Friday, March 29, 2013

Stained Glass Restroom Mystery at Oglethorpe University

The Mystery: What's the story with the stained glass in the bathroom? And while were at it, who was "Cherry Roberts?" This is the men's room in Lowery Hall at Oglethorpe University.
 
 
I don't think this is the original 1929 bathroom, do you? Is the stained glass original, part of the 1991 addition, or what? In any case, this is a good look.

Four "old" buildings are Oglethorpe trademarks: Hearst Hall 1915, Lupton Hall 1925,  Lowry Hall 1929, and Hermance Stadium 1931 all by Mordan and Dillon all in blue Georgia granite. The blue granite shows some beautiful pinks, to my eye anyway.

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This is the Lowry's front door. It faces into the quadrangle.

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In 1991 they added on to the back. This is where "Cherry Roberts" enters the picture:

"Completed in 1991, the library addition to Lowry hall incorporated the impressive outer architecture into the new interior reading room. Following a remarkable design created and executed by the firm of  Cherry Roberts, the addition was built in the Gothic style of the original Lowry Hall." - AIA Guide to the Architecture of Atlanta

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I was keeping my eye peeled for the Atlanta Glass Project and noticed.

Was there a chapel back there? If not a chapel, what? Did they add the stained glass during the renovation?

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I raced to the other side and found a bathroom instead of a chapel..

I need to show you the ceiling again. They didn't build the bathroom ceiling all the way to the back wall:

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See? The ceiling stops short of the window wall.

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They left space for the 4 upper lancet windows shown here on the outside.

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On the inside.

Help us solve the mysteries of the glass and Cherry Roberts.


Thanks to Dr. Paul Stephen Hudson, Oglethorpe, and the Atlanta Preservation Center for the 10th Phoenix Flies tours. Here are my pictures: "2013-03-22 Oglethorpe University tour for Phoenix Flies Atlanta Preservation Center"


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3 comments:

  1. who was Cherry Roberts? a respected Atlanta Architecture group - partnered by Mr. Cherry, who did not live to see his son portray the replacement cast during a 'walk out or hold out' by the leading cast of Dukes of Hazzard -- I know this as an observer of the culture, not because I paid attention to the show

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