Carmichael Hall - College of Education
Carmichael Hall is one of the buildings on campus that has gone through the most different uses over the course of its history. It has been a temporary location almost all its life for one thing or another. It was built in 1925 as the original Amelia Gayle Gorgas library (although only as a temporary collection home until funds could be raised for a bigger structure). After the library was moved in 1939, it became the administrative headquarters until the Rose Administration Building was completed in 1969, and it wasn't until 1971 that the building was finally named after the university's 20th president, Oliver Cromwell Carmichael. Most recently, Carmichael Hall also used to be the temporary home of the New College program.
The building is now one of the most important in the College of Education and houses the Dean of Education's office as well as the Capstone Education Program, psychology studies classes, and the research assistance center and the Belser-Parton Literacy Center.
Carmichael was an interesting attraction because I had heard of how it used to be the old administration building, but I had no idea that it had also once housed Gorgas Library (the largest and most popular library resource on campus). It is another one of the buildings that forms the perimeter of the quad, so it has the same large portico style front with the winding steps and the huge columns. However, on the inside, it's unlike any of the other buildings I've seen in that little area. The hallways (especially upstairs) have a maze quality to them in that they are tight and sharply wind around one another without letting you see what's on the other side. It's hard to describe, but I'll try and clear up that statement by saying that it gives the building a weird kind of claustrophobic quality.
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| an example of the tight, sharp turning hallways |
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| Another example. Around this corner was the door to the Rotunda Room |
After some wondering, I found the doorway to a big open room that was filled with light from a great round window that took up the entire ceiling. This was the most interesting thing I'd seen yet, but of course, it was locked.
Without the pre-insider's info, I didn't really know where next to turn or what to see, so I decided to give up early and ask for help. So I took a left turn into the office and found Ms. Michelle Vanderburg, the kind secretary who referred me to one Melaine O'Rear...
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| Ms. Melaine at her desk in the office of Carmichael Hall |
Then, she told me about a bit of a happy accident that had occurred in the renovations of the upper part of Carmichael Hall: when they were digging through some of the older parts of the upstairs floor with plans to convert a large segment into compact office space, they broke into a room that had something they had entirely not anticipated: a rotunda window. You guessed it - it was the same room that I had found upstairs with the big sky light. Nobody had even realized that it was there until they stumbled upon it, so upon its discovery, they went back to the drawing board and changed all the plans so that they could keep this piece of the building's history. So, they restored the rotunda and converted the whole thing into a large, naturally lit, beautiful reception room.
And then, she me use the keys to go check it out for myself...
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| First view of the Rotunda Room |
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| from the other direction |
So I made my way up and looked around inside. It was easily my favorite room in the entire building, and I spent a good ten minutes inside, just testing the couches and looking out the windows and seeing everything. In the middle of an otherwise somewhat droll building, this room utterly restored my opinion of Carmichael's beauty. The rotunda itself, as you can see, was so big that it was impossible for me to fit the whole thing in a single image, but as I hope you can also see, the room was quite a sight, and very comfy.
The Belser Parton Literacy Center is a public resource that is part of the College of Education and is open to anybody's use. It has several books - mostly fiction that are nice resources and it tries to have kits and things that teachers and educators especially can put to good use.
There is currently no faculty member in charge of its management, but the person supervising it at the time was grad student Alexander Parks.
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| Alexander Parks in the Belser Parton Literacy Center |
He showed me inside and talked about the short history of the place and a few interesting things about it. It calls itself a 'lending library,' and as you can see from the picture above, there are a few neat little nuances, like the artwork and displays that are inside. He says that those are usually done as projects by either undergrads or local schools. They are about various things, like books, authors, and sometimes themes or movements, and they add to the atmosphere of the place. I tried to have a look and catalog some of the things that I saw - most of which was fiction. There were young adult and children's books of all kinds, some test-prep material, periodicals, and a number of other things. Alexander was a cool guy to talk to and let me in on a few neat things about Carmichael as well, but I don't have room to talk about everything!
Heading downstairs, I went to see the Research Assistance Center, something which I had entirely not anticipated coming in. At the Office of Research and Service, I ran into grad student Jeena Williams, who told me about some of the things that the Assistance Center offered. It was by appointment only, so of course I was only visiting, but she said that there are all kinds of recording devices available, computers with research software, graduate assistance, and any number of other things to help budding undergrads take on the world of research. I thanked her for her time and went on my way.
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| the place where the Tiffany Window used to be located |
Ms. Melaine told me about this, and mentioned that at some point the window was removed and relocated to a different building on campus. I couldn't help but search it out, so after some confusion on the treasure map, I traced the path of this missing window to the Hoole Library collection in Mary Harmon Bryant Hall...
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| The window now stands behind the second floor desk of the Special Collections Library |
A Stained-Glass Tiffany Knight By Robert O. Mellown. Known simply as the Tiffany Window for short. It was part of the Gorgas Library collections, which is why Carmichael Hall was doomed to never be able to keep it. It is one of the romantic commem-orations to the Confederate soldiers who fought and died in the American Civil War. The brave Christian Knight shown in the window's stained colors is part of the "Lost Cause" of Dixie.
The Window was designed in 1925 by Tiffany Studios in New York (hence its name) under commission by the Alabama Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is made with several different types of glass staining techniques. Including the discount, it cost $3,300.
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| "It is sweet and noble to die for one's country." |
It was removed from the modern day Carmichael Hall in 1939 when it was relocated to modern day Gorgas Library. Then in 1993 it was relocated to its current location in the Mary Harmon Bryant Building, where it is today.
Finished with all of my investigations, I headed off to class and back to my day!
Stats:
Cools - nice facade, first staircase is great for the beginner rail slider
Not So's - inside is largely uninteresting and somewhat cramped
Rumor Has it - Some time ago, Playboy magazine supposedly did a photo shoot of the girls of some sorority on the front steps of the building.
Close to - quad, bus stop, Gorgas Library
Far From - Honors housing, Rec Center, fraternity row
Beauty - 5.1
Temperature - comfortably chilly
Overall - 4.6
I'm Jonathon, and this is my life.
Sources:
http://tour.ua.edu/tourstops/carmichael.html
http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/tiffany_window
local faculty and staff
own personal observation
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