Fire Razes College Structure
and I believe a janitor opened the front door and some windows to let the smoke clear out. Then all of a sudden the windows on the north side of the top floor blew out and almost immediately the whole building was engulfed in flames — whoosh, like that.” Dr. B. Joseph Martin, Taylor presi dent, said, “We’re only thankful that it wasn’t a dormitory and that no one was hurt.” He said that no other buildings were close enough to the burning structure to be in danger. “ I was almost finished with a book I was writing,” Dr. Martin reported, “ I had only one chapter left. It was written for young people. The only manu script was in my office.” Dr. Martin called an emergency meeting of col lege officials and faculty members and outlined plans to hold classes temporarily in the student recreation center, the dormitory lounges, and other available facilities. Built in 1893, the building was con structed of bricks made from clay found on the premises. Taylor was founded in 1846, in Fort Wayne, and was moved to Upland during the na tural gas boom in 1893. The construc tion of the Administration Building was financed by the president, Thad- deus C. Reade, through the sale of books which he authored, and by ex tensive lecturing. The college is named after Bishop William Taylor of the Methodist Church who laid the cornerstone of the historic building. The Alumni Board of Directors made plans to conduct an intensive alumni fund campaign by telephone to raise funds for a new building. Their campaign slogan is “Taylor’s Tower Shall Rise Again.”
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f | ' he four-story administration build- Jl- ing at Taylor U n i v e r s i t y was turned into a raging inferno early Saturday, January 16, as flames roared through the 67 year old landmark. Firemen from nine communities could not save the brick structure which housed offices, classrooms, and the chemistry department. One Taylor official said replaceable value of the building would probably run at least three-fourths of a million dollars. It was the first major fire in the college’s 114 year history. A student night watchman discov ered the flames in a chemistry labora tory located on the ground floor about 4 a.m. Ironically, Upland volunteer firemen thought that they had put the fire out and were ready to pack up when suddenly balls of orange flame billowed out of the top floor windows with the effect of a blast furnace. Within minutes the building was .en veloped in sheets of flame. Gas masked firefighters fought the holocaust for five hours in 20 degree weather before it burned itself out. No one was in jured. Current financial records kept in fire-proof safes and files were found to be in tact. Prospective student files and alumni records, however, were de stroyed. F o r t u n a t e l y , microfilmed copies of the academic records of grad uates and former students were stored in fire-proof vaults in the college library. Fireman Louis Swartz of Upland, one of the first to arrive, said there was a small fire in a room on the ground floor. “ The smoke was so in tense that we had to put on our air masks before we could get into the room,” he said. “We put the fire out,
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Taylor University administration building tower
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APRIL, 1960
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