Towering Light: The Story of College Hall
SUHA TUQAN
Editor, University Publication

"The corner-stone of the Main Building was laid by the Honourable William Earl Dodge, Senior, on December 7, 1871. In introducing the speaker, I said:

"This College is for all conditions and classes of men without regard to color, nationality, race or religion. A man white, black, or yellow; Christian, Jew, Mohammedan or heathen, may enter and enjoy all the advantages of this institution for three) four, or eight years; and go out believing in one God, in many gods or in no God. But, I added, it will be impossible for anyone to continue with us long without knowing what we believe to be the truth and our reasons for that belief."

The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss, p. 198.

COLLEGE HALL is now one hundred years old. Throughout a whole century of its life, this building has acquired a reputation that has traveled far beyond its physical boundaries. It is a landmark in Beirut, especially in Ras Beirut, and before Beirut developed into the city that we know today, the tower was visible from far away and Beirutis used to set their watches on the tower clock; to many it was called Binayet as-Sa'a. (The Clock Building).

To most alumni and friends, College Hall is the symbol of AUB, a vivid testimony of the wisdom and love of the University's founders, their faith and their deep belief in their mission.

Lebanon and its people have also identified College Hall, the tower building, with the University. Its arches and columns remind them of Lebanese architecture, the galleries of the first floor with the simple iron work blending pleasantly with the rest of the building, its gothic windows, its mixture of stones and its good proportions-all this hold a strong appeal for them. What is more College Hall has always belonged, and has always blended well, with the buildings and houses that surround it. Along with the rest of the campus, it reminds people of how beautiful Ras-Beirut could have been. Furthermore, it became the symbol of higher education for many a youth living in the neighborhood, and an ambitious dream to one day be admitted into its walls.

A DODGE-BLISS EFFORT
Looking at it casually, one does not realize the amount of effort, planning and thought that were needed to erect such a building a century ago. It took mainly two dedicated people to accomplish this: Dr. D. Stuart Dodge and first AUB President Daniel Bliss. Dr. Dodge was a member of the faculty for three years and a friend of the College. Even after he had left to the United States, he remained one of the most faithful friends of the College until his death in 1922. This transpires through every word one reads about this period. His correspondence with President Bliss shows how carefully, faithfully- and. confidently they went about establishing this institution and helping it to grow into what it is today.

In 1866, the College had no permanent premises, No land was yet purchased and no buildings constructed. After a short while, as the number of students and faculty were increasing it became necessary to have suitable premises and a campus. For this, money had to be raised. It was decided then between the Board of Trustees in the US and the Board of Managers in Beirut to establish a Building Fund.

This was done. The money for constructing College Hall, and other buildings later, was raised through the personal efforts of Dr. Dodge. Plans for College Hall were designed in New York. As no skilled engineers were available in Beirut to execute these plans, construction was supervised by Dr. Bliss himself with the assistance of members of the faculty.

The correspondence between Drs. Bliss and Dodge shows the love and devotion they had for this institution. The aim was never lost. With a complete clarity of thought and purpose, they set out raising money, planning the constructions and building them.

In the annual reports of President Bliss between 1870 and 1874, we can follow this development:

"It is recommended that the Board of Managers take into immediate consideration the necessity of providing permanent buildings for the accommodation of the various departments of the college. The necessity of finding a home for the Institution is increasingly apparent, further delay may entail more serious embarrassment and larger expenditure hereafter. Our library, cabinets and apparatus are almost daily increasing, and long before proper edifices can be erected, the premises now occupied which are more ample than we may hope to find in Beirut, will prove far too small for comfort and efficient working. 'Me Friends of the College, both in England and America, are that an appeal will find ready-response from many quarters. It will be borne in mind that, with all possible dispatch, three years at least will be required to raise the funds and to erect. the buildings."

Bayard Dodge relates the following in his The American University of Beirut: "At a meeting of the Board of Trustees in November, 1870, it was voted to ask D. Stuard Dodge to raise an extra $ 100,00 for endowment and a similar sum for buildings.

The buildings were erected of the best kind of sand-stone. The quarry from which the stone came is now exhausted. It was almost two years before the three buildings were finished: The Main Budding, the Medical Hall and Ada Dodge Memorial (greatly enlarged since).

Labor was cheap at that time compared with the present: to our headmason we paid eighty cents a day; less skillful masons, seventy cents; stone-cutters, from forty to fifty cents; unskilled labour, from fifteen to twenty five cents. At one time we had over 200 at work.

The buildings were well constructed and now after almost 40 years (1912) are in perfect repair. The plans, made in New york, were complete in details, so that we, through unacquainted with building, were able to follow, them.

The Reminiscences of Daniel bliss, pp. 198-9.

Enough money was collected by June, to enable Daniel Bliss to start construction on the new campus. Before giving out contracts he went to Constantinople to consult the authorities about building operations in the Ottoman Empire." (p. 13)

In 1872, Daniel Bliss wrote: "On the 23rd of November 1871, Proof, D.L. Dodge arrived from the U.S. with plans for the Main Building [College Hall]. Ground was broken on the 28th of the same month and on the 7th of December the cornerstone was laid by the Hon. Win. E. Dodge of New York, with appropriate ceremonies. On the 23rd of January, ground was also broken for the Medical Building. The walls of the first story of the principal edifice are nearly completed and a portion of those of the Medical Building. The amount disbursed here is about 3 15,000, this includes the cost of a large amount of material still on hand-stone, lime, wood etc., with the expenditure for tools-sheds, cisterns, wells, roads and other facilities. The erection of these substantial buildings upon a site at once so commanding and beautiful and at the same time so well adapted for health and convenience, has attracted increasing attention to our work-the objects of the College and the advantages it offers are being better understood and when we shall be fairly located in our new home, we may reasonably hope not only for a large accession of students, but for wider and more fruitful opportunities to make this Institution a blessing to this people."

WIFE INFORMED
A correspondence of another sort tells of the time and effort President Bliss lavished on the construction, as well as the close supervision he personally and continuously maintained. His letters to his wife Abby in 1873 - 74 show the care he bestowed on the smallest details, and the worry this responsibility caused him.

On June 4, 1873, he tells her: "... we were very busy in getting up the large beam for the tower. It is now in place and no one was injured, which is cause of gratitude ." ...

On June 13 of the same year, he wrote: "... we have had a busy day at the works (College Hall]. The last of the large beams are up and no one injured."

On August 8, "... went to the warshy [Arabic for construction site] and found they had made a mistake in two doors. It was easily set right but had I been away much longer, it would have been difficult."

On August 14, "..- I do not see how we are to keep the exact time at the College; our old clock runs fast and slow without order. And the bell too is not forthcoming... . The faculty and students are anticipating a military and an iron rule this coming year out at the new building. The third story - except the halls is all plastered. The winch was carried out today. The reesh will soon be in where the winch's platform plied. The sheds are being pulled down to furnish lumber and tiles for the main building. There is a world of work before us.

"Today Hengest told me that no more beer could come from Germany because the cholera prevented shipments from Vienna. A fig on his beer but our locks and hinges come from there and may be delayed."

On September 3, "... I found the warshy going on well. All the rooms will be plastered tonight. More than half are white washed... The hinges and locks have not yet come."

On September 18, "... The west wind is blowing hard and we may expect rain. Let it come - the roof is tied down strong. We begin to see the end of the work in the main building. The hinges have not yet come nor the locks for the doors. We keep to work on the doors, buying hinges as we need. If the locks do not come Monday, we shall go on with those that can be found here. The amount of plastering is amazing. Somerville's men will finish up the railing of the stairs in the main building this week."

On November 10, 1873, "... I am glad Mr. Dodge is coming, for there are many things to be done, and the funds are low. He wrote me not to finish up the tower, but it seemed a pity to leave such a prominent part unfinished, especially when we had the stone on hand, and the scaffolding all up. Today we put up the lightning rods. The tower is a beauty."

By 1878, he could sum up the situation in the Annual Report as such:
"It will be eleven years this autumn since the college was opened for the acception of students. We commenced with our first class in a hired dwelling house of six or seven rooms badly situated and poorly ventilated where we continued for two years suffering many inconveniences and subject to the decisions, of our enemies. After two years the college was removed to another dwelling house which afforded with an adjoining house all the room needed at the time; there we remained three years and graduated our first class. Again another resting place was found in another dwelling house better situated but less commodious; there we remained two years. During all these seven years we felt in an unsettled state and the college was looked upon by the natives as an experiment which might succeed or not."

"In the meantime while the college was moving from place to place its friends were not unmindful of its wants. Through the personal efforts of Prof. D.S. Dodge means were obtained for purchasing a plot of ground in the Cape of Beirut, for the purpose of erecting thereon these substantial and convenient buildings. Hence since the autumn of 1873, the college has had a "habitation and a name." The Main Building comprising chapel and forty four (44) rooms, Medical Hall, the Observartory and Dining Hall with their 28 rooms, situated as they are on this breezy promontory overlooking the sea and surrounded with twenty five acres of college property form a pleasing contrast with the dingy rooms we first occupied surrounded as they were, by a wall not twenty feet from the door and filled at times with pestilential air from the neighborhoods. We are thankful for this change. When the College was first opened eleven years ago, the staff of teachers consisted of the President and one native assisted by a French and an Arab teacher. In this aspect also the contrast between the present and the past is pleasing."

After its completion, the Main Building or College Hall became the throbbing heart of the S.P.C. It housed what was then called the Collegiate Department. Class rooms were on the first floor. The second floor housed the library and the third and fourth floors were used as dormitories for Juniors and Seniors. Before the Assembly Hall was constructed, College Hall also enclosed a chapel where prayers were conducted daily. Before 1898, the botanical, geological and archaeological collections were scattered in various parts of College Hall, all later moved into the Museum.

In 1897, a makeshift football field was constructed between the Chapel, College Hall and the street.

It is difficult to imagine a student graduating from the University without having had some contact with College Hall and naturally heaps of memories that later become symbols of one's youth and "'the most beautiful years" of one's life.

Since 1936, College Hall underwent many changes, in both plan and function.

During that year, the tower was raised. The bell, though it chimes the hours automatically, is rang by hand at ten minutes to the hour.

In 1951, the east section of the third floor was divided into two floors and finally in 1961, major changes were effected on the ground floor to become as it stands today. However, great care was taken to preserve the facades of College Hall. From the exterior, one can hardly notice the changes that were effected. The first three floors are now used as administration offices. Had it not been for the Arabic and History Departments located on the fourth floor, students would have little to do with College Hall.

College Hall with its bell and creeping ivy remains, a hundred years later, the most personal and handsome building on campus.

Commencing with the simple ground-plan, we learned to work out the more intricate parts. Years after, an English architect, on seeing the structures, asked the name of the architect. I mentioned the name of the one who drew the plans. "But" he said, "who worked out the plans?" On my telling him that we did, and that we had made many mistakes but had managed to cover them up, he replied, "that is perfection in art."

The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss, p. 99.

"On March 13, 1874, we accomplished the risky task of hoisting the bell to the College tower. The students pulled well at the rope and the Faculty were summoned to join them to hear the bell rung for the first time at five p.m."

The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss, 199-200.

REFERENCES

• Annual Reports Board of Managers - Syrian Protestant College. 1866 - 67 - 1901 - 02.

• Bliss, Frederich (editor) The Reminiscences of Daniel Bliss. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1920. Dodge, Bayard. The American University of Beirut. Beirut: Khayats, 1958.

• Penrose, Stephen. That They May Have Life. Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1970. Rugh, Douglas and Rugh, Belle Dorman (editors). Letters from a New Campus Daniel Bliss (Letters to his, wife Abby, 1873 1874). (ms.)