Expansion and Change Post WW2 Years
A movement in the 1940s and into the 1950s showed that heritage had become something that Americans wanted to place focus on in their everyday lives. (Kammen chapter 16,sect I) Americans wanted to stay connected to their roots in the fast paced post World War Two World. And Clemson College was no different.
With World War Two coming to an end on September 2 1945, Clemson began to welcome back the veterans who had represented the college in the war effort. Their return began to stretch the seams of campus to accommodate both the veterans and newly entered cadets. The number of students enrolling on campus had increased and there were meetings of Clemson faculty to deal with the situation. There were many references to Clemson College’s growth during the post war years, with newspapers showing money granted to college for expansion, new barracks being added to campus, and President Poole’s speech to cadets about the growing numbers.
Growth of Clemson's Campus
Clemson Library receives $30,000 grant
Poole's Speech about Clemson's Growth
With Clemson’s campus growing, the faculty also began to think of renaming some of the buildings on campus. The Building and Grounds Committee asked members Professor Holmes, Lee, and Hunter to create a list of names of significant former trustees,Presidents and faculty so that buildings and roads might be named after them. On March 11, 1946 the initial meeting that the Building and Grounds assigned the task, and it proved to be a subject of much discussion in future board meetings. Note that in a letter from David J. Watson, current Chair of the committee at the time, to President Poole, Watson says that the renaming discussion took up most of the meeting on May 16th that they were not able to discuss the other objectives. These documents reveal some of the process that the committee went through to rename the buildings and how it made its way from the Building and Grounds Committee to the Board of Trustees and onto the President. Also note that from the Minutes of the Building and Grounds Committee on 5/16/1946, the list of potential names had some struck out for unknown reasons. Committee members Holmes and Lee decided to take them out to reveal those that some of the members didn’t approve of. The name change process took about 4 months from initial assignment to the approval of the new names, showing that it was a complicated process to undergo.
Initial Building and Grounds Assignment
Note that in section one it is also talking about the groth of campus by adding additional barracks.
Annocucments of the name changes to the buildings were found in The Tiger and the Clemson News Review. Note that Tillman Hall's name change takes the forefront of these announcments.
There were also additional name changes that came after the fact of Tillman Hall name change to show that heirtage and growth was still in the minds of the committees.
