Flashback
90 years ago
‘The Spirit of the New Buffalo’
In 1920, UB had land for a campus, but no money for buildings. Most of what is now the South Campus had been purchased from Erie County in 1909. Ten years later, under the leadership of Chancellor Charles P. Norton, the balance of the land was acquired and the university was granted a one-year extension to fulfill the terms of the original purchase—the university had to begin to build on the new site within 10 years of the 1909 purchase.
With time running out, Norton presided over a mock groundbreaking on June 11, 1920, and told the assembled guests: “We have planted an acorn, which when it grows, God alone knows the fruit thereof.” A month later, Buffalo industrialist Orin E. Foster and his family donated $400,000 for a “Hall of Chemistry”—the building now known as Foster Hall. The architectural rendering of the building by the New York City firm of McKim, Mead & White is pictured above.
The year 1920 was pivotal in the history of UB. In March, the UB Council authorized the university’s first capital campaign. Under the leadership of council chair and Buffalo attorney Walter P. Cooke, a large number of volunteers, organized in committees and divisions, succeeded in realizing the $5 million goal of the campaign during 10 days in October. With “Build for Buffalo” as the campaign’s slogan, 24,000 donors, most of whom had no connection to UB, responded.
The campaign issued an impressive 24-page brochure titled “The Spirit of the New Buffalo” that featured drawings of E. B. Green’s ambitious plans for the new campus and made the case for why the futures of UB and Buffalo were linked. The brochure concluded with a description of how creating a college of liberal arts at UB would provide a much-needed opportunity for local high school graduates. It also stated that bringing together young people representing the city’s 30 nationalities could reduce the sectionalism that was plaguing Buffalo. So, as was cited on the final page of the brochure and repeated in a letter from Cooke to prospective donors, the campaign was for the benefit of “all Buffalo boys and girls—regardless of race, creed or class.”
As 1920 ended, UB had a permanent campus and a plan for its development, as well as the resources needed to begin building. The university wanted to provide all the young people of Buffalo with an opportunity to obtain a liberal arts education. Now it needed to recruit a full-time chancellor to lead the effort to bring university and community together in the common goal of creating the “greater university.”
—John Edens, University Archives
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