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 CINCINNATI, OHIO 
 
 PROPOSED PLANS OF NEW BUILDINGS 
 IN AVONDALE 
 
 1840 
 
 SUGGESTIONS WELCOME 
 
 1915 
 
 N!AR ’S '- 
 
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The following illustrations exhibit the General and 
 Tentative Plan for the development of St. Xavier College. 
 The several buildings will be erected in the course of time. 
 As the plans are not final, suggestions are welcome. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/greaterstxaviercOOstxa 
 
LOOKING WEST -VIEW FROM SITE OF PROPOSED COLLEGE BUILDING 
 
THE YEAR 1915 IS THE DIAMOND JUBILEE YEAR OF ST. XAVIER COLLEGE. 
 
 ^cy^|AST YEAR the St. Xavier Diamond Jubilee Fund Committee addressed an invitation to all 
 ^ the alumni and friends of the college to present a substantial testimonial of their loyalty to 
 5^^ their Alma Mater on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. This testimonial, it was stated, 
 would be used towards cancelling the debt, or for erecting new buildings in Avondale, or for 
 the founding of scholarships. 
 
 The Committee wishes to express most cordial thanks to all those who have generously contributed 
 or promised their donations and earnestly requests all the friends of the college to be mindful of her progress 
 and her needs. Whilst every donor may specify his donation for any one of the three said purposes, or 
 any other particular need or building as chapel, assembly hall, faculty building, dormitory, observatory, 
 seismograph and equipment, St. Xavier College, through the Rev. Rector expressing his sincere tl.anks 
 for the energetic work of the Committee, has decided that all the funds so far deposited or to be deposited, 
 without specification, shall be used for the erection of the new College Building in Avondale. 
 
 This College Building (estimated cost $200,000) is necessary in the first place. As described in the 
 plans, half of this building would be used at once for class rooms, study hall and science lecture and 
 laboratory rooms. The other half would serve as Faculty Building, to be converted into class rooms, 
 whenever a separate faculty building can be erected. The middle wing of this building will contain the 
 Assembly Hall and Chapel. 
 
We are delighted to hear that the former and present Hill School students have aroused a special 
 interest in the Gymnasium and Club Building to cost about $50,000. We feel proud of such hearty co- 
 operation and wish the young men the greatest success. The alumni both of the old college and of the 
 branch could establish club rooms in this building and enjoy the benefits of athletics. 
 
 With the main college in Avondale, the present building on Sycamore Street could continue to be 
 utilized for a High School branch, for the flourishing College of Commerce, Accounts and Finance, the 
 College of Journalism and kindred departments, which should be conducted in the business part of the city. 
 
 These changes require money. The present mortgage debt of the college, $97,000, was incurred 
 by the purchase and improvement of the Avondale Athletic Club. This debt will be reduced by the com- 
 plete sale of the Gilbert Avenue property. So far, out of the twelve lots, five have been sold. It is not 
 possible to accumulate any fund under ordinary conditions, as the expenses are about equal to the income. 
 This is due partly to the low tuition fee exacted, but chiefly to the fact that every year from fifty to one 
 hundred deserving young men are educated by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Xavier College FREE OF ALL 
 CHARGE. 
 
 It must be remembered that ST. XAVIER CHURCH, in its finances, is entirely distinct from 
 ST. XAVIER COLLEGE. St. Xavier Church, the Parish School and the church property, belong to the 
 archdiocese; only the college at Seventh and Sycamore Streets and the Avondale property belong to the 
 Jesuit Fathers. Tuition fees provide the main income of the college. If it were not for the fact that the 
 teachers of the faculty, as members of a religious order, serve without salaries, it would be impossible to 
 maintain the college financially. 
 
WE KNOW that you are interested in having the cause of Catholic education flourish; 
 
 WE KNOW that you approve the grand and noble work of the Jesuit Fathers in our midst these 
 seventy-five years; 
 
 WE KNOW that you endorse their splendid policy of founding scholarships and thus giving the best 
 Catholic education to many deserving and bright but indigent young men, FREE OF ALL CHARGE, 
 and 
 
 WE HOPE that you will show your appreciation by helping us in presenting a fitting testimonial to 
 OLD ST. XAVIER on her Diamond Jubliee in 1915. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Wm. A. Geoghegan, 
 
 John J. Gilligan, 
 
 Thomas P. Hart, 
 
 Henry J. Heilker, 
 
 Fred’k E. Mackentepe, 
 
 Thomas F. Maher, 
 
 P. Lincoln Mitchell, 
 
 Alphonse S. Wetterer, 
 
 Edward J. Babbitt, 
 Joseph Berning, 
 William A. Byrne, 
 Denis F. Cash, 
 
 C. Louis Coffin, 
 Richard Crane, 
 
 L. F. Enneking, 
 William E. Fox, 
 
 Edward P. Moulinier, 
 
 F. X. Owens, 
 
 John H. Rielag, 
 
 Jas. A. Sebastiani, 
 
 John E. Sullivan, 
 
 Leo J. Van Lahr, 
 
 Joseph B. Verkamp, 
 
 William C. Wolking, Chairman. 
 Oscar J. Dreyer, Secretary. 
 Walter S. Schmidt, Treasurer. 
 
 134 East Fourth Street. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, January 20, 1915. 
 
THE NEW ST. XAVIER. 
 
 OTHING in years has so stirred the enthusiasm of St. Xavier men as the purchase by the College of the former 
 Avondale Athletic Club property. “A new life for old St. Xavier” is the first thought of every alumnus. 
 
 The site on which shall rise a greater St. Xavier, is a fine tract of twenty-six acres, in the heart of Avon- 
 ’i^dale, Cincinnati’s most beautiful suburb. The property lies on Dana avenue and the Winding Way, within 
 a few squares of numerous car lines, and equally convenient to those two pulsing arteries of travel, the Reading road and 
 Montgomery pike. The ground itself is ideally suited to college purposes. On the east and west are high level plateaus, 
 between which extends a broad valley — one of nature’s beauty spots. The athletic fields are in the base of the valley — 
 gridiron, ball diamonds, swimming pool, tennis courts — a campus perfect. 
 
 The steep hills, covered with virgin growth, rise on each side of the athletic fields, forming a natural amphitheater. 
 To the north and south, through the generosity of the Bragg estate, from which the college purchased, the city has acquired 
 great stretches of land for park purposes. (The Park Board has made considerable progress in building one of the Boulevards 
 of the Bloody Run Park.) For many miles through the valley, there will be a double boulevard, each branch ninety feet 
 wide. One skirts the base of the hill immediately east of the athletic fields, the other runs along the western edge of the 
 college property, occupying the location of what is now the Winding Way. The new St. Xavier will thus rise in a wild and 
 picturesque spot, surrounded by parkways, yet in a location which was chosen first because it was the very center of Cin- 
 cinnati and its suburbs. 
 
Skinkamp & Bra 
 
Sleln^amp & Bro.. Architects 
 
 FACULTY BUILDING 
 
 THE MAIN BUILDING ACADEMY AND COLLEGE 
 
 DORMITORY 
 
 The central portion of this will contain besides offices and library, an auditorium seating one thousand and a chapel accommodating about the same number. 
 The south wing will for the present be used for both the Academic and College classes. It contains class rooms, chemical, physical and biological lecture 
 rooms and laboratories accommodating 650 students. 
 
 The north wing will be used for the Faculty until such time as a separate building can be erected. It is to be so arranged that it can be changed 
 into class rooms, similar to those in the south wing, at which time one wing will be used for College, the other for Academic classes. 
 
 The Dormitory is intended for outside students who will live in a 
 separate building in attractive private rooms. Board will be furnished. 
 The situation of this building is near the Gymnasium and the Play- 
 grounds. The Dormitory will be a real home for students who can 
 not return to their families every day. Charges will be moderate. 
 
The Avondale Athletic Club, to whose property the college succeeds, was in its day, one of the city’s most exclusive 
 and successful organizations. The club was formed in 1 899. The club home, a large and attractive brick building of colonial 
 design was the scene of many a festive gathering. Its spacious dance and banquet halls made it a popular social center. 
 
 But gaiety has given place to serious concerns: for the dance floor has been divided into class rooms, and the banquet 
 hall converted into a chapel. 
 
 For the future, what may we not hope? Medical and scientific buildings, an arts department, a library— massive 
 piles rising on the eastern eminence— these are prospects which the years shall realize. Dangers indeed must be braved in 
 a launching of new departments. But the time is ripe; the support of St. Xavier’s loyal sons and the guidance of her able 
 rector, who already has done so much, spells sure success. May that not be a distant day, when we behold old St. Xavier 
 a university in very truth. 
 
 WALTER S. SCHMIDT. ’05. 
 
 In the “Xavier Athenaeum.” 
 March 1912. 
 
Slcin\amp & Bro., Archilects. 
 
^EConD-FLooK-PiAn 
 
 Steinl(amp & Bro., Architects. 
 
Slcinkamp & Bro.. Archilecls. THE GYMNASIUM. 
 
 This building, 75 x 125 feet is to be erected at the southern or northern end of the campus. It is to contain besides the 
 Gymnasium proper and the Basket Ball Court the plunge, lockers, offices, billiard room, showers in addition to the heating plant. 
 
THE IDEALS OF ST. XAVIER COLLEGE. 
 
 T. XAVIER COLLEGE stands for the time- 
 honored and well-tested curriculum which de- 
 velops all the faculties of the mind harmoniously. 
 St. Xavier College has not to deplore an ill- 
 advised spirit of innovation that is ever 
 looking for new branches and new methods and takes mere 
 change to mean improvement. St. Xavier College does not 
 reject real progress in education; but it has grown strong in 
 the conviction that the classics or classical studies are — even 
 in the twentieth century — the best means of developing the 
 student’s mind. 
 
 The College Curriculum in its entirety comprehends what 
 is called secondary education, embracing the academic (high 
 school or preparatory) department and the college proper. 
 
 The Academic Department consists of a four-year course 
 of English composition and Literature; Latin and Greek 
 with the reading of the authors; Algebra, Geometry; History, 
 Sciences, Civics, Elocution and Physical Culture. The sub- 
 jects of each year are so correlated and connected as both to 
 expand and draw together the various branches, thus se- 
 curing in each year a well-balanced development of the mind. 
 
 and adding to each preceding year a well-rounded intellectual 
 progress. 
 
 The Collegiate Department or the College Proper is erected 
 upon this structure of the Academic Department. It is uni- 
 versally acknowledged by enlightened educators that a college 
 education, culminating in the degree of Bachelor of Arts, is 
 the best preparation for the professions and the higher busi- 
 ness pursuits. While some few universities demand the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts as a requirement for legal and medical 
 studies, and while some medical schools prescribe two years 
 of college and the low requirement of a high school 
 preparation is still held sufficient for entrance into many pro- 
 fessional schools, denominational colleges, like St. Xavier have 
 always urged their students not to attempt professional 
 courses before acquiring that culture and mind-training 
 which deserves the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This training 
 is obtained in the atmosphere of the classics, not by the hit- 
 and-miss methods of an electivism that has been tried and 
 found wanting. That this policy of St. Xavier College has 
 met with full appreciation is proved by the large number of 
 St. Xavier alumni, who have obtained their Bachelor’s and 
 
Master’s degrees which have paved for them the way to 
 success in their subsequent careers. 
 
 Neither is it impossible for the students to devote seven 
 or eight years to the combined academic and college depart- 
 ments if they begin their secondary studies at the age of 
 twelve. This policy is strongly advocated all over the 
 United States. 
 
 Si. Xavier College stands for depth and strength of prin- 
 ciples. Truth is not an ever-changing, budding and blossom- 
 ing and decaying of things material. There is an inflexible and 
 Immutable standard of truth. There is a well-established 
 and unchangeable standard of ethics. There are laws of our 
 thinking process and of our relations to the Supreme Being 
 and our fellow-men which have been studied by the master 
 minds of pagan and Christian times. It is by the study of 
 mental philosophy that the mind, avoiding the shallows 
 and dangers of changeable modern philosophies, becomes 
 anchored to the rock of solid principles. The student 
 who has once become imbued with these guiding principles 
 of correct reasoning and a correct world-view (Weltanschau- 
 ung), possesses a most valuable equipment to pursue profes- 
 sional studies and is thereby always able to regain his bearings, 
 even under a dark and overcast sky that may, at times, hide 
 
 these ever-shining principles. They furnish the weapons 
 wherewith to combat modern errors that threaten to destroy 
 civil government, to subvert the relations between capital 
 and labor and to obliterate the brotherly obligations towards 
 our fellow-men. Only men of character and thought can be 
 safe leaders in society. 
 
 St. Xavier College stands for a strong, unchangeable and 
 friendly alliance heticeen religion and education. An education 
 that considers only mental improvement is sadly lacking in 
 proportion. An education that considers only the immediate 
 future of the child or only his short life upon earth is 
 criminally unjust to its charge. For some of these youths the 
 earthly career is finished before they enter upon life’s work. 
 For all, there is another and infinitely more important work 
 to be accomplished, the consequences of which are unending. 
 It is a criminal and cruel injustice to offer an education which 
 leaves out the most essential and important aim of life. 
 
 St. Xavier College stands, therefore, for promoting real 
 happiness by teaching and inculcating a morality, which is 
 based on the religion established by Christ, in which the intel- 
 lect is enlightened by faith, the will strengthened by grace, the 
 heart ennobled by striving after God’s own perfection, in 
 which all the faculties of soul and body are elevated by 
 
divine worship. Students who are not Catholics are welcome, 
 in the future as in the past, if they are willing to live in this 
 atmosphere. No pressure is exerted to force Catholic views 
 upon them. 
 
 St. Xavier College stands for a proper physical development 
 of the student according to the old proverb, "Mens sana in corpore 
 sano." Always bearing in mind that physical culture is a 
 means to an end, the College does not undervalue the importance 
 of a healthy body, yet believes at the same time that the 
 healthy body is but a dwelling place of a noble soul that must 
 be enriched by knowledge and virtue, and the College acts 
 on the conviction that the body must be made a ready in- 
 strument subservient to the mastery of the mind. The 
 newly-acquired grounds in Avondale, with the fresh air of 
 the suburb, the large campus, running track, gymnasium 
 and swimming pool offer the best opportunities for healthy 
 physical exercise. 
 
 St. Xavier College stands for an active assertion of its 
 influence as an institution of learning and spreads this whole- 
 some influence by the alumni for the welfare of the com- 
 munity. Though it disdains the noise of a constant advertising 
 campaign, it sends forth its influence through the community 
 in a spirit of charity and social endeavor. This beneficent 
 
 influence is, no doubt, communicated by all who ever at- 
 tended St. Xavier. Her successful and influential alumni are 
 found in the ranks of the Hierarchy and Clergy; in the older 
 profession of law, medicine, art and teaching; in the new 
 professions of accountancy, engineering and journalism, and 
 in all the various business occupations. The largest number 
 consists of classical students. Yet not a few have gone forth 
 from the Business Department which St. Xavier has at 
 times conducted. If there is a demand, a High School of 
 Commerce may be established. Meanwhile the College of 
 Commerce, Accounts and Finance, opened in October 1911, 
 with the enthusiastic co-operation of the Alumni, and the 
 College of Journalism, opened in 1912, are sending forth in 
 their graduates and students, young men, who are directly 
 prepared for the higher business world and, as their com- 
 mercial aspirations are tempered by the correct principles 
 of philosophy, their influence in business circles will be of 
 the greatest value. 
 
 St. Xavier College, finally, stands out as an evidence and a 
 lasting monument of that generous initiative in education which 
 is so characteristic of our American liberty. Whilst almost in 
 all the countries of Europe, state centralization has destroyed 
 educational initiative on the part of private corporations, our 
 American republic has preserved among its essential liberties 
 
also liberty of education. Colleges, like St. Xavier’s, estab- 
 lished by generous friends of education and conducted by 
 self-sacrificing religious educators, have performed a magnifi- 
 cent work in the past, and always will appeal to those parents 
 who believe in their own independence and their inalienable 
 right to elect the school for their sons and daughters. These 
 parents have frequently in word, and more so in deed, ex- 
 pressed their appreciation of the educational work conducted 
 in separate schools by our religious educators. Co-education 
 has never been favored for obvious reasons. The parents feel 
 that under the direction of the religious educators the full co- 
 operation of the teachers is secured, and that the faculty, as 
 they are in duty bound, take a strong personal interest in the 
 progress of their sons and daughters. This boon of education- 
 al liberty, granted in the United States, is a most precious 
 
 heritage, which the parents mean to maintain and strength- 
 en. Far from being un-American, as sometimes stated, this 
 exercise of educational liberty is essentially patriotic. 
 
 Not only the faculty and students of St. Xavier College, 
 but the City of Cincinnati, with its surroundings, may look 
 back with satisfaction and pride upon seventy-five years of 
 unremitting work which has helped to mould and elevate the 
 minds and morals of so many of their citizens. Any successful 
 development in the future cannot help being a far-reaching 
 and beneficent factor towards the well-being of the Queen 
 City and its inhabitants. 
 
 As in the past, so in the future, St. Xavier College will be 
 true to its motto: 
 
 Religioni el Artibus. 
 
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