LIII. The Alumni—Colonnade Club
Before the inauguration of President Alderman the
Faculty was a small body, and in consequence, their
social intercourse was then more intimate and more constant
than would have been possible had the membership
been large and less homogeneous. As the number of
professors was increased to fill the new or the expanded
chairs, the desirability of some social centre common to
them all became more apparent; and under the influence
of this fact, a faculty club was organized in 1907 and
pavilion VII rented for its use from the Board of Visitors,
at an annual charge of one hundred and fifty dollars.
The roll of resident members, at first, did not exceed
seventy names. The only purpose of the association
at this time was acknowledged to be to foster cordial
and friendly relations, and to encourage an active cooperation,
among the teachers and the members of the
administrative staff of the University.
But there was one man who had the practical shrewdness
and the breadth of vision to see that the club could
be made to subserve a far more useful end than the contracted
one then in view. This was Bruce Moore, the
secretary, who was not an alumnus. It had been seriously
proposed to abolish the remnant of those
features which had once made the finals so attractive
to the returning sons of the institution. What inducement
could be offered to revive the interest of the alumni
in this occasion, and thus stimulate their loyalty to the
University itself? Mr. Moore, with just foresight,
thought that the club could be turned into a means of
accomplishing this beneficent object. He now went indefatigably
to work, with the hearty encouragement and
assistance of the club, to increase its non-resident
membership in order to secure the money necessary to
defray the expense of offering new attractions to influence
the alumni to revisit the precincts. In short, he
strove to do for the alumni of the University of Virginia
what the Graduates' Club at Yale and the Calumet
Club at Harvard had done for the sons of those institutions.
—the creation of a centre within the bounds where
all the alumni could meet on common ground.
It was said, in 1909–10, that the success of the club,
under Mr. Moore's general management, was chiefly
instrumental in preserving some of the flavor of the old
social character of the Finals. The alumni began to
return in numbers that had not been noted since the first
years following the close of the War of Secession. At
the commencement of 1908–09, at least one hundred registered
their names on the books of the club, and at the
commencement of 1909–10, two hundred and fifty. Its
membership, had, by this time, increased to nearly one
thousand. In 1910, it issued a volume which contained
the names of the living alumni, and it also lent its aid
in obtaining all the information about their careers that
could be collected. It assisted too in the formation of
local alumni chapters, and in keeping them in contact
with the University. It sent, at its own expense, a representative
of the General Alumni Association to the
Conference held at the Ohio State University in February,
1913, which assembled to found a national society
of alumni secretaries. It also offered, as already mentioned,
a reunion cup to nourish the spirit of the organized
classes,—which it was so important to strengthen
and extend,—and also to influence classes which had not
yet been organized to come together at once to compete
for the trophy.
Another means which the club adopted to accomplish
the same object was the establishment of the Alumni
News in March, 1913. This periodical was designed
to supply the alumni with information about all the departments
of the institution, and the varied interests of
the student body, and also to create a medium of conveying
to the Faculty the opinions of the alumni
about university problems. It was issued once a
fortnight, and sent, without charge, to every nonresident
member of the club. Its editor was Russell
Bradford, who was to take up the work of the club in
succession to Mr. Moore, after an interval in which
Paul B. Barringer, Jr., had filled the office.
But the principal advantage offered by the club to the
non-resident members was that it would assure them,
during their visits to the University, all the conveniences
of a home. It had been clearly recognized by Mr.
Moore that the problem of inducing the alumni to
return periodically was, in no small degree, the problem
of housing them properly. The club afforded a practical
solution of this difficulty. But it was not long
before it was perceived that the increased enrolment
would ultimately make indispensable an addition to the
building then standing. Previous to 1905, the sum of
nearly three thousand dollars had been collected by the
General Alumni Association for the purpose of erecting
an alumni hall; and the General Athletic Association had
also, by that time, secured about eighteen thousand
dollars in contributions for the construction of an athletic
building. In the course of that year, the two
organizations agreed to pool their respective funds, and
if possible, to augment the amount by sixty thousand
dollars in order to assure one large building which would
give ample room for the members of both bodies combined.
The original alumni fund was, prior to 1905,
held in trust by Colonel Carter, the proctor, and the
original athletic fund, by Dr. Lambeth. When the two
were united, Dr. Lambeth and Judge R. T. W. Duke,
Jr., were chosen the joint trustees.
At the annual meeting of the General Alumni Association,
in June, 1910, it was suggested that the two
organizations should abandon the plan of erecting a
single edifice for their common use. The members of
the General Alumni Association were now, as a body,
anxious to build a separate structure for their own occupation,
and its executive committee, aware of this fact,
at their session in January, 1911, appointed a committee
to canvass for subscriptions. This committee reported in
June the acquisition of $2,088, with promises of $288.00
more. As there was already four thousand dollars in
hand, the total sum that had now become available was
about six thousand dollars. The executive committee,
when they met in January, as previously mentioned, had
also urged the separation of the double trust fund; and
had further recommended that the projected alumni hall
should be attached to the Colonnade Club, in the form of
an annex. The General Athletic Association having
accepted the proposal to divide the funds, the General
Alumni Association decided to use their own share in
creating the annex as advised by their executive committee.
A special committee was appointed to consider
the style of the prospective building; and it was also instructed
to confer on that subject with the President of
the University and the President of the Colonnade Club.
At the meeting of the Association in June, 1912, acceptable
plans for the structure were submitted by the
firm of Ferguson, Carlow, and Taylor, architects of
Norfolk. At this time, there was a fund of $6,442.00
in bank. In the spring of 1913, the new building was
pushed rapidly forward towards completion; it contained
a billiard room, a pool room, a lounging room, and eight
chambers. There was space for a garden in the rear.
The moneys used in constructing the annex consisted of
$3,132 obtained from the two original trustees; $4,000
appropriated by the club; and $2,554.33 contributed by
the alumni and held by a third trustee,—a total of $9,686.03.
The Board of Visitors advanced the sum of
$1,500, and the Club an additional $500.00. The entire
cost, including the outlay for heat and light fixtures,
was in the neighborhood of twelve thousand dollars.
