4 page newsletter announcements include information about the building program plans and various campus and faculty updates.
Black Mountain College Newsletter
Number 10 December 1940
Lake Eden plans become real
Building program
The most important community enterprise undertaken by the College since its founding is the construction this year of a seventy-five room building at Lake Eden. A description and an evaluation of the Building Project and the Work Program are given in the bulletin accompanying this Newsletter.
Every effort is being made to complete the shell of the building before Christmas in order to save the framework from damage by rain and snow. At the beginning of the year the Work Committee planned a weekly schedule which has been closely followed. Unforeseen obstacles have arisen, such as the necessity of driving over a hundred 10-ft. piles to serve as a stable base for some of the wall foundations; but these obstacles have been overcome with a schedule delay of not over two weeks.
During the Spring Semester the work program will include: finishing the interior, installing heating and lighting, remodelling the old building at Lake Eden, and constructing five faculty colleges. All of this is necessary if the College is to be able to move to Lake Eden next fall.
Since almost all of the actual labor is being done by the College community, building costs are being kept at a minimum. The building now under construction would have cost under ordinary methods, when completed and ready for use, nearly $50,000. With student labor and with economies due to simplification of the building design, the actual cost of the structure will be in the neighborhood of $22,000. However, materials and some expert hired labor do require a capital outlay greater than that which the College can provide from its current income and from the gifts that have been received to date.
Though the investment is a fraction of that usually involved in plants of similar size, it is at the same time an investment in which the College must have help. An intensive money raising campaign is therefore under way, and all friends of the College are being urged to assist as generously as they can. Once housed in its own property the College will have passed a critical point in its existence, and will no longer have to face the insecurity, cost, and trouble that go with rented quarters. The benefits- educational, psychological, and material- will be, it is believed, far reaching.
Personnel
The College began its eighth year with eighteen faculty members and seventy-six students included in the College community of one hundred twenty-three people. Three European countries are represented besides Hawaii and over half the forty-eight states.
Mr A Lawrence Kocher, whose plans for the new building are now being put into effect, joined Black Mountain’s faculty this year as Visiting Professor of Architecture. Editor for ten years (until 1937) of the Architectural Record, Mr Kocher held the position of Professor of Architecture at Pensylvannia State College for nine years and was at one time head of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Virginia. For the past two years he was Visiting Professor of Architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He acted as chairman of the State Art Commission of Virginia, and was United States delegate to the International Congress on Industrial Arts held at Paris, in 1937. At present he is a member of the American Standards Association.
Mr Kocher studied at Leland Stanford University (AB, 1912), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA, 1913), and the graduate school of New York University. His published works include Early Architecture of Pennsylvania, Architecture of Lancaster, and Development of the English Mantel, which was published in London, the co-author being Guy Rothery. Among the buildings he has designed are the Clarence White School of Photography, the Joseph Priestly Memorial, Sunlight Towers, and the Plywood House at the New York World’s Fair.
Serving as head of the Art Department during the sabbatical leave of Josef Albers, Mr Kocher is conducting lecture and laboratory classes in Contemporary Architecture. Mrs Kocher and their two children are residing with him at the College. Miss Jessie Ann Nelson of Winnetka, Illinois, is assisting this year in the Music Department. She studied piano, violin, and composition at Bennington College, where she graduated last June.
Other new members of the Faculty, mentioned in previous newsletters are: Robert S Babcock, J Richard Carpenter, John RP French, Jr., Richard Gothe and Nathan Rosen. Mr Malcolm Ross, author, and Director of Information of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., has accepted an invitation to become a member of the Advisory Council of Black Mountain College for a term of three years. After graduation from Yale University, Mr Ross worked in oil fields and copper mines, became an efficiency expert, a news reporter and editor, and a sociologist. He is the author of Deep Enough, Penny Dreadful, Hymn to the Sun, Sailing the Skies, Machine Age in the Hills, and Death of a Yale Man.
Robert Wunsch was re-electd by the Faculty to the rectorship of the College for the present academic year. Frederick Mangold was re-elected Secretary and Theodore Dreier continues as Treasurer, his term of office expiring in 1942. Dr Erwin Straus and John Evarts were re-elected to the Board of Fellows for terms of three years each.
The student officers for the first semester were: Harold Raymond, Student Moderator, Jimmie Jamieson, Evelyn Tubbs and Hyalie Yamins. Phyllis Josephs was elected to complete the term of Hyalie Yamins who resigned because of the press of work toward graduation. At the annual election just held (December 3) Harold Raymond was re-elected Student Moderator to continue in office under December, 1941. Memorial services for Frank Nacke, Student Moderator and member of the Board of Fellows of the College, who lost his life at Lake Eden in the flood of August 13, were held in Robert E Lee Hall the first Sunday of the semester.
Activities
The first dramatic presentation of the year, attended by over 150 guests, was Stton Vane’s “Outward Bound”. The scenery was designed by Lisa Jalowetz, a former students who is now working in New York City with Harry Horner, the well-known stage-designer. “Outward Bound” will be given during the year at several places in Western North Carolina at the request of dramatic groups. Two other plays, “The Cherry Orchard” and “Julius Caesar” have been cast, and production has begun. The sets will be designed by George Randall. The performance of “The Cherry Orchard” is scheduled to take place during Visitor’s Week in April, while “Julius Caesar” will be ready for presentation in May.
Several formal concerts have been presented by the Music Department during the Fall Semester. Bach’s Sonata in E major and two pieces from Smentana’s “From the Native Country”, for violin and piano, were performed by Mrs Trudi Straus and Dr Heinrich Jalowetz. A Theme and Variations for piano duet by Schubert was played by Dr Jalowetz and John Evarts. Piano solos played by Maude Dabbs have included Beethoven’s Sonata in E minor and some interesting sketches and arrangements of folk songs and dances by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. Maude Dabbs, who comes from Mayesville, South Carolina, plans to graduate in music next May.
The radio has become an important medium for presenting some of the College’s activities to the public. A program is broadcast over station WWNC, Asheville, on Wednesday nights from 9 to 9:30. Musical and dramatic programs and three round table discussions have been included in the series. Robert Babcock acted as chairman of the unrehearsed discussions which were upon the following subjects: “Education in a Crisis”, “National Unity and Dictatorship”, and “Clarence Streit’s Union Now”. Two choral readings written by Jane Mayhall Katz and John Stix were included in the dramatic program. These were followed by an original monolog presented by Mendez Marks; and three scenes from “Macbeth” played by John Stix and Sue Spayth.
Lectures
“Poetry as a Dynamic Force” was the subject of a lecture given by Miss May Sarton during her ten-day visit at the College. Miss Sarton is the author of two books of poetry and of a novel, The Single Hound. Students interested in writing had the opportunity of talking with her informally and of receiving her criticism of their work. “Writing is not only a career that has to do with working hours, critics, publishers, and royalties,” Miss Sarton told them, “But it is living, seeing, thinking in the most difficult and demanding way”.
Mr Louis Cornish, International President of the Unitarian Church, presented on November 17 an analysis of the political and economic significance of the Philippine Islands. Professor JD McGeachy of the Department of History of Davidson College talked to the community on November 22 and November 24 on “The Rise of the Greek City State” and “Athens and Sparta”. Kenneth Holland, Associate Director of the American Youth Commission of the American Council on Education, recently spoke on “Youth and National Defense”. Speakers who are scheduled to visit the College after the holidays are Lewis Mumford, and Dr Scott Buchanan, Dean of St John’s College. The later has accepted an invitation to conduct a seminar on Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” during the first week in February.
“Alchemy- the Divine Art and the Great Deception,” was the subject of a talk given by Charles Lindsley, professor of Chemistry, who started the series of faculty lectures. On a later evening, Nathan Rosen, professor of Physics, discussed “Modern Alchemy-Physics of the Atomic Nucleus”.
The International Relations Group, a forum gathering, which meets every Friday night, offers a review of the important news of each week, presented by Robert Babcock, professor of Political Science. Backgrounds for important events, together with indications of future developments, are explained by Richard Gothe, professor of Economics, and Walter Barnes, professor of History. Jack French, professor of Psychology, spoke at one of the meetings on “Propaganda Analysis”.
News briefs
In the absence of Mrs Anni Albers, who is in Mexico City this fall on sabbatical leave, the classes in textile design are being supervised by Don Page, who plans to graduate in that field next May. Mrs Albers will resume her work during the Spring Semester.
Four students were admitted to the Senior Division in October, after comprehensive oral and written examinations: Phyllis Josephs, of Arden, Delaware; Roman Maciejczyk, of Brooklyn, New York; Harold Raymond, of Melrose, Massachusetts; and John Stix, of St Louis, Missouri. All are third year students.
During the past few weeks several faculty members have represented Black Mountain at various conferences dealing with education. Robert Wunsh went to Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended a meeting of the secondary school study group of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools for Negroes. He was invited by the Association to be one of a group of people who devote part-time to visiting the Negro secondary schools in an effort to help raise the standards of education.
For the seventh time William Morse Cole, Professor Emeritus of Accounting at the Harvard Business School, has completed the annual audit of the College books. At the College during the first two weeks of November, Mr Cole again contributed to the community with his Shakespeare-reading groups.
