1914
Model-T's ruled, flappers were bobbing their hair and Ohio
State had less than 8,000 students. With only the bottom
two floors completed & the third floor an unfurnished attic,
botanists, zoologists and entomologists moved into the Botany & Zoology
Building at 1735 Neil Avenue.
1. Dwight DeLong, an entomology professor who died
in 1984, remembered moving furniture into the building
via the long, long front steps; he also remembered the
university's president. Do you? |
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1918
At some point in these years, WWI began (more than 400 students
officially withdrew to volunteer for military service) and
James Thurber tried to pass a botany course on one of B&Z's
finished floors. He never did and he writes about his failure
to do so in My Life and Hard Times.
2. Ohio Stadium had yet to be built; it was finished
in...? |
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1932
The country was in the throes of the Great Depression. A
sub-basement, a basement, and first floor were added and
the third floor was finally made useable. The B&Z building
may have been the only campus building ever to have had a
sign in one of its entrance stairwells that said "Up to the
Basement." George Washington Rightmire was university president. |
|
1948
WWII was over and to alleviate the space shortage in a university
bursting at the seams with returning G.I.s, the B&Z annex
was built just north of B&Z.
3. Who was minding the university? |
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1949
A new headhouse with attached greenhouses were built. |
|
1950
Two top stories were added to the north wing and a south
wing, 113 feet long, extending west from the original building
was constructed, consisting of four stories and a sub-basement
with a tunnel connecting the sub-basement to the headhouse.
4. The University Athletic Council officially adopted
what term? |
|
1962
John Kennedy was in the White House, students still dressed
up to go to class and a pilot from Ohio was about to make
space history. Five-story additions were completed at the
west ends of both B&Z wings. Novice Gail Fawcett was university
president.
5. Three years later TBDBITL would make some history
of its own by? |
|
1992
The old, crumbling greenhouses were torn down & replaced
with new, modern greenhouse space on top of the 12th Avenue
Garage.
6. E. Gordon Gee was president, but who knows what
that "E" stood for...? |
|
2002
Renamed Jennings Hall to honor friend of the college and
former Ohio State University President Edward H. Jennings. |
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2003
In June of 2003, a carefully planned mass exodus of Jennings
by its three occupying departments into their new, modern
quarters in Aronoff left the historic building nearly empty
for the first time in 88 years. It awaits renovation and
a new life. |
|
2005
Renovation of Jennings Hall begins.
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