New Mexico State University Legacy of Trost and McGhee

New Mexico State University:The Architectural Legacy of Trost and McGhee Front eleva tion of th e administration build ing Hadley Hall E l Paso Public Library The MissionRevival architec

New Mexico State University:

The Architectural Legacy of Trost and McGhee

Front eleva tion of th e administration build ing (Hadley Hall) (E l Paso Public Library)

The MissionRevival architectur al style,

based primarily on mission church

buildings built by the Franciscans in

California and other areas of the

Southwest, enjoyed populari tyfor the first

two decades of this century The Spanish

ColonialRevival style which followed

in-corporated its essentialfeaturesand added

other elemen tssuchas sculpture

ornamen-tation.One ofthe individualswho

design-ed buildings in these genres was Henry

CharlesTrost of the family-ow nedfirm of

Trost and Trostin EI Paso.Trost was born

in Ohio, graduated from art school,

worked as a draftsman inDenverin1880,

set up his own business in Pueblo, was

associated with Louis Sullivan from 1887

to 1893,wasa partner in Ornamental Iron

Works in Chicago, and workedin Tucson

from 1899 where he designed two

buildingsfor the Owls Club, a dormitory

for the University of Arizona, the Holliday

School, the Carnegie Public Library, the

Santa Rita Hotel, and a number of

residences.I

Trost moved to El Paso in 1903 Over

the next three decades he designed

buildingsin the Tran-Pecos area of Texas,

New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and at

least one in California and was successful

using almost all of the architectural styles

in vogue from the 1880s through the 1920s,

including PrairieSchool, Mission Revival,

Spanish Colonial Revival,PuebloRevival,

Art Deco, Nee-Expressionism, and one

unique in the United States at the time,

Bhutanese, which he employed at the

Texas State School of Mines and Metal

-lur gy, now the University of Texas at EI

Paso He designed all kinds of buildings

ranging from homes to a penitentiary

-hotels, apartment buildings, theat ers,

hospitals, stores, office buildings, chur

-ches, and 250 or moreschool and univer

-sity buildings."

One of Trost's earlier jobs in New

Mexico was forthe New Mexico College of

Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, a small

land- grant institution near Las Cruces

Although its predecessor institution, Las

Cruces College, was estab lished in 1888,

and the 1889 Territorial Legislative

Assembly authorized the agriculture col

-lege, as it was called, only three buildings

of consequence plus some engineering

shops were constructed by 1897 And,

because of financial and politica linstabili

-ty no building was undertaken during the

next ten years.So in 1907 when the regents

,

-commissioned Trost to prepare an archi-tecturalplanfor the campus and to design several buildings, Trost could proceed relatively unhindered by the institution's architectural past

The plan adopted called for thirteen buildings to be located according to a layout design resembling a modified horseshoe.The campus would have an east and west orientation, be open-ended to the west where the entrance would be located, and would focus on the administration building to be placed on high ground at the top of the curve The large open areas within the sides of the horseshoe wouldbe devoted to four lawn and garden plots Vehicular access was by crushed stone

driveways and included a circle at the top

of the arc."

The architectural stylewas to be Spanish Renaissance Six buildings were to be located on each side of the administration building They would be constructed of yellow/buff brick, have terra cotta trim and be covered by red clay tile.The initial schematic drawings for the campus plan

r

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show the administration building with a large dome and an imposing entrance and two buildings with impressive towers capped by domes, located at the heels of the horseshoe Elements which char-acterized the MissionRevivalstyle,such as low pitched, hipped, tile roofs, arches, domes, and terraced towers wereevident, and all of the buildings were to be con-nected by arched arcades reminiscent of the California Missions and Charles F Whittlesey's Alvarado Hotel complex in

Albuquerque The problem of integrati ng existing buildings into the plan and style would be handled by remodeling the science hallto conform to the appearance

of the buildings Trost would design, and the remaining buildings would be torn down when they could be replaced." The arched arcades never became re-ality, only one of the tower buildingswas

built, buff brick was used on the surface of only threebuildings,and the exterior of the science hall remained unchanged until it was razed in 1974; but the plan guided development of the physical plant for

Jul y - A ugust 1 989 / 29

Terra Cotta ornament on the entr ance to

th e a gronomy building ( Foster Hall ) ( Rio Grand e Histori cal Coll ections N ew M exico Stat e Uni versity Library )

Th e a griculture buildin g ( W ilson Hall ) as

it app eared in 1915 ( Rio Grand e

H istorical Coll ections N ew Mexico Stat e University Libr ary)

-The administration buildin g (Hadley Hall ) on commencement day , about 1915 (Rio

Grand e Historical C ollections New M exico Stat e U niversity Libra ry)

Th e Y.M C.A buildin g w hile co nstruction w as int errupt ed in 1 908-1909 ( Rio Grande

Historical Collections New Mexico State University Library)

thirty years Eight of the proposed thirteen

buildings were built between 1907 and

1936, six were designed byTrost,two were

by another El Paso architect , Percy

McGhee

During the next decade six Trost

de-signed buildings would be built bythecol

-lege Three of these, quarters for the

Young Men's Christian Association, an

agriculture building, and an administra

-tion building, were completed during the

1 908 / 1909academic year A gym was built

in 1911 and an engineering building in

1913 Aresidence for the university presi-dent was built in 1918.5

The first of the three to be started was

the quarters for the Y.M.C.A An elaborate ceremonyto laythecornerstone was held in January 1907,beforethe cam

-pus plan was adopted, but actual construc

-tion work did not begin until October

Most of the moneyfor the structure came from private sources, and the project had

to be interrupted for several months while donors made good on their pledgesand ad-ditionalmoney was raised."

The Y.M.C.A., agriculture buildi ng,

and the gymnasium were buildings of similarsize and shared many features All had hipped red tile roofs with generous eaves, each had a pleasing mix of arched and rectangular windows, and va rious decorative elements were incorporated

and agriculture buildings were plastered

As originally designed, the agriculture building was to have a substantialamount

of brick trim,including brick window sills,

a den tiled course of brick surrounding the

30 IJ uly -Au gus t 1 989

The Y.M G.A building (left) and the gymnasium as they appeared in 1915 (Rio Grande

Historical Collections New Mexico State University Library)

lanterns, included an entrance set back within a large arch decorated with a shield and medallion motif under a gabled tile

pedestals and recessed semicircular terra cotta designs over some of the front

An engineering building of Trost design

feature of this structure, later named in

tower which was used as the symbol for New Mexico State University's centennial

the primary entrance, and each segment is

upper portions contain arched openings, a railing surrounds the set- back portion, and

it is covered with a dome The building was made of buff brick and hipped roof margins were covered with red tile

Arch-ed windows were usArch-ed on the upper floor

brickwork are located between the second and third floor windows

The next fifteen years was a drought period for building at NMAC Barns and sheds were constructed, but no significant building, with the exception of the

The library (Young Hall), Trost's last building on campus, was completed in

had hipped tile roof margins hiding a flat

hip-ped tile roof and flanked by lamps and porthole-like brickwork decorations pro-jected outward at the ground level An

followed, in Trost's August 1927 drawings called for a short tower covered with a shallow red tile pyramidal roof rising above the roofline over the entry The doorway was arched but the windows all were rectangular, in contrast to a mix of arched and rectangular windows seen in

bookstack area projected from the rear of the building

established by Trost Two of McGhee's buildings, one for the agronomy depart-ment built in 1930 and one for the home economics built in 1936, were located on the horseshoe according to Trost's plan

an inverted fleur-d e-lis motif o a

cartouches were placed near the upper floor corners of the north and south eleva-tions of the agriculture building and a

insignia was placed over the doorway of

The centerpiece of the Trost plan was a general purpose administration building,

stage and assembly room, the library, post

agriculture building and the Y.M.C.A

much like a church in a mission complex

of importance, thiry-Iour feet in diameter

seven windows and was topped with a decorative crown The main facade,

The engineering building in the late teens (Rio Grande Historical Collections New

Mex-ico State University Library)

upper floor, and brick panels providing

vertical separation for the windows on

brickwork and den tiled brick surrounding

the building above and below the windows

on the top floor Plaster moulding

sur-rounded the gymnasium on the main and

upper floors, raised plaster panels were

us-ed to separate the main and top floor

form vertical panels to visibly join the

main entrance to the agriculture building

was rectangular surrounded by a plaster

moulding treatment, and the gym facade

included a vestibule with an arched entry

oval and twenty rectangular openings

under the eaves provided attic ventilation

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background of burnt oran ge glaze Cast

stones were used on the corn ers of the

building and as pilasterso eitherside of

the entry The arched entrance is deeply

recessed andis ramedby avery elabora te,

somew hat ba roq ue tw o -st or y reli ef

ornamenta tion." A mural b Olive Rush

treating agricul turalsubjectswas addedto

the entryduringtheDepr ession

A simila r buildi ng, Dove Hall, was

pla nned for the home economics depart

-ment LikeFosterHall ,it is constructe dof

brick andstucco with red roofingtile.The

two-storvdecorativetreat ment forthee

n-trance, however , had to be scra pped to

savemoney.10The entry built s ath er s

ub-dued,thoughit hasawrought- iron railing

around a falsebalconyaboveit

McGhee also designed a sorority house

and agymnasium,but perhapshisbest a

r-chitecturalcontribution to thecampus was

the men's dormitory, Kent Hall, built in

1930 It is a two-story stuccoed building

with a redtileroof Itis designedaround a

U-shap ed patio Each suite had an e

n-trancefrom porch es sur rounding thepatio

side The gabled entry facades for the

street and patiosides arealmost identical

There is a cast cement grille over the

primary and secondary entrances and a

panel of decorativeglazed tile over each

The patio is enclosed by an archedarcade

Therearearchedwindowsoneither sideof

the entra nces aswellas on the back of the

second story One of the building's

distin guishingfeaturesisasmall tower

in-corporatingan octagonallanternwith four

openin gs.Itis ca pped bya brightlycolored

Moorishdome

The Trost plan was followed rather

faithfully untilgrowth of the school and its

programs required expansion beyond the

horseshoe plan The architectural style

adopted byTrostand McGhee seemed

ap-propriate to the arid and semi-arid

Southwest and drew upon the region's

Hispanic heritage It produced an

aestheticall y pleasing built environment and was utilized tosomedegreeb other

architects who did workfor theinstitution

followingWorld War II and wellintothe

1950s

The women's dormitor y complex(Ga r

-rett Hall and Rhodes Hall), designed b

Boydand Companyand built in 1941,isa

good example; its tower isremi niscent of

the cour thouse at Santa Barbara, Calif

or-nia A men's dormitor v, Breland Hall (1954), was equa lly as pleasing with red

tile roof treat ment ,a third floor balcony,

and decorative glazed tilesfor o

rnamenta-tion Garcia Hall (1949) and Milton Hall

(1941, 1946), both b Robert E Merr ell,

alsoincluded several Spanisharchitectural

elements Many other buildings,however ,

reflect a half-h earted attempt to tiemore

modern architectural styles to existing buildings with stuccoand a bit of red tile

trim Since the1950slittleeffort hasbeen

made to employ any design features

related to theHispanic architectural tradi

-tion

How have the Trost and McGhee

buildings fared? The Y.M C A building and theTrost gymnasium later werestuc

-coed The agriculture building (Wilson Hall) burned in 1937.The administration

building (Hadley Hall)was torn down in

1957 The engineering building(Goddard Hall), the Trost gymnasium, and the

agronomy building (Foster Hall)all have

been remodeled and incorporated into larger complexes The library (Young Hall), the men' s dormitory (Kent Hall),

and the home economi cs building (Dove Hall)all havebeensensitiv elyrefurbished

for alternative uses The Y.M.C.A

building,the oldestTrostbuildingonc

am-pus, is vacant and in poor repair The

Universit y is seeking funds to recondition it

Notes

I LloydC.and June-MarieEngelbrecht ,

(EI Paso: EI PasoPublic LibrarvA

ssocia-tion, 1981), pp 1-29 See also'Mary A

Sarber, "T ribute to Henr y C Trost

( 1860- 1933)," Passw ord , XXVI (Wi nter,

1981),153-157

2lbid ,p.l, 64, ll6

June 22, 1907

4 lbid , Trost's biographers, Lloyd C

and June-Mari e F Engelbrecht, point out

that Trost and Whittleseywerefriend s in

Chicago (Engelbrecht, H enry C Trost ,

p.94) The origina l main building,McFi e

Hall, burned in 1910; the women' s d

or-mitor y, located some distan ce from the

other' buildings was not torn down until

1965

5 Records in the Hobson-Huntsinger

University Archives, New Mexico State

University Library

and Decemb er21, 1907

7 Drawings for the administration

building, Ponsford -Trost Collection, EI

PasoPublicLibrary

B Trost died in 1933 at the age of 73

(Englebrecht, H enry C Trost , p,Ill)

9 Drawingsfor the agronomy building,

Ponsford -McGh ee Collection , El Paso

PublicLibrary

1 Drawings for the home economics building,Ponsford -McGheeCollection,El

PasoPublicLibrary

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