The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Berthold S. Kennedy Hall

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Berthold S. Kennedy Hall (general view), Rhodes College

Berthold S. Kennedy Hall (detail of entrance), Rhodes College

Institution Name: Rhodes College
Original/Historic Place Name: Science Hall
Location on Campus: Thomas Ln.
Date(s) of Construction:

1925	original construction Klauder, Charles Z. Hibbs, Henry

Designer: Charles Z. Klauder; Henry Hibbs (Philadelphia)
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Gothic revival, Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: stone

Roof: slate

Function:

ca. 1925-present (2006)

academic department building (sciences, currently chemistry only)

Narrative:
Kennedy Hall is one of the original campus buildings. It is perpendicular to Palmer hall and acts as the second anchor of the central academic quadrangle envisioned in the Diehl campus plan. The architect, Charles Klauder, was known for vertical massing of windows and tall, narrow gables, and according to William Morgan their use in this building make it seem "more monumental than its two-and-a-half-story façade might imply, yet the scale is reassuringly domestic." Morgan also points out that "there is not a curved line in the entire structure of Science-Kennedy except for the arched doorways and the entranceway vaults. This verticality and angularity may have facilitated the housing of modern science equipment in a medieval-style building" (Collegiate Gothic, The Architecture of Rhodes College [Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1989]).

References:

Cooper, Raymond W. Southwestern at Memphis 1848-1948. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1949.

Hanbury, Evans, Wright, and Vlattas, and Company, Architects. Rhodes Master Plan 2010. [Norfolk, VA: Hanbury, Evans, Wright, and Vlattas, and Company, Architects, n.d.].

Morgan, William. Collegiate Gothic, The Architecture of Rhodes College. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1989.

Rhodes 150, 1848-1998: a Sesquicentennial Yearbook. Little Rock, AR: August House Publishers, 1998.

Roper, James E. Southwestern at Memphis 1948-1975. Memphis, TN: Southwestern at Memphis, 1975.

Strode, William. Rhodes College. Louisville, KY: Harmony House Publishers, 1985.