Located in at the NW part of the University of Oregon is a very ornately constructed set of wrought iron gates known as
'Dads' Gates.' painted green and welcoming visitors to the campus. The following text comes from the National Register of Historic Places
nomination form to describe these gates and its important historical, architectural and artistic importance today:
The Dads' Gates are large wrought iron gates located on 11th Avenue East between Kincaid Street and Franklin Boulevard in Eugene, OR. They currently flank the entrance to the driveway/turnaround in front of the James F. Miller Theatre Complex on the University of Oregon campus. Begun in 1938 and dedicated in 1941, the Dads' Gates were a Works Progress Administration Art Project. This object functioned (and still functions) as a work of art and as a landscape project. It is composed of a length of fence on either side of the two main gates doors that swing inward toward campus. Smaller pedestrian gates through the fence also open in toward campus on either side of the main gates.
The Dads' Gates are eight feet tall and 120 feet long. Starting in the center there are two gate doors, each 10 feet wide, creating a total 20-foot opening. There are usually swung open towards the campus onto the paved service road leading to the turnaround driveway in front of the James F. Miller Theatre Complex. These mark the middle point of the Dads' Gates; both halves mirror each other. Each of the main gate doors contains the bronze University seal at their center and one can see scroll, cross, flower, lyre and spear motifs in the wrought iron. Massive wrought iron pylons containing lotus and trefoil motifs anchor these gates. Atop each pylon is a large glass light set onto a wrought iron frame, the crown of which has cross motifs. This gives the pylons additional height; they are approximately 10.5 feet tall if one includes the light fixtures. As the fence moves outward on either side away from the main pylons there is an opening flanked by smaller pylons. The opening contains smaller wrought iron pedestrian gates swung open toward campus that include circle, scroll and spear motifs. The smaller pedestrian gate doors are each 3.5 feet wide, creating a total 7-foot opening. Above each of these gates is written "Oregon Dads 1940". The fence then continues in a straight line before curving inward to the north; more small pylons mark each change in direction. The curving fence approaches 11th Avenue and begins to run straight and parallel with the street.
The Dads' Gates have a poured concrete foundation. All of the iron used is wrought iron. The iron is currently painted a light green color. There is no name with which to describe the style of the design; it does not conform to any ornamental ironwork designs. Wrought iron design motifs used are primarily geometric including scrollwork, crosses and circles. Lyre, lotus, flower, trefoil and spear motifs are also used. The shape of the plan combines linear and curvilinear elements. the main pylons and smaller pylons set at intervals where the fence changes direction provide structural support.
The Dads' Gates were designed and construction began in 1938 when the University of Oregon was in the midst of numerous building projects funded through New Deal legislation. As early as 1914 the Dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, Ellis F. Lawrence, had conceived of having entry gates to the campus on 11th Avenue that would form the north end of a north-south campus axis. Finally with the Great Depression and the W.P.A. came the opportunity for the funding of numerous campus building projects, including the Library (1935-1937). In 1938 Lawrence approached Burt Brown Barker, the unpaid vice president of the University and himself and Oregon Dad, about building the gates. The plans were drawn by Lawrence's son, Henry Abbott Lawrence (Abbott), of the architectural firm Lawrence, Holford & Allyn in Portland. Abbott would later design the Erb Memorial Union at the University, which was completed in 1950. The W.P.A. committed funds for the labor (totaling $20, 546) and the Dads' Club agreed to supply the money for materials. Barker was the single greatest contributor to the project, putting in $1,650 of the $4,099 total raised by the Dads'.
Orion Benjamin Dawson (O.B.), was commissioned to build the Dads' Gates. Dawson (1896-1977) learned the blacksmith trade through an apprenticeship while he as in high school. As a soldier during World War I he worked shoeing horses. It was while he was stationed in France that he encountered artistic ironwork for the first time. He befriended a French blacksmith who taught him how to make gates and decorative elements out of wrought iron.Upon his return to the United States he began working doing ornamental ironwork and studying design at night. Dawson moved to Portland, Oregon. He worked with architects who had worked for Samuel Yellin. Yellin was a very significant blacksmith working at this time out of Philadelphia. Dawson admired Yellin greatly and studied his techniques and work. Yellin's former colleagues showed Dawson how Yellin did his drafting; Dawson adopted the same method himself. During the Depression Dawson got work through the W.P.A.'s Art Project., first designing and producing the wrought iron gates within the new University of Oregon Library. At the same time he received commissions to work on projects at Oregon State University, followed soon after by his commission to produce all the wrought iron work for the great Timberline Lodge. He also produced the Howe Memorial Gates for the University of Oregon, designed by landscape architect Fred Cuthbert. His last project for the W.P.A. was the University of Oregon Dads' Gates.
It is significant to recognize that wrought iron working was becoming a lost art by the late 1930s; the W.P.A. art projects provided a great opportunity for Dawson and others to practice their skills and revive the trade temporarily. Dawson's crew were largely in their 60s and 70s; younger workers had no experience with wrought iron work. Dawson was painfully aware of the loss of his craft in the modern era and he wanted the Dad's Gates to stand as monuments to that craft, writing: "I felt that if the work of the blacksmith was to become entirely obsolete and extinct and disappear for ever from humanity's way of life, then I wanted these gates to be an outstanding example and a tribute to the incomparable skill of that man who once down through the centuries occupied such a prominent place in mankind's journey through the ages."
During the period from 1935 to 1940 Dawson was involved in numerous W.P.A. projects at once. He finished the Dads' Gates in July of 1940 and shipped them from his Portland shop to the University. This was his last project for the W.P. A.; he closed up the shop and traveled to Eugene to erect Dads' Gates and then went to work in the private sector, eventually going to work as an estimator. The painting and landscaping of the Dads' Gates was completed later under the direction of Professor F.A. Cuthbert, also the landscape architect for the campus. The Dad's Gates were finally dedicated in a ceremony on February 8th, 1941. On top of each of the two main pylons were empty wrought iron frames awaiting glass lighting fixtures; this final element of the Dads' Gates was put on hold. Photos indicate the lights were installed after 1946 and newspaper records indicate the gates were "completed in their present condition" when the University Theater was built in 1949; this probably included the lights.
The Dad's Gates on the University of Oregon campus deserve recognition as an object to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are historically and artistically significant. The lovely design was produced by collaboration between Abbott Lawrence and O.B. Dawson. The ironwork was then expertly wrought by Dawson, a great master craftsman. It is arguable that if not for the Great Depression and resulting support for such work by the W.P.A., the Gates might never have been commissioned. They are of local significance in particular because of the small number of W.P.A. art projects done in Eugene, and because they are so intrinsically connected with Ellis Lawrence and the University of Oregon. The Dads' Gates were made at a time when such work was rare and few people knew the techniques necessary to accomplish such a project. Each hand-forged piece still stands today as a testament to high artistic values.