Haverford finds window to past in hidden attic

During a pre-renovation visit, an engineer on a ladder spotted a door high up a wall in Haverford College's old gym, and opened it.

"Dave, I think you better come up here," the engineer called down to campus planner David L. Harrower.

Up the ladder Harrower went, through a door to a hidden attic that would serve as a window into the Main Line college's past.

There, in the dimly lit space, Harrower found covered with dust and the gunk of a century an empty glass display cabinet from the Class of 1901, framed pictures of sports teams, a file cabinet with student health records from the 1920s, parallel bars, a rowing machine, and a 2-pound wooden barbell that had lost its moisture, leaving it the weight of a feather.

But perhaps most intriguing was a large display rack with long wooden canes or dowels, with red and black and faint gold lettering that said "rush." Through some sleuthing, Harrower learned they were likely commemorative canes from a bygone tradition at Haverford, known as the "cane rush."

Freshmen each year were challenged by sophomores. They'd line up on opposite sides of a field and charge at the cane when the whistle blew. They'd wrestle over the cane, and when the whistle blew again, whichever class had the most hands on it was the victor.

"That needs to be some place behind glass," Harrower thought, visible for Haverford alumni who relish the 184-year history of the storied institution.

It was a good day for Harrower, a lover of history, who has been Haverford's assistant director of facilities management planning and design for nearly five years.

He likes to scope out a building's past before it undergoes renovation or replacement. Harrower, who has a bachelor's in history from Hobart College and both a master's in architecture and certificate in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania, studies old floor plans, pictures, and written histories to learn what he may find.

The remake of the 117-year-old Ryan Gym, a three-story stone structure at the heart of campus, is the largest project he's overseen since he arrived. Haverford is converting the space into a home for visual culture, arts, and media. It's due to be completed in July.

During renovation, workers also discovered that an old swimming pool, since covered with a steel deck, hadn't been filled in.

Harrower had seen the pool on an architectural drawing but didn't know what workers would find when they pulled up the carpet and saw a hatch. They suspected it would be filled in, but in fact, the hollow space revealed the glazed tunnel walls of the old pool. The decorative coping stones had been cut off and placed inside.

Engineers determined that too much deterioration had occurred for the area to be salvaged. They filled it with concrete, a process that the college recorded in a time-lapse video and put on its website.

When Harrower makes an intriguing find, he returns to the archives or consults Martha J. Van Artsdalen, plant curator of Haverford's campus arboretum.

"He unearths a little tidbit and comes running to me," she said. "I tell him a little tidbit. It's like a little puzzle we put together."

While looking for a new space to house the music department, Harrower discovered an all-brick room in Roberts Hall and wanted to know why. He found in records that the widow of alumnus Charles Roberts agreed to donate money for the 1902 building if it included a fireproof room to house her late husband's extensive autograph collection.

That autograph collection has long since become part of Haverford's special collections and gained fame in 2010 when scholars realized that a long-lost letter authored by French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes was part of it. Haverford later returned the letter to France.

The fireproof room now houses the office of administrative assistant Kathy McGee, though she probably doesn't know it, Harrower said. Plaster and cabinets cover the brick.

"She probably knows she doesn't have good cell reception," he said.

Indeed, McGee has noticed that.

But as for having an office with a sweet piece of Haverford history?

"No idea," she said.

Overseeing renovations and construction at the 109-building, 200-acre campus keeps Harrower busy. Several projects are underway or just finished, including an upgrade of Sharpless Hall to house biology and psychology, renovation of the lower-level dining center, and the new visual arts building.

He looks forward to the coming renovation of Magill Library. Built in 1863, the library has undergone four major additions and renovations, in 1898, 1912, 1941, and 1967. He's not sure what he'll find.

"It's always fascinating for me," he said.

Harrower keeps little mementos in his office, like a pink notecard with a student health record from 1922, one of those recovered from the attic filing cabinet. The card noted the lad's height sitting and standing, the girth of his head, the depth of his chest, his lung capacity and chest expansion. He also kept a pool coping stone and a barbell.

Nothing so far beats the attic treasures at Ryan. Haverford officials knew of the attic but hadn't gone in for a long time.

"There was no access to it and no occasion to go in," he said.

At first the dusty lot was less than alluring. Harrower called a team to clean the room and its contents.

He's not sure what will happen with the collection. Haverford's special collections department took paper records but left the equipment, including the cane rack.

The institutional advancement office expressed interest, he said, thinking perhaps an alum would want to fund conservation of the collection.

"If someone went to all the trouble to make a display rack to remember something," he said, "I want to be an advocate for giving it another chance."

As for the attic, it's empty and ready to store the next round of Haverford history, perhaps for some unsuspecting renovator 100 years from now.

ssnyder@phillynews.com

215-854-4693@ssnyderinq

www.philly.com/campusinq