Items · The World of Mrs. Perkins · Exhibitions @ Schaffer Library

Alice Perkins

Alpha Delta Phi

This building served as the chapter house of the Alpha Delta Phi Society, which was founded at Hamilton and came to Union in 1859. Construction lasted from January of 1895 until Commencement of 1898, although Mrs. Perkins wrote in 1896 that it was almost completed. The house, which cost $19,332 to build, was designed by Albert W. Fuller, the architect of Silliman Hall and later of the General Engineering Building. The society previously had rooms on State Street and, according to Mrs. Perkins, took Delta Phi's house for a year in 1896. Mrs. Perkins often mentioned the "Alpha Deltas" in her letters to her son, talking about their news, members, and events. Mrs. Perkins did not always approve of the boy's behavior, such as whistling at her maids or making the chaperones at their dances uncomfortable. On one occasion, Mrs. Perkins' daughter Rose chaperoned a dance at the fraternity and reported that she would not do it again due to the disgraceful behavior of the girls. Mrs. Perkins summarized Rose's objections to her son Roger on March 9, 1903: ''They do not dance all the time but sit together men and girls on a big sofa as close as sardines in a box, and occasionally throwing themselves across some fellows [sic] knee. Altogether she thought them an odious ill behaved set. She said it was altogether different at the Kaps. The boys were very nice to her and she had nothing personal to complain of.'' Although there was some fraternity rivalry, in February of 1897, members of Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi, Psi Upsilon and Alpha Delta Phi formed the Union College Social Club, where, according to Mrs. Perkins, they would meet in each other's rooms to smoke and play cards. The oldest surviving fraternity house on the Union campus, the building was renovated by the College when the society's lease was up, reopening in 2001 as the Grant Hall Admissions Center.

Andrew V.V. Raymond

Athletic Field

Most of the College's athletic activities and games during its first century took place on this field. Students started playing baseball and football regularly there in the 1870s. Class games were also held in this open area. Because the Athletic Field was right across from her house, Mrs. Perkins often sent her son the College's athletic news, including scores and her assessment of any new equipment in use on campus, such as bleachers or megaphones, the latter of which she found "mournful and mooing." She often reported the action as it was happening, reporting in undated letter from 1895, for example, "There is a furious ball game going on [and] an immense deal of shouting and cussing." Watching a game from her windows was not always a safe pastime. Right before a match against Colgate in 1899, "a ball came smashing in and broke the window and the ball rolled into the middle of the room. The two culprits' 'skinned away', in the language of their kind and I retain the ball" (May 4, 1899.) Regarding another game in 1900, attended by at least 1000 people, she noted that the seats in the stands cost an extra fifteen cents. The Athletic Field became known as Library Field after 1905 when the library moved into the Nott Memorial. It was no longer needed for intercollegiate games once Alexander Field was established on the eastern end of the campus in 1913, but intramural games and varsity practices were still held there. It was also the site of drills during the two World Wars and, in later years, the activities of the campus Air Force ROTC. It is now used for intramural sports, rugby games, outdoor ceremonies, and other types of College gatherings.

Benedict

Completed in 1873, this house overlooking Jackson's Garden was built for Samuel Benedict, a law lecturer at the College, and his wife Julia. Designed by William Appleton Potter (Union College Class of 1864), the house was a large and beautiful structure with Victorian and mock Tudor elements, although neither electric lighting nor modern plumbing were ever installed. Julia Benedict, daughter of Union College Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Isaac Jackson, maintained her father's garden after his death and indeed considered it her personal property. As fellow gardeners, Mrs. Perkins and Julia Benedict had a lot in common. However, Mrs. Perkins' letters show she was often quite irritated by Mrs. Benedict, even though she admitted that she was also a hardworking woman, interesting and pleasant to talk to on occasion. One of their frequent disputes was about religion, Mrs. Benedict being a convert to Catholicism and Mrs. Perkins a devout Presbyterian. Mrs. Perkins called their conversations "very polemical and tiresome" and Mrs. Benedict herself "a person who is entirely without consistency or reasonableness" (May 23, 1904). "Her incessant talking, demanding, repeating, made me so dizzy that when she went away I nearly fainted" (December 6, 1903). The Benedicts held the house under the terms of a lifetime lease. Julia died in 1925, and after the death of Samuel in 1933 the house was razed. Yulman Theater now occupies the place where it stood.

Benedict At His House

Bound Perkins Letters

Chapel and Geological Hall

Constructed between 1855 and 1856, Geological Hall was designed in keeping with Ramée's general plans for the Union campus and originally contained the College chapel, natural history museum, and library, as well as the College Treasurer's office. Entered from South Lane, the interior was designed by Eliphalet Nott and Jonathan Pearson (College Treasurer and librarian) in consultation with architect William L. Woollett. The chapel was the site of mandatory morning services, previously held in South Colonnade, and for many years was the only space large enough on campus for student body meetings. It was thus at the heart of campus life. Mrs. Perkins and her family frequently attended programs held in the chapel, conveniently located adjacent to her garden. On March 9, 1903, for example, she wrote, "There was a scientific lecture in the Chapel a few evenings ago on the subject of the new discovery, Radium." Among other notable events she mentions in connection with the chapel are the installation of electric lighting in 1895, various literary lectures, a speech by theologian Lyman Abbott, a slide show, an exhibit of color photographs, funeral services for Union College Professor of Natural Philosophy John Foster, and Founder's Day addresses, including one by her husband Maurice Perkins. Although Mrs. Perkins loved the plants that she grew along its outer walls, she thought of the chapel itself, which at the time featured rows of wooden theatre seats, as "bare and dreary" (October 20, 1899). After the chapel moved to the newly constructed Memorial Chapel in 1925, the space quickly became known as "Old Chapel." Over the years the building has continued to provide room for a wide variety of changing academic departments, administrative offices, student organizations and social spaces, as well as meetings and lectures.

Charles B. Pond

During the time of Mrs. Perkins' letters, this house was the residence of Charles B. Pond, Assistant Treasurer and ferocious debt enforcer under Frank Bailey (Union College Class of 1885 and College Treasurer at the time). Referred to by Charles Waldron (Union College Class of 1906) as the "blunt and rigorous instrument" Bailey used to handle the College's financial difficulties, Pond earned a rather unpleasant reputation at the College. Although students were often amused by "Ducky's" vulgar speaking style and even by the unconventional methods he used to get them to pay their debts, the faculty generally had a strained relationship with him. Mrs. Perkins' letters suggest her own negative and even hostile attitude towards Pond. She describes him as "a disagreeable man to have words with" (September 14, 1902) and complains about what she regards as his insensitivity and bad taste. In one letter Mrs. Perkins actually mentions shaking her fist at Pond's window while he was away and being relieved to be rid of his "hateful presence" (July 6, 1904). In 1906, Pond began to build a new house for himself at 17 South Lane, just east of the Psi Upsilon house, and he moved there the following year. He did not get to enjoy it for long, however; he resigned and left the College a year later. His original house on Nott Street was sold, then repurchased by the College in 1936 and had a variety of occupants until it was razed some time around 1963/64.

Chi Psi

The foundation for the Chi Psi Lodge, the campus home of the fifth national fraternity founded at Union College, was laid in 1901. Located between the Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon houses, the building was formally known as the Philip Spencer Memorial Building in honor of one of its student founders. The Chi Psi fraternity remained in residence in the building for over 100 years. Although Mrs. Perkin's family was often involved in fraternity life, this particular society did not always land in her good graces. She writes, "The Chi Psis have been having a great convention here, and a great ball last night and the carriages woke me up at four o'clock, and I was very indignant, considering [sic] what society it was!" (May 16, 1902). The building was renovated and greatly expanded in 1928. In 2004, after further renovations, it became one of the seven Minerva Houses on campus, Golub House.

College Brook

The College brook flows from about a mile east of the present-day Union campus into the Mohawk River. Much of its visible length in Mrs. Perkins' day is now buried; the section between Terrace Lane and Seward Place, for example, was re-routed into an underground culvert in 1966. Still visible within Jackson's Garden and celebrated in the Union College Alma Mater, the brook has mostly been an aesthetic feature of the campus, although it was sometimes used as a swimming hole and a water source. Pollution and flooding have often been a problem, however. Mrs. Perkins wrote about one instance when a break in a nearby drain caused sewage to flow into the brook. "As Rose is not there to watch, nobody saw it for ten days. It is horrible with nastiness and the sides covered with slime. [Assistant College Treasurer Charles B.] Pond had it stopped immediately, and it is better now, but the slime is still thick on the sides, and you can imagine the smell. Of course it ran into the pasture for the cows to drink, so they were taken out and there has been a great fuss" (May 20, 1902). The brook is also known as Hans Groot's Kill, "kill" being derived from a Dutch word for "body of water" and "Hans Groot" being derived from a combination of the names of several early settlers in the area.

College Grove

The term College Grove formerly referred to several wooded areas on campus, including Jackson's Garden and the area east of where Schaffer Library now stands. A variety of other sites important to campus life in the nineteenth century were also located in the Grove, including the running track and Lover's Lane (the name once given to a tree-lined portion of South Lane). In 1899, the College, ever in need of money, sold much of the land (a total of 75 acres) that was once extended from the eastern end of campus to the Schenectady Realty Company, a subsidiary of the recently formed General Electric Company. Mrs. Perkins, who was fond of the woods, was saddened by the sale, but she understood its necessity. "We are beginning to sell off our dear land; the Electrics are going to buy all above Union Avenue and make a place like Lewellen or Orange park, with their own nice houses and the ground kept pretty and Park like. If we must sell (and we must) that would be the most agreeable plan [sic]" (March 28, 1899). Union received $57,000 for the land, which included a quarry as well as the woods, and the transaction cleared its immediate debts. The residential GE Realty Plot to the east of campus retains much of its park-like character and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Over time, the remainder of the College Grove on Union's campus was filled with academic buildings and athletic facilities and fields.

Edward Everett Hale Jr.

Envelope Addressed to Roger

Football Team 1880-90

Frank Bailey

Frank Bailey Outside

Gym

After years of complaining about the condition of the College's outdoor gymnastic equipment, Union students finally were able to celebrate the opening of a dedicated campus gymnasium in June of 1874. Eliphalet Nott Potter (Union College Class of 1861 and College President from 1871 to 1884) may have even designed the building himself, while students raised around half of the $6000 needed for its construction. The gymnasium contained at various times an exercise hall (also used for dances), dressing and bath rooms, bowling alleys, an armory for the drill team, a tennis court, a small basketball court, and a batting cage. Mrs. Perkins, who faithfully reported College athletic news to her son but had no particular reason of her own to be interested in a gymnasium, mostly mentioned the building in the context of obtaining money for its renovation. Despite several such renovations to the gymnasium over the years, students were still not satisfied with it. At the beginning of the 20th century, the hay stored on the second floor created dust below, and even the 1905 addition of steam heat, electric lights, improved showers and a new entrance did not end agitation for a better facility. When the Alumni Gymnasium was built in 1914, the old gymnasium was converted into a dormitory known as Old Gym Dorm. Old Gym Hall was eventually also occupied by a museum of College history, an art gallery, and the mail room until various administrative offices took possession beginning in 1951. The building now houses, and is known as, the Becker Career Center, the facility having been rededicated in 1981 in honor of Stanley R Becker (Union College Class of 1940), who funded extensive renovations that year.

Hale and Perkins Hall

The Perkins family lived in the faculty apartment of South Colonnade, which had been occupied previously, although briefly, by a number of other professors and administrators including College President Eliphalet Nott. Constructed in 1815, South Colonnade in its early years contained recitation rooms, laboratories, the College chapel, Phi Beta Kappa meeting space, and administrative offices. Professor Maurice Perkins and his wife moved into the two-story faculty apartment in 1865, and Mrs. Perkins made a home there for the next fifty-seven years, raising her family, receiving visitors, writing, giving lectures, gardening, and generally participating in College life from this central vantage point. Mrs. Perkins noted that her house, unlike many others, had its comforts even in winter. "The Book room and Parlour have been delightful, as cosy as possible," she wrote on February 15, 1901, although she quickly added, "but nothing could keep upstairs decent. The kitchen has been a howling wilderness." Indeed, her letters often included complaints about the house, especially during the colder months. One time. the water in the bathroom froze, and the plant room suffered due to a large hole under the bathroom window: "The clapboarding on the outside has fallen and slipped to such an extent, that it is impossible to keep the cold out." (January 21, 1895) Another time it was the heating system itself that caused a problem: "The gas from the furnace fairly belched out in my room Wednesday." (November 29, 1901) A different kind of challenge occurred in 1900, when Mrs. Perkins' grandson, Maurice, was quarantined due to scarlet fever, and part of the house, including the bathroom, had to be shut off. Afterwards, the area was fumigated and repainted. When Professor Perkins died in 1901, his daughter Rose and son-in-law Edward Everett Hale (Jack), who was the College's Professor of Rhetoric and Logic at the time, moved in with Mrs. Perkins. On January 1, 1910, the house was destroyed by a fire but was soon rebuilt. Rose left in 1933, a year after her husband's death. Another professor briefly lived there, until South Colonnade was entirely rebuilt as a dining hall and faculty and student lounge in 1935-1936. Named Hale House in honor of Professor Hale, it is now used for special events.

Henry Whitehorne

Hoffman Phi Gamma Delta

This house was built in 1872 as a home for the College President at the time, Eliphalet Nott Potter. Its construction, which was funded by Potter's father-in-law Joseph Fuller, was necessitated by the fact that after the death of former President Eliphalet Nott in 1866, his widow Urania continued to occupy the original president's house on campus for most of the time until her own death some two decades later. During the time period covered by Mrs. Perkins' letters, the south half of the building was occupied by Frank Sargent Hoffman, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, while the north half belonged to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Far from objecting to the presence of a fraternity in his house, Professor Hoffman had actually been the one who invited them, being himself a member of the society. Mrs. Perkins writes of her son-in-law, whose fraternal loyalties were elsewhere, "Jack dined at Hoffman's and had heavy glass tumblers with Phi Gamma Delta blown on them, which he says destroyed his appetite" (November 12, 1899). Professor Hoffman lived in this building, also known as "The Potter house" and "Fuller Hall", with his first wife Jessie B. Lathrop until her death in 1893. He remarried in 1900 and remained in the house with his second wife Rebecca Russell Lowell and their family until a fire gutted the house in 1918, killing Hoffman's grandson and a nursemaid. The house was rebuilt after this tragedy, losing its distinctive mansard roof but gaining a new identity as the central College Administration Building, now named Feigenbaum Hall after brothers Armand V. and Donald S. Feigenbaum, graduates and benefactors of Union College.

Jackson's Garden

The garden on the northern side of campus was begun in the 1830s by Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Isaac Jackson at the encouragement of Eliphalet Nott, who suggested its cultivation as a means of improving Jackson’s health. The placement of a garden in this area had also been suggested by Joseph Jacques Ramée in his original designs for the College. Moving an existing vegetable patch, Jackson set up graveled paths, lilac hedges, shrubs, and geometric beds of lilies and roses in the area where Yulman Theater now stands. In the lower region (the area still occupied by the garden today), he planted seeds from around the world, although Mrs. Perkins once noted that it was hard to keep anything valuable down there. His garden was admired by John James Audubon among many others and was the site of the College’s Class Day exercises. After Jackson’s death, his daughter Julia Jackson Benedict faithfully maintained the garden for forty-eight years. Considering it her personal property, she often chased students out, once even firing a shotgun from the balcony of her house overlooking the garden. In 1900, her own gardener shot his “mean” wife and, interestingly, Mrs. Perkins sympathized with him. She also sympathized with Julia Benedict on gardening matters, although they frequently disagreed about other matters. Mrs. Perkins also found the garden somewhat wild and wrote that she was concerned about her grandson going through the garden alone: “The bridges are high and shaky and the garden lonely and full of ambushes!” (May 16, 1899). Pollution was often a problem in the garden, with the sewer on Nott Street overflowing and running into its brook. When Mrs. Benedict grew too old, the College took over responsibility for the garden, with help from students, faculty, and community members. Jackson’s Garden remains a popular campus attraction today.

James Stoller