Womens Building - Oregon State University National Historic District - Corvallis, OR - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Located along SW 26th Street is the Women's Building. It was erected in 1926 and is listed as site #86 in the Oregon State University National Historic District. The following verbiage is taken from the Oregon Historic Sites Database website (link below) to describe this building's history:

Architectural History:
The Women’s Building is constructed in the Beaux Arts style, and totals 87,486 sq feet in its two-stories and full basement. The building’s covered portico contains arched colonnades, granite baseboards, tile floor, statuary alcoves, and barrel vaulted ceilings. Above a tall entrance arch rests a classical pediment featuring a representation of Alma Mater, Science who is holding a “torch of knowledge” and is accompanied by female figures representing agriculture and horticulture. Other glazed ceramic panels are located elsewhere on the building and feature female symbols of academic learning, sports, music and dance. Red brick, said to have been fired in Monroe, Oregon, also decorates the front façade. The roof is composed of variegated tile, and a glazed ceramic trim high on the exterior serves the function of keeping rain off the walls. Interior features include a 30' x 70' swimming pool, lounge and assemly room w/ large fireplace, dance studio, library and dining room in original condition. Alterations: In the 1990s, wooden windows in the Dance Studio were replaced with replication windows, and the mission tile roof was retiled. Windows were replaced in the pool, gym and skylights in 1993, and an elevator was added in 2000. Landscape: The Women’s Building is located near the center of campus. It faces a central quad, directly across from 26th St. and is surrounded by foliage. Setting: The Women’s Building is near the center of OSU’s main campus, in sector C. Alterations: 1990's: replaced wooden windows in Dnace Studio with replication windows, retiled mission tile roof; 1993: replaced windows in pool, gym and skylights; 2000: added elevator.

Background History
The Women’s Building was designed primarily as a physical education building for women. Together with classrooms and offices for physical education staff, it had modern facilities for gymnastics, dancing, and team sports like volleyball, basketball, and indoor baseball. Its swimming pool, which was larger and more modern than the previous pool in Shepard Hall, helped women students prepare for the college’s swimming test—a requirement for successful completion of sophomore year at Oregon Agricultural College (O.A.C.). The gymnasium and adjoining rooms were attractive places not only for athletics, but for social gatherings, receptions, and pageants. Attesting to the versatility of building, the December, 1926 issue of The O.A.C. Alumnus proudly announced the building was devoted to “the advancement and attainment of the all ‘round woman and things womanly.” Prominent architect John V. Bennes of Portland designed the building. Bennes designed twenty other campus buildings; however, the Women’s Building was the only one that resulted from an open competition, and many considered it to be his greatest. That such a grand building would be reserved for women’s physical education during the mid-1920s is an indication of the cultural changes in attitude toward women and athletics in the United States during the early decades of the twentieth century. At the turn of the century many physical education departments at universities and colleges in the United States decried the growing popularity of team sports, such as basketball, for women because they did not consider such competitive activities to be feminine. In the 1890s and 1900s physical education on campuses more closely resembled the activities that were confined to the third floor of the Women’s Building—the Posture Room. As was the practice for decades at college campuses in the United States, women entering O.A.C. in 1926 took a physical examination designed to note flaws to their form. These flaws were later addressed with corrective body building in the Posture Room.

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): Oregon State University National Historic District Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] NRHP Historic District Waymark (Optional): [Web Link] Address: 160 SW 26th St. Oregon State University Corvallis, OR How did you determine the building to be a contributing structure?: Narrative found on the internet (Link provided below) Optional link to narrative or database: [Web Link]

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