Cook Hall Exh A Habshaer_508.pdf

Storer College, Cook Hall HABS No. WV-277-E Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Harpers Ferry Jefferson County West Virginia

PHOTOGRAPHS

Historic American Buildings Survey National Park Service Department of Interior

Washington, D.C. 20013-7127

ADDENDU M TO:

STORER COLLEGE, COOK HALL

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park 252 McDowell Street Harpers Ferry Jefferson County West Virginia

HABS WV-277-E

WVA, 19-HARF,32-E-

PHOTOGRAPHS

WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

REDUCED COPIES OF MEASURED DRAWINGS

FIELD RECORDS

HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20240-0001

HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY

ADDENDUM TO

STORER COLLEGE, COOK HALL

(Permelia Eastman Cook Hall)

HABS No. WV-277-E

Location: Harpers Ferry Center, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, West Virginia.

Present Owner: National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center

Present Occupants: National Park Service staff.

Present Use: Offices.

Historian: James A. Jacobs, HABS

Significance: Constructed in 1939-40 and named after its principal benefactor, Permelia Eastman Cook Hall holds significance as the last new building constructed on the campus of Storer College, a historically black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, which ceased operations in 1955. This closure was, in part, an ironic and unfortunate outcome of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Storer College had been founded by northern Baptists in 1867 primarily for the education of newly emancipated slaves.

Although from the outset Storer situated its curriculum on liberal arts coursework, in the 1880s it was expanded to include industrial education for both men and women. Such training for female students at Storer included cooking, sewing, and general domestic management, comprising preparation for the few areas of paid work at the time considered appropriate for women in general, and black women in particular. With construction funds and project oversight coming largely from women in Baptist missionary groups whose membership hailed mostly from Northern and Midwestern states, the building of Cook Hall is part of a tangled narrative providing insight on such compelling issues as race, gender, education, and religion in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America.

Cook Hall's essential visual qualities are derived from the local gray-green stone used for its walls and the Colonial Revival architectural elements that enliven its front facade— both the material and stylistic aspects of the design had precedent in other Storer College buildings. The attractive and we11-constructed building was one of those reused by the National Park Service after a congressional appropriation in 1962 allowed the agency to purchase the defunct school's historic campus for an expansion of the Harpers Ferry National Monument (renamed Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in 1963). Plans surrounding this acquisition also included the establishment of an eastern training center for National Park Service employees. Towards this end, Cook Hall and Anthony

COOK HALL

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 2)

Memorial Hall—the centerpiece of the Storer campus—were renovated in 1962-63, as, respectively, a dormitory and a classroom and administration building for what was dedicated in 1964 as the "Stephen T. Mather Training Center." Although Cook Hall no longer functions as a dormitory, it is still used as offices for the National Park Service and is currently undergoing an exterior restoration.

PART I: HISTORICAL INFORMATION

A. Physical History:

1. Date of erection: 1939-40.1

2. Architect: Cook Hall was adapted from plans used for the construction of the domestic science building at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which had been finished in 1937. Harriet Palmer, member of the Storer board of trustees and the chairperson of the building committee, visited Bacone in November 1939 and wrote to Storer president Henry T. McDonald: "The D. S. building at Bacone is a very attractive one, built of stone, and it would be perfectly at home on the Storer campus if it were possible to pick it [up] and set it down there." Palmer approached Bacone College, asking whether Storer could use the plans for Cook Hall, conveying this scheme to McDonald in a January 1940 letter:

Immediately after our meeting in December I wrote to Bacone, asking if we might use the plans with the changes suggested by the committee, and inquiring what the cost would be.. .1 received a reply.. .giving us permission very graciously to use the plans, and there will be no charge at all for them unless the architect there is called on to do some work, in which case there will be a nominal charge. I thought the attitude was very fine indeed; and, of course I am delighted at the saving of expense.3

Because of this transaction, at least the front elevation and general form of Cook Hall at Storer College in West Virginia, was a duplicate of Sally Journeycake Hall at Bacone

1 "Annual Minutes (1913-1944)," Storer College Board of Trustees (hereafter MBT), 7 Oct. 1939, and "Report of Henry T. McDonald, President, to the Board of Trustees of Storer College, 5 Oct. 1940. The Annula Minutes are part of record group A&M 1322, "Storer College Records," held in the West Virginia History and Regional Collection, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia. Duplicates on microfilm at the library and archive of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (hereafter HAFE). In this history, McDonald's annual reports to the board will be referred to simply as President's Report. With a few exceptions, which will be noted, these more-or-less annual documents are found within the Trustees Annual Minutes, 1913-1944 (Reel #130, HAFE).

2 Harriet W. Palmer to Henry T. McDonald, 27 Nov. 1939. All correspondence between McDonald and Palmer can befound in A&M 1322, (Reel #117, HAFE). See Section I:A:6, "Original plans and construction," for more about the design of Cook Hall.

3 Palmer to McDonald, 22 Jan. 1940.

He was the architect for the school's

The last item noted might refer to the boiler room located in a sub-basement area under the rear wing, which has at-grade access because of the sloping site.

An Act of Congress of 15 December 1868 "authorized and directed" the Secretary of War "to convey by deed" the former U. S. Armory property on Camp Hill in Harpers Ferry to "Storer College, an Institution of higher learning chartered by the State of West Virginia."

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 3)

College in Oklahoma. At this time, the architect for the prototype at Bacone is not readily known, although inquiries at the school suggest that H. H. Niemann might be the individual responsible for the design.

contemporary Ataloa Lodge (1932) and McCoy Hall (1937), the latter of which, while larger, shares certain physical affinities with Journeycake Hall. While a specific name is presently lost, the architect is known to have worked with the domestic science instructor in planning the facility. The Muskogee Phoenix described the anticipated building at Bacone in an April 11, 1936 article:

The building will be in early American style... a two-story affair, 85 by 65 feet.

There are two large classrooms in one wing but the main section is built in exact replica of the most modern home with all [the] electric and steam appliances [needed] to provide students with a first hand knowledge of the modest modern methods of home management.7

The description suggests a T-shaped building, the same as Cook Hall. The entrance facades of both buildings are nearly identical and share the same 85'-0" dimension. The depth of Cook Hall is roughly 8'-0" less than Journeycake Hall, a difference likely necessary because of the steep drop-off of the Storer site. A letter from Palmer to McDonald casually summarized some of the other changes the Storer board of trustees wanted to make to the design, including: "two doors in front to be alike, and also the windows; the rooms in the basement to be reversed, and a room provided in the extension at the back."

3. Owners:

15 December 1869—United States Government (War Department) to the "Trustees of Storer College."

The property encompassed four residences once

4 See contemporary photograph of Journeycake Hall on the Bacone College website, www.bacone.edu.

5 Frances Donelson, head librarian, Bacone College, to James A. Jacobs, electronic correspondence, 31 Jan.

2008.

6 Palmer to McDonald, 27 Nov. 1939.

7 As transcribed in Donelson to Jacobs, 31 Jan. 2008.

8 Palmer to McDonald, 22 Jan. 1940.

9 United States Government to the Trustees of Storer College, 15 Dec. 1869, Deed Book 4, beginning page 575, Jefferson County Court House, Charles Town, WV, transcription of deed located in the Tract 106-06 folder, Natural Resource and Lands Program, HAFE.

10 Ibid.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 4) occupied by high-ranking armory employees and associated land totaling seven-and-one-half acres, all of which would comprise the school's entire physical plant until a campus slowly took shape in the vicinity of the westernmost of the houses. This was the same group of buildings "which [previously, in December 1868] had.. .been assigned by the War Department to the Bureau of Refugee, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands for

1 o educational purposes." In 1872, the four former dwellings and the newly-constructed Lincoln Hall (boys dormitory), all "with furniture," as well as the seven-and-one-half acres of land on which they sat were valued in total at $30,000.

28 August 1962—Declaration of Taking, United States of America versus President and Trustees of Storer College. The return of the Storer College campus to government ownership after the school failed to reopen after the 1954-55 academic year does not appear to have been a situation in any way hostile; rather, it is likely a "taking" only occurred in order to effectively evaluate Storer's real property so that the trustees could be appropriately compensated. The land comprising the Storer College campus had well more than doubled to approximately seventeen acres since the original transfer of seven-and-one-half acres from the War Department to the school in 1869. Later land acquisitions appear to have centered mainly around the westernmost armory residence, which had been transformed into the campus centerpiece, Anthony Memorial Hall (1881- 82; rebuilt 1928), and the "campus" remained a discontiguous entity with non-adjacent parcels stretching out eastward between Fillmore and Cliff streets. The four armory houses had been joined by a number of other buildings, most substantially by Mosher Hall (1876), Anthony Library (1903; 1953), "John Brown's Fort" (acquired 1909);

Brackett Hall (1909-10); and Cook Hall (1939-40). The "just compensation" for the campus property in 1962 was set at $205,201, a figure a bit lower than the 'Tair market" estimate provided by one of the two companies invited to consider the value and

11 Storer College also owned a nearby 150-acre farm, which had been purchased by the Free Will Baptists as an alternative campus location if congressional lobbying for the transfer of the armory property was not successful. "Smallwood Farm" was retained as part of the financial backing for the school. See: Burke, An American Phoenix, 67.

12 United States Government to the Trustees of Storer College, 15 Dec. 1869.

13 Storer College "Financial Statement," 1872, in the "Records of the Commission for the Promoting [sic] ofEducation in the South," Feb. 1867-Jun. 1876, A&M 1322 (Reel #131, HAFE).

14 Declaration of Taking, 28 Aug. 1962, United States of America versus President and Trustees of Storer College, photocopy in Tract 106-06 folder, HAFE.

15 Real Estate Research Corporation (Donald C. McCandless, Senior Analyst), "Appraisal report on the property of Storer College and certain other properties located in the Town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia," 2 Mar.

1962, Washington, D.C., 9, for acreage of the campus. See also Richard B. Hall, "Land and Buildings of Storer College and Four Privately Owned Properties," 15 Feb. 1962, Washington, D.C., both documents in Tract 106-06 folder, HAFE.

See related maps in Hall and Real Estate Research Corporation.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 6)

Melvin Strider Furniture Store Hagerstown Nursery Sears Roebuck & Co.

The Fyr-Fyter Co.

Chamberlain Company Horowitz Bros.

Bacon Vincent Co.

The Edw. Malley Co.

Hyman Viener

The stone used for Cook Hall was quarried onsite. In an October 1939 letter to building committee chairperson Harriet Palmer, Storer president Henry McDonald, wrote:

I am very certain in my own mind that the building should be constructed of our native stone as to conform with most of the buildings on the campus. The college has a stone quarry of [a] fine type of building stone and this quarry is located within a hundred feet of where the building will be located.21

Palmer commented in response:

I was glad to know also the location of the quarry, as I had been wondering where that could be. The expense of getting the stone to the site for the building should not be very great, I should think, unless it has to be taken around by the road. Do I understand that the only expense will be getting it out and hauling?

In other words, do we pay the college for the stone? I want to be very sure of things as we go along, so as not to get into deep water.22

The cost of the stone noted on itemized lists that McDonald provided Palmer during the building campaign was modest when compared with those associated with other elements of the construction, suggesting that payments were only made for the quarrying and hauling of the material. The savings from having an onsite quarry of good stone cannot be overestimated. As McDonald reflected in a 1941 letter to Palmer: "everyone is amazed that this building constructed from stone of such fine quality could be constructed for the price it cost us."

21 McDonald to Palmer, 19 Oct. 1939.

22 Palmer to McDonald, 9 Nov. 1939.

23 McDonald to Palmer, 17 Jan. 1941.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 7)

6. Original plans and construction:

Introduction As early as 1913, Elizabeth M. McDonald, wife of the long-time college president and later Dean of Women, declared that a new domestic science hall was the "most imperative" of "our greatest needs." Two decades later, the campus remained without a modern building dedicated to this purpose. Although the college had remodeled the former gym of Brackett Hall into a "new and well equipped domestic science laboratory" in 1934, an observer noted only one year later that a "domestic arts building" was the first among a group of "outstanding additions" necessary for Storer's "already excellent curriculum and equipment." Happily, by December 1940, president McDonald could write to building committee chair Palmer:

May I express again, as I did in a recent letter, my sincere appreciation for the very constant and earnest attention to every possible detail in the building of Cook Hall, which you have generously given. We believe that it has been such a work of genuine love and devotion on your part.. .1 do express the sentiments of the immediate college family, as well as those of old students, who come back and with unvarying expressions of great pleasure, inspect and admire the beautiful Cook Hall.26

The neat, attractive and functional design of Storer College's latest campus addition belied some of its far-flung origins, and a strong, if still courteous, clash of personalities between McDonald and Palmer, the project's major movers.

Henry T. McDonald became president of Storer College in 1899 and would hold that post until resigning at the end of 1944. His tenure saw repeated and earnest actions toward the expansion and modernization of the Storer campus and the school's curriculum; however, these admirable efforts must be balanced with his underlying "paternalistic belief that blacks should be educated by whites, who were fitted for the task by both position and heritage. McDonald's long presidency, no less his marriage to Elizabeth Mosher, the

24 Elizabeth M. McDonald, "Our Latest Blessings—Our Greatest Needs," The Missionary Helper [PublishedMonthly by the Free Baptist Woman'sMissionary Society] 34 (Mar. 1913): 71, A&M 1322 (Reel #125, HAFE.

25 Catalogue ofStorer College, 1867-1938: A Junior Collegefor Colored Youth with Pre-Medical State Normal, Academic, Musical and Industrial Departments" 1937-1938, 21, A&M 1322 (Reel #126, HAFE), for remodeling; Clara D. Pinkham, From Cabin to College, nd (ca. 1935), 10-11, A&M 1322 (Reel #124, HAFE), for new building.

26 McDonald to Palmer, undated (Dec. 1940).

27Dawne Raines Burke, "Storer College: A Hope for Redemption in the Shadow of Slavery, 1865-1955," diss., Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 2004, 406. This work was later edited by Michael Slaven and privately published as: An American Phoenix: A History ofStorer Collegefrom Slavery to Desegregation, 1865- 1955. These works present a full narrative of Storer's establishment, growth, decline, and closure, in particular providing an understanding of the forces impacting education for black Americans in the decades following the Civil War.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 8) daughter of an important early trustee, created conditions where he likely believed his

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influence and decisions about the school were paramount to those held by others. This self-awareness would have made his professional life an increasingly difficult one as Storer relied more and more heavily on outside support for not only expansion, but also for basic operations.

In contrast to McDonald, Harriet Palmer's association with Storer College began only about a year before the planning of Cook Hall began in earnest. In a July 1938 letter, Palmer's response to McDonald's recent notification of her election to the board of trustees, suggested that she planned on being quite active in her new post, commenting:

Thank you for your invitation to vist [sic] Storer. I am looking forward to attending the Board meeting of October 1st, and I shall come prepared to learn all I can about the school during that time. Later I shall hope to make you a little visit. I am very much interested in our Negro schools and happy to have this opportunity to see the 'wheels go around' at Storer. I hope to be able to be something more than just another trustee in the days to come.29

Harriet Palmer would not have to wait long in making good on her observed desire "to be something more than just another trustee." Her nomination to the board of trustees occurred because of Storer's historical and continued affiliation with "Free Will" or "American" Baptists and their varied mission societies. Although women had been among Storer's leadership and teaching staff since the school's earliest days, in 1937 the board oftrustees encouraged the formation "...of a Board of Women, who shall cooperate with the Trustees, and have special care of the woman's part of the College, not only to make suggestions but also to supply the funds to improve the property."

Established at a board meeting in September 1937, what became known as the "Women's Commission" met for the first time in June 1938. A well-off resident of New Haven, Connecticut with connections to women's societies associated with the northern

Burke, An American Phoenix, 109, 134.

Palmer to McDonald, 22 Jul. 1938.

30 Relatively independent Free Will Baptist congregations, institutions, and societies, were more centrally organized into the "Northern Baptist Convention" in 1907. In 1845, southern Baptists had departed from a loose national, mission-based association known as the "Triennial Convention" because of the active and accelerating involvement of northern Free Will Baptists in the antislavery movement. The geographic split was never healed and the two major Baptist conventions have evolved into entirely distinct subsets within the denomination, with the Southern Baptist Convention over time becoming far larger and—given its particularly conservative theology and strict stance on social issues—far better known. In 1950, the Northern Baptist Convention renamed itself the "American Baptist Convention" before later becoming American Baptist Churches, USA (1972). It is generally understood to be a mainline protestant denomination and unsurprisingly also counts a majority of African-American Baptist churches within its ranks.

31 President's Report, 3 Jun. 1939, A&M 1322 (Reel #124, HAFE).

32 Ibid.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 5) development potential of the property. 17 The reason given in the "declaration of taking" for the transaction centered on its requisite value to the public: "these parcels of land are needed in connection with the proper administration, preservation, and development of the Harpers Ferry National Monument for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. „18

Original and subsequent occupants:

1940-55 Classroom and dormitory space for Storer College 1955-1962 Occupied in part as rented apartments, possibly vacant at times 1963-present National Park Service

Builder, contractors, suppliers:

H. D. Desch construction superintendent James Vickers superintendent work during "absence of Mr. Desch" John Newcomer sand and hauling John Fritts hauling J. L. Pearson masonry (laying of stone) Viener Bros. beams and iron Continental Clay Co. brick A. Kaplon scaffolding James Cassell cement; plumbing and heating; cistern and pump John Newcomer sand and stone cistern Miller Liskey Electric Co. electrical work Geo. W. Poling "cutting letters" The Savitt Company silver Leiter Bros. Inc. curtains and hangings Beckley-Cardy Co. teacher's desk Mr. Schaull tuning and work on piano Montgomery Ward and Co. ice cream freezer Elkhart Bros. fire hose B & O Railroad Company freight American Floor Surfacing Co. floor seal (Huntington Laboratories) Standard Lime and Stone Co.

Valley Hardware Co.

Whitmore Lumber Company

2(1

17 Donald C. McCandless, Senior Analyst, Real Estate Research Corporation, to Hillory A. Tolson, Assistant Director, National Park Service, 2 Mar. 1962, letter included at the beginning of the 'Appraisal report."

18 Declaration of Taking, 28 Aug. 1962. See Section I A:7, 'Alterations and additions," for more about the NPS purchase.

19 Hall, 41, and documents in the Tract 106-06 folder, HAFE.

20 Unless otherwise noted, the information in this section is drawn from itemized lists that Henry McDonald sent to Harriet Palmer dated 16 Oct. 1940 and 11 Dec. 1940, A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE). In addition to naming various individuals and firms involved in the project, the lists also detailed the dollar costs.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 9) convention of Baptists, Harriet Palmer's nomination to the board was a logical choice toward advancing the intended purpose of the Women's Commission.

The Benefactors No major building had been constructed at Storer College since the burning and replacement of Lincoln Hall in 1909-10 (dedicated as "Brackett Hall") and constant financial strain experienced by the college made it unlikely that any new building would be constructed at Storer without substantial outside assistance. Donations for a domestic science hall were being received for well over a decade before the occurrence of major pledges from one individual and two associations in 1927. McDonald used the school's fiftieth anniversary as an opportunity to ask the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society (FBWMS) for funds with which to construct a domestic science building.

Permelia Eastman Cook, a member of the society, promised a $15,000 donation if it was matched by the combined efforts of that organization along with the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society (WABHMS). The matching funds were assembled within a year and referred to as the "Golden Jubilee Fund;" however, in the end, it seems that only the WABHMS contributed to the additional $15,000, perhaps because the FBWMS claimed their member's extremely generous personal gift as enough support from them.

Although one of Storer College's single largest financial donors during its eighty-eight year existence, the details of Permelia Eastman Cook's life remain mostly in the shadows. She apparently was from or, at least at the time of her 1931 death, a resident of, Valley Springs, South Dakota. While an admirable approach to charitable acts, her conjoined generosity and relative obscurity unsurprisingly generated curiosity from Storer president Henry McDonald. In 1936, he wrote to a friend of Cook's, inquiring:

You are one of the very few who knew Mrs Pamelia [sic] Eastman Cook intimately. Storer College is one of the direct beneficiaries of her thrift and belief in the worth of folks. We have here no very adequate information about Mrs. Cook. And I am wondering whether you can direct me to some printed materials, which will give such information. I should like to have it to be filed

37away.

33 Burke, "Storer College," 271-72.

34 President's Report, 7 May 1928, A&M 1322 (Reel #130, HAFE).

35 Her name was even routinely misspelled as "Pamelia" in documents found in the Storer College records, the assumption being that the name carved into the building itself is the correct one.

36 "Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Va.: Financial report for period which began July 1st and ended Sept. 30, 1937," 21, A&M 1322 (Reel #114, HAFE). The year of Cook's death is suggested by information on this page related to "Building and Equipment Funds for Domestic Science Building," which refers to funds from "Cook, Estate of Permelia Eastman, 1931."

37 McDonald to Mrs. L. M. P. Durgin, 14 Jan. 1936, HFT-00059, 1936- Sep. 1939, Storer College Collection, HAFE.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 10)

It is not known whether McDonald ever received a reply and attempts to find additional information on Cook during this study have not proven fruitful. It was fortunate that her name was inscribed in the lintel over the center, first-floor windows as it remains associated with the building despite the passage of eighty years and changes in ownership and function.

The two organizations involved with funding Cook Hall—known at the time of construction as the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society and the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society—had been involved with Storer College to in some degree since its establishment in 1867. Both were associations that represented the domestic and international missionary efforts of women within the loose coalition of Free Will Baptist congregations and organizations that later comprised the Northern Baptist Convention. The FBWMS had been independently founded as the Free Baptist Female Mission Society in 1847, and saw one name change before becoming the Free Will Baptist Women's Missionary Society in 1873. The WABHMS was an 1877 spin-off of the Free [Will] Baptist Home Mission Society, which had been founded in the early 1830s.39 Both the FBWMS and the Free [Will] Baptist Home Mission Society contributed to the establishment of the Shenandoah Mission at Harpers Ferry, which was established in 1865 and was the direct forerunner of Storer College.

Although the FBWMS, through the generosity of Permelia Eastman Cook, and the WABHMS, had amassed $30,000 for the new domestic science building by May 1928, it is not known why the building was not constructed at that time. One possible explanation was the destruction of Anthony Memorial Hall by a fire that had occurred the previous October. In his report to the board of trustees in May 1928, McDonald communicated that the building was only insured for $14,900 and the school would need another $35,000 for full replacement. It seems that the leadership at Storer did not use or were prevented from using the funds amassed for a domestic science building. Yet, their time, energy, and any additional resources would have undoubtedly been directed towards replacing the college's principal building and psychological center without which the school could not function. Anthony Hall was largely rebuilt by the end of 1928, but the financial reverberation on an institution that in general operated under a economic cloud was probably felt for a number of years. The subsequent onset of the

38 The names of both are variously called "Women's" and "Woman's" societies in the Storer College records and in other documents. In both cases, "Woman's" is the correct term.

39 Later known as the American Home Baptist Mission Society, before becoming part of an organization called "National Ministries" in 1972 (www.nationalministries.org).

40 Burke, An American Phoenix, 16-17.

41 President's Report, 7 May 1928.

42 Ibid.

43 Catalogue ofStorer College, 1867-1938, 21.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 11)

Great Depression only intensified uncertainty and lowered morale. In his 1934 annual report, McDonald expressed worry to the board of trustees: "The present economic outlook for the coming school year does not lead me to be over[ly] optimistic."

These severe pressures as well as the simultaneous, all-encompassing preoccupation of the Storer College leadership, teachers, alumni, and students about accreditation and transformation of the school's curriculum all conspired to delay the construction of a new domestic science building. A 1937 financial report for Storer showed that the $30,000 raised a decade earlier for the domestic science building had even increased with interest on both Permelia Eastman Cook's donation held by the school and the funds earmarked, but not yet transferred, by the WABHMS. In October 1939, Harriet Palmer informed the board that the WABHMS was "ready to turn over to Storer College the $15,000, allocated to the college several years ago from the Golden Jubilee Fund, which sum of money together with the $15,000, held by the College, a gift of Pamelia [sic] E. Cook, is to be used in the erection of a Domestic Science Building.' A more favorable national economic outlook toward the end of the 1930s probably jump-started the long-awaited construction project; however, McDonald's ambition to expand the school and further modernize its curriculum put him on a direct course for conflict with Harriet Palmer as the project unfolded.

The Design The two schemes considered for Cook Hall at the end of 1939 very much mirrored an understanding of the school by the two individuals most responsible for its design and construction. Henry McDonald had four decades of experience and leadership at Storer and fully comprehended both the pressing need to expand the campus plant for future survival and the scarcity of resources available for such an expansion. As only newly acquainted with the school and lacking the personal investment of McDonald, Harriet Palmer could be expected to approach problems facing Storer more objectively, yet her lack of deep insight about the school perhaps also unconsciously resulted in a lack of awareness about critical elements necessary for its survival. Her specific task of representing women's concerns at Storer on the board led to her highly competent management of the campaign for a new domestic science building; however, this competence and her uncompromising movement forward toward a specific goal might have also resulted in a missed opportunity for the perennially cash-strapped college. As the last entirely new building constructed at Storer before its closure, the history of Cook Hall physically represents undiluted aspirations for the college's future at a time when its survival was in a state best described as precarious.

In November 1939, McDonald sent a blueprint to Palmer that "need not be considered final, but furnishes a good starting point for amendments and further suggestions" for the

President's Report, 17 May 1934, 1, A&M 1322 (Reel #130, HAFE).

MBT, 7 Oct. 1939.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 12) new building. The design, formulated by Amos J. Klinhart, an architect from nearby Hagerstown, Maryland, depicted a handsome, two-and-one-half-story (three-and-one-half story at the rear) Colonial Revival building with a similar front elevation to Brackett Hall, which had been completed three decades earlier. The small site sketch positioned the proposed building to the east of Anthony Memorial and Brackett halls, defining the eastern edge of a new quadrangle. The primary first-floor rooms appear to have been intended for domestic science study and included a living room, demonstration kitchen, room for "dietetics," and a nursery. The other floors contain spaces not designated for domestic science, with the basement containing shops for machines, printing, carpentry, automobiles, and radios, the second floor having classrooms for sciences and the arts, and a large lecture hall/auditorium on the third floor. These suggested room functions no less than the title of the drawing—"Proposed Industrial Arts and Domestic Science Building for Storer College"—indicate that McDonald saw the project as an opportunity to remedy the most critical shortcomings in the campus plant.

In the 1930s, as Storer College continued its drive to fulfill its charter and become a four-year, degree granting institution, three types of facility were understood as especially vital to meeting this benchmark: an equipped general sciences building, a domestic science building, and modern library facilities. By that time, an up-to-date library with expanded holdings and science laboratories in particular were essential to the functioning of institutions of higher learning. The critical need for science laboratories at Storer arose as the school made its initial bids to upgrade its curriculum from predominantly secondary to tertiary. These piecemeal additions were welcome and necessary, but an entire building dedicated to that purpose became a permanent, but never fulfilled desire of the college. In a 1935 letter, Henry McDonald indicated that he was "approaching the State Board of Education with a view to securing a science building for Storer" and hoped to use relief project money to construct the building "by hand" from stone in an on-site quarry. An undated drawing for a "Science Hall Building for Storer College" by Huntington, West Virginia, architect, Levi J. Dean, which depicts an extensive, three-story facility incorporating Art Deco and Colonial Revival details, might be related to McDonald's strategy for obtaining funds for such a facility. This funding scheme never moved forward and in 1937 the major additions desired for the campus remained "a thoroughly equipped Science Hall," a domestic science building, and an "addition to [the]

46 McDonald to Palmer, 24 Nov. 1939.

47See microfilm reproductions in "Blueprints & Drawings," ca. 1900-1948, A&M 1471 (Reel #136, HAFE).

48 For a period review of college plant literature, see Ray L. Hamon, "Plant Development for Higher Education, Including Junior Colleges," Review ofEducational Research 8 (Oct. 1938): 423-25.

49 McDonald to "My dear Friend," 15 May 1935, A&M 1322 (Reel #121, HAFE).

50 See microfilm reproductions in "Blueprints & Drawings," ca. 1900-1948, A&M 1471 (Reel #136, HAFE).

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 13) library building," the latter having been reduced from an earlier call for entirely new edifice.

Henry McDonald likely saw the healthy fund for a new domestic science building as a logical way to meet a variety of objectives for the school. When talk of finally realizing the domestic science building became serious again in 1939, he personally solicited a

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design from Klinhart. Although McDonald wrote in a letter to Harriet Palmer that "The rooms as [Klinhart] named [on the blueprint], particularly on the Basement floor, mean little," the inclusion of so many functions with no relationship to domestic arts or sciences suggest that he envisioned a grander and more broadly useful addition to the school. By hiring Klinhart independently and presenting Palmer with the drawing it is likely that he hoped to persuade an enlargement in program using the only significant funds available to the school for expansion at that time.

McDonald underestimated the confident resolve of Harriet Palmer, the newly elected member of the board of trustees and the person who took charge of the building campaign. While Palmer acknowledged that Klinhart's front elevation "would be an ornament to any campus," she breezily dismissed virtually every other aspect of the design:

.. .the proposed location is not the one approved by the committee.

I do not see how such a building could be put up with the funds available.

.. .it was not my understanding that we were to provide space for the men's activities.

I notice that the plan is labeled 'Industrial Arts and D.S. Building.' This of course is wrong, as we have no thought of including the former.54

Palmer's concept of the building's purpose was so directed she even questioned a plan to accommodate "Beauty Culture" training and an art course in the facility.

Palmer recommended an alternative model for the new domestic science building in the same November letter that she dismissed the McDonald/Klinhart proposal. While traveling for Thanksgiving, she visited Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which

51 Storer College [Catalogue], 1936-37, A&M 1322 (Reel #125, HAFE).

52 In a letter of 19 October 1939, McDonald to commented to Palmer: "Mr. Desch [the anticipated construction superintendent] suggests the idea of securing the services of a local architect." As a person with a construction background and the anticipated onsite supervisor for the project, Desch's suggestion was wholly logical; however, McDonald likely also saw the use of a local architect known to him as a way to maintain a degree of control over the direction of the project.

53 McDonald to Palmer, 24 Nov. 1939.

54 Palmer to McDonald, 27 Nov. 1939.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 14) the Free [Will] Baptist Home Mission Society founded in 1880 for the education of Native Americans, in particular members of the Cherokee and Creek (known also as the Muscogee or Muskogee) nations. Regarding the school's then recently constructed domestic science building, Palmer wrote:

The D. S. building at Bacone is a very attractive one, built of stone, and it would be perfectly at home on the Storer campus if it were possible to pick it up and set it down there.. .1 have written to ask if we might use the plans if the committee saw fit to do so...[it] was planned by the...D. S. teacher, and she did a fine piece of work.55

In January, Palmer received a favorable reply from Bacone that not only permitted them to use the plans, but to use them at no cost. With that response, McDonald's preoccupation with making the new building serve a number of needed functions for the college as a whole was jettisoned and the project moved rapidly to the construction stage.

The Construction Cook Hall was completed within a single building season. At the end of January 1940, Harriet Palmer informed Henry McDonald that she was writing to the man she hoped to secure for superintendence of the construction—H. D. Desch, known in all correspondence as "Mr. Desch"—"to tell him that the plans are accepted." She added: "I suppose he will come down [to Harpers Ferry] before very long." McDonald felt that Mr. Desch's travel was premature because bitter winter weather had delayed the quarrying of stone and "if our winter runs according to the usual formula, we are just entering upon our worst weather."

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Despite this delay, quarrying and excavation moved forward and the cornerstone was laid in May, an event attended by Maude Kenyon who was president of the FBWMS. McDonald had asked her to "speak for a few minutes on the theme; 'Historical statement as to Mrs. Pamelia [sic] E. Cook'... My thought is that you shall tell about the Fund and its creator, Mrs. Cook; her interest in Free Baptist work and her work for colored people." Construction continued moving briskly forward. In early July "the sheathing [was] being placed on the roof," and only a little more than a month later, on August 14, McDonald could write to Palmer that "the work on the new hall.. .is practically at an end. It is likely that, save for the installation of the furnishings and fixtures, the work will be completed Saturday." The college community celebrated

Ibid.

Palmer to McDonald, 22 Jan. 1940.

57 Palmer to McDonald, 22 Jan. 1940. It is not known exactly how Desch and Palmer were acquainted, but she advocated for his involvement as the construction supervisor from the moment that plans were seriously underway and rallied behind him when necessary as the building project progressed.

58 McDonald to Palmer, 25 Jan. 1940.

59 McDonald to Maude Kenyon, 9 May 1940, A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE). In previous letter, Harriet Palmer had conveyed to McDonald that "[Mrs. Kenyon and Mrs. Dennett] are looking forward with keen interest to coming to Storer." Palmer to McDonald, 25 Apr. 1940.

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 15) the dedication of the almost-finished and occupied building on October 5, 1940. By December, the final touches were being executed and McDonald communicated to Palmer his "sincere appreciation" for her unflagging work as chairwoman of the building committee.

The rapidity of construction and Henry McDonald's probably genuine sentiment about Harriet Palmer's efforts overseeing the project masks the constant, albeit low-level and always polite, sparring between the duo for the duration of the project. Things between them seem to have reached such a caustic point in October 1940 that Palmer threatened to not only resign the chairpersonship of the building committee, but also from the larger board of trustees. She wrote to McDonald:

I am sorry I have not succeeded in pleasing you about this building. I had hoped you would think it quite an addition to the campus and the helpfulness provided by the college. But as you have never mentioned it to me or acted as though it was meeting a need I see that I have failed. I have worked very hard to make it efficient, comfortable and attractive, and I had hoped you would find it so, but I have not been fortunate enough to do what you wanted.63

McDonald resolved this somewhat melodramatic flare-up with solicitous words in a subsequent reply, but their friction remained a constant feature of the project. In a single letter at the end of November, Palmer expressed her displeasure with the general slowness in moving the project toward closure ("workmen down your way seem to take their time on things"), and McDonald's laxity in his accounting—"I am not very happy over the fact that I am not being kept in touch with the financial situation. As long as I am in charge I should know at all times about what is being spent and what has been contracted for." McDonald had his moments as well and he continued to butt up against the board even after the building was finished and occupied. Early in 1942, he decided to move the four young women boarding at Cook Hall into the other woman's dormitory, Brackett Hall, as a cost-saving measure. Rumors seem to have traveled among the board and members of the FBWMS that McDonald was closing the newly-completed building for all functions. In February 1942, McDonald wrote to Grant Hudson, then chairman of the Storer board of trustees: "somehow I labor under the bU McDonald to Palmer, 6 Jul. 1940, and 14 Aug. 1940.

61 President's Report, 31 May 1941, for 5 Oct. 1940 dedication. See also: McDonald to Kenyon, 26 Sep.

1940, A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE).

62 McDonald to Palmer, undated (Dec. 1940).

63 Palmer to McDonald, 20 Oct. 1940, for quote, and 22 Oct. 1940.

64 Palmer to McDonald, 25 Nov. 1940.

65 Horizon Research Consultants, Inc., Gloria Gozdzik, principal investigator, "A Historic Resource Study for Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia," Jan. 2002, 183. Copy in HAFE. See also series of letters chronicling this situation and the reaction between McDonald and various parties in A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE).

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 16) impression that there is a feeling in the minds of some, that I have some continuing unpleasantness towards Cook Hall." While ostensibly in reference to the recent situation, McDonald's statement seems to also confirm that his trouble with the aspects of the project extended beyond specific dealings with Palmer.

Still, from any angle, the Cook Hall project could be considered a success. It took a year to move from planning through construction to occupancy, and the hall was fully completed under budget; the building committee used only $27,768.16 of the available $30,000. This total covered everything from excavation, labor, and railroad shipping fees to furniture, landscaping, and fire extinguishers. At their October 5, 1940 meeting, the board of trustees had resolved to place unused monies into what became the "Cook Hall Maintenance Fund," the final amount being deposited into this fund being $2,231.85. At this meeting the trustees also resolved to provide a receipt to the WABHMS for the $15,000 they "appropriated out of their Golden Jubilee Fund," as well as a copy of the minutes, in order to convey "the gratitude of the Board for the gift." As for recognizing the contributions of the FBWMS, its president, Maude Kenyon spoke at both the laying of the cornerstone and at the dedication, building committee chairperson Harriet Palmer had been thanked heartily by Henry McDonald and the board, and Permelia Eastman Cook honored with the name of the building.

The 1940-41 academic catalogue featured an entry characterizing the newly constructed building:

Permelia Eastman Cook Hall. During 1940 Cook Hall was erected. It is built from native stone taken from the college quarry and is the fourth building of the kind on campus, erected from such stone. It is a three storied building devoted exclusively to work in Home Economics. It is equipped with the most modern furnishings, both in laboratories and in the living apartments. Gas and electricity for light, power and cooking are available. A well equipped recreation room for physical education classes for women is found on the first floor of this hall. In it is a room now used for exhibition of the art treasures of the college.70

66 McDonald to Grant Hudson, 11 Feb. 1942, A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE).

67 "A Complete Statement of Expenditures for the Erection and Furnishing of Cook Hall," May 31, 1941, located mMBT, 31 May 1941. The final tally includes the stated total—$27,168.16—plus an additional $600.00 to paint the interior of the building.

68 MBT, 5 Oct. 1940, for resolution, and Richard I. McKinney, "Storer College, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Study of Endowment and Other Funds Held by or For the College," 15 Mar. 1950, 26, A&M 1322 (Reel #121, HAFE), for final total.

69 MBT, 5 Oct. 1940.

70 Catalogue ofStorer College, 1867-1941: Arts, Pre-Medical, Education, Academic, Musical andHome Economics Courses, " 1940-41, 28, A&M 1322 (Reel #126, HAFE).

HABS No. WV-277-E (Page 17)

Students, faculty, and the leadership at Storer were justifiably proud of this achievement, which despite never-abating financial hardships, embodied the hope and optimism that Storer College would not only continue to exist, but also thrive and expand. It was not the final action made in this direction—an addition to the college library was completed in 1953—but it was the last major, entirely new building realized on the campus.

7. Alterations and additions:

Cook Hall was constructed for domestic science instruction and coursework, and as a boarding facility for students in that department. At the time of the National Park Service acquisition in 1962, the first floor had been divided into "2 sets of living quarters, as presently occupied, each with separate front door and small foyer." While early construction drawings for Cook Hall are presently not known to survive, it can be reasonably argued that the total division of the main floor into two sections was an original element to the plan based on the building's dual function and clues in the documentary evidence.

Floor plans produced as part of the appraisal of the campus and its buildings around the time the National Park Service acquired the property show the eastern door opening onto a large foyer giving onto a living room to the left and dining room to the right, both facing front. Behind the dining room was a kitchen, which also had access to a small hallway connecting the entry foyer with the kitchen and access to the basement.

7?

Cook

Hall's only staircase ascended to the second floor from the foyer. This arrangement suggests that the lower rooms in the eastern portion of the first floor likely comprised the living and dining areas for the domestic science students boarding in Cook Hall. The other entrance opened onto an L-shaped hallway, principally providing access to two large rooms that served as "teaching laboratories," one for cooking in the rear extension and one for sewing in the western third of the building. The separate entrance, lack of access to the second floor and other spaces on the first floor, generous size of the rooms—both of which also had large storage closets, and a half-bath located in the hallway near the kitchen suggest that these rooms were not related to the boarding function of Cook Hall, but rather constituted an independent classroom suite for the home economics instruction occurring in the building.

71 Hall, 41.

72 See the Cook Hall section in Hall and loose reproductions in the Tract 106-06 folder, HAFE.

73 McDonald to Hudson, 11 Feb. 1942 A&M 1322 (Reel #117, HAFE), for "two teaching laboratories."

Aside from cooking and sewing being the two key components of domestic science curricula, in a December 1940 letter to Harriet Palmer, Henry McDonald refers to "equipment for sewing laboratory" in a list of expenses for finishing Cook Hall. The large room in the west end of Cook Hall's first floor is labeled "D. R." or dining room on a plan in one of the 1962 property valuations, but referred to as "living room" in the text about Cook Hall. While not consistent within the report, these names/functions nevertheless refer to its then current use as living quarters for tenants.