Union’s history has always been celebrated. Chauncey H. Winters Professor of political science emeritus and Dean of the Faculty emeritus Jim Underwood undertook the task of outlining the specifics behind the architecture of Union College and created an informational guidebook to share what he learned about the nearly three centuries of Union’s history.
In the guidebook and the co-supplementary student-led tour, Historic Union: The First Campus in America Designed with a Comprehensive Plan, Professor Underwood explores the past, present and future of the college.
The primary focus of the book is the collegiate atmosphere of campus. French architect and designer of Union College Joseph Ramée’s breakthroughs in the construction are explained in the book. Ramée’s architectural designs were created with the fourth president of Union Eliphalet Nott’s vision for the college.
Each original building of Ramée’s vision for the campus is given a page or more and describes the basic corresponging features and functions. For example, Reamer Campus Center was meant to be a place where “quiet almost never visits.”
Each section has factual information about everything from the founding of the Minerva Houses and residential halls to the deterioration of the Nott Memorial in the 20th century. Overall, the guidebook tells the tale of how Union College came to be.
According to Underwood, this project had been on his mind for quite some time. When discussing his motives for creating the guidebook, he noted it was “obvious that Union had an historic campus” and thus this project helps to “reinforce Union as a special place for its alumni, students, and faculty.”
Underwood said that while the idea of the student-led tour came first, the guidebook came as an apparent addition since “students needed a guide in order to plan the buildings and landscapes that [would be] visited on the tour.”
Though he initiated the plans, he gives credit to the many faculty members and students that helped him see his vision through.
Underwood’s dream is to have a theme house of “Union History,” where a group of students work on updating the Encyclopedia of Union College History, which Underwood said would be an “immense project that requires people that are seriously committed to the [result].”
When asked about the most interesting fact he learned during this process, Underwood mentions that through his research of Ramée’s original sketches for the campus he discovered that the Nott was once planned to be a different shape.
“Can you imagine having a rectangular building instead of a round one? We were just inches away from that,” said Underwood.
The first official tour will commence during Homecoming Weekend, on October 19-20, in line with the 200th anniversary of Ramée’s plans, but tours will also be given periodically throughout the year by request.
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