Wesbrook Hall, University of Minnesota
It was a sunny ur-spring day in Minnesota. The leaves were just about fully budded. White blossoms were still on the flowering trees--a fleeting period.
I walked in the still-crisp morning air past Wesbrook Hall, part of the National Register of Historic Places' Old Campus Historic District. It's going to be torn down this summer, the second building in the district to go down in two years. Last summer I gave a tour of the district just days after the Music Education building, a contributing building, was razed. I showed the group a picture.
The Music Education building (built, 1888, razed, July 2010) was originally named the Students Christian Association Building. Architect Warren H. Hayes (1847-1899) was one of the earliest local proponents of the building's Richardsonian Romanesque style.
It's my last month on campus as an employee. I've spent the last 20 years working here. I met my husband here. I spent about seven years total as a student.
Just past Wesbrook I run into someone I used to work with in General College. How are you, what's new. It's my last month here, I answer. I was nonrenewed, there are no more jobs for me here, so I took the retirement incentive.
He's nonplussed. He is heading to clean out his office in Wesbrook. They were asked to be out by the end of May.
Wesbrook Hall was originally called the Medical Science Building. It was built between 1896-98 in the Renaissance Revival style. The architect was Frederick Corser (1849-24). It was named in honor of Frank Fairchild Wesbrook, professor of pathology and bacteriology and dean of the College of Medicine and Surgery.
North facade, May 26, 2011
