and industrial arts faculty to present ideas for a mosaic. The winning mosaic decorates the wall outside the main entrance to the health center and adds color to the stark international style building.
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Sponberg Theater The intimate Sponberg Theatre is a 202-seat modified thrust stage which showcases faculty directed main stage productions. The lighting system and the computerized sound systems are recent enhancements for this theatre.
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St. Joe's Practice Dome The facility is located on Westview Drive, off Huron River Drive, at the northeast corner of Rynearson Stadium. The building allows EMU's collegiate athletic teams and the Ypsilanti community to continue playing and practicing despite inclement weather. The facility is o available to EMU's collegiate teams as well as intramural, club teams and local sports leagues. The facility is 410 feet long, 210 feet wide, and stands 75 feet tall. Also included are a welcome center and convertible space that can be configured for a football field, an international soccer field, or four youth soccer fields.