Hendricks Hall (1918), Susan Campbell Hall (1921), and Woman's
Memorial Hall (1921 - known as Gerlinger Hall since 1929) make up this NRHP listing. The following verbiage is taken from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form to describe the significance of these three buildings:
Hendricks Hall and Susan Campbell Hall were the first major buildings built as women's dormitories on the University of Oregon Campus, and Gerlinger Hall, originally the Woman's Memorial Hall, was designed to furnish headquarters for all women's organizations and activities in the University. All were built for the purpose of women's higher education in Oregon in the 1920s. Besides the buildings' functions, there were many women involved in realizing the ensemble: a group of women headed by Irene H. Gerlinger
contributed in the fund-raising and interior decorations of the
Woman's Memorial Hall.
The Quadrangle was to commemorate women's role in Oregon history.
Together with the Pioneer Mother statue on the Quadrangle, distinguished commemorative work of art by A. Phimister Proctor which pays tribute to the heroism and sacrifice of women of the frontier, this ensemble makes a promising landmark candidate in the cultural context of women's history.
The nominated building group is among the best of the rare examples of Georgian-style campus buildings in Oregon which are still intact.
When the University of Oregon first started on its course in a simple and unostentatious manner in October 1876, there were 177 students in attendance. 3 The number of women students in the year 1877-1878 was 38, which grew to 461 in 1916-1917. 4 Until Hendricks Hall was built as the women's dormitory in 1918, there was not a single building on the campus for the use of the women students with the exception of the house-like Mary Spiller Hall, which was erected in 1907 and razed in 1951. Hendricks Hall was the first major collegiate building designed as a women's dormitory in Oregon.
1917 was the time of suffrage movements by women in Oregon, and a concern for women students' housing may have had some influence from those movements.
The dormitory was named for Thomas G. Hendricks, a regent for 24 years, who was on the first board of directors of the University. In designing Hendricks Hall, Lawrence was said to have had two important freedoms which are seldom enjoyed today: a single tasteful client, Mrs. Gerlinger; and a budget that was free from specific limitation.
In 1921 Susan Campbell Hall, a counterpart of Hendricks Hall, was completed as the second women's dormitory of the proposed quadrangle. It was named for Susan Church Campbell, the wife of Prince L. Campbell, the fourth president of the University (1902-1925). She came to the University in 1905 as director of the men's dormitory. The University was her most vital concern, next to her family, and she gave of her time and energy to campus activities. She also devoted herself to crippled children through the Red Cross, and to the Murray Warner Museum of Oriental Art. Because of the affection she had won from the University community, alumni, and townspeople, a portrait of her painted by Sydney Bell of Portland was presented by her friends to the University on October 8, 1929. It still hangs in the hall.
The movement to get more adequate facilities for physical training for the young women of the University began in the early 1910s. In 1912 Miss Ruth Guppy came to the University as Dean of Women and saw the need for a women's building. The purposes of the building were, first, to provide quarters for the careful system of physical training which every woman student must take and, second, to form a much needed social center on the campus for, faculty, alumni, students and guests. Women students rallied to the support of Miss Guppy and established the Women's League in order to organize a drive and gather funds.
In 1915 Irene H. Gerlinger, the wife of George Gerlinger, and the first and the only woman member of the Board of Regents at that time, became inspired by Miss Guppy's vision. In the long, hard campaign and struggle that followed and which included the war years, Mrs. Gerlinger was a dedicated leader. Various plans were introduced to raise funds:
There were thrift stamp teas and progressive dinners. According to the Oregon Daily Emerald. October 7, 1915, "Two hundred pounds of meat, 25 gallons of ice cream and equivalent amount of fruit cocktail and salad have been ordered and everything is in readiness at the 'progressive dinner 1 tomorrow night to raise the money for the women's building."
Illustrated picture cards of the proposed women's building were also sold. 400,000 bricks needed for the building were sold for twenty-five cents each. War stamps and Liberty bonds were sought for donations.
Mrs. Gerlinger also called members of large foundations and wealthy men and women of the state for donations to the building fund.
The building became known as the Woman's Memorial Hall, in part, because it was a tribute to the accomplishment of women. Persons who gave $500 or more would have their names inscribed in a memorial tablet to be placed near the arcade. The total cost of the building was estimated as not less than $200,000, one-half to be raised by popular subscription with an equal sum matched by a legislative appropriation.
In 1916 the president of the University mentioned "splendid
enthusiasm and fine business judgement shown by Mrs. Gerlinger in organizing the campaign for funds for the building." 10 In 1919 the building committee of the Board of Regents approved plans and specifications for the proposed women's building as submitted by Lawrence and Holford, architects. The building was to house the Department of Physical Training for Women, Department of Household Arts, the Infirmary, and all the women's organizations calling for special quarters. Also it was to provide a center for the women's activities on campus. Bids were advertised for and opened on August 12," 1919.
The Woman's Memorial Hall, completed in 1921, was named after Mrs.
Gerlinger in 1929. She not only ran the campaign to build it but
also was deeply involved in its design and decoration. She described it as "a monument to noble womanhood," and it has subsequently been described as a landmark to the emerging roles of women in the 20th century.
In the letter from the president of the University of Missouri to P. L. Campbell, the President of the University of Oregon, the Woman's Memorial Hall was seen as a model for a modern women's building at the University of Missouri. 12 The Woman's Memorial Hall was highly commended by Dr. Howe of Wellesley College, who said in a letter to the president of the University of Missouri, "The Woman's Building at the University of Oregon is one of the finest if not the finest building of the kind in the country."
The cooperation of women students, faculty members, alumni, and townspeople in realizing the Woman's Memorial Hall is a significant event to be commemorated both in the history of the University and women's history in Oregon.
The Women's Memorial Quadrangle ensemble was designed by Ellis F. Lawrence, the first Dean of the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts from 1914 until his death in 1946.
The three contributing buildings, Hendricks Hall(1918), Susan Campbell Hall(1921), and Gerlinger Hall(1921), still retain their historic Georgian details, and the Women's Quadrangle produced by the three buildings creates a distinguished space on the campus which is more intimate than the main Memorial Quadrangle in front of the Knight Library.
Lawrence designed over five hundred buildings in various styles. Among his most important works were his plans for collegiate campuses and his designs for individual collegiate buildings. Lawrence's first campus plan was his 1908 design for Whitman College, a liberal arts institution in Walla Walla, Washington. Overall, the stylistic detail employed in the Whitman College plan was Georgian Classical. 14 The Board of Regents appointed Lawrence to develop the University of Oregon campus in 1914, after interviewing several architects from around Oregon. Lawrence showed in his plan for the University campus a number of quadrangles connected by interwoven perpendicular axes.
Lawrence's plan to complete the women's quadrangle with additional dorms similar to Hendricks and Susan Campbell Halls was never realized. However, the Georgian-style Women's Memorial Quadrangle ensemble is evaluated as probably the best architectural ensemble of Lawrence's built work. 15 The nominated three buildings are all ranked "Primary" in the Oregon Historic Property Survey of Ellis F. Lawrence Buildings.