Memorial Hall

“ The Pears Memorial Hall, and rooms beneath it, built on the site of the Priory Chapel, were opened on Speech Day, June 17th, 1886. The Hall is one hundred and one feet long, by forty-three feet wide, with a fine open roof, forty feet high, supported by wall pieces, with hammer beams, which rest on corbels of stone, carved to represent shields. The walls are lined with oak panelling, seven feet high, on them the names of O.R.s who have gained honours at the Universities are being painted. ”

“ Jack is again away on business as he was a year ago, and I am alone, for Fanny and Carl and Katy, who are here, have gone with the young people to the town hall, which is filled with flowers and ferns and evergreens. It is Memorial Day, when, north and south, east and west, the graves of our soldiers will be decorated by the loving hands of many who were not born until after the war and to whom that time is only a dark page of history nearly blotted out. ”

“ Orations may be helpful, but the living word flows away; a statue may be lasting, but it does not awaken new thought. We shall have orations and we shall have a statue, but we shall have now, above all, a memorial which will last longer than a monument and speak louder than an oration: Emerson Hall will be a fountain of inspiration forever. ”

“ In the great Memorial Hall, where they eat, the best of deportment is always to be seen, and everywhere there is now a pride, in all departments of the University, in observing the proprieties of good conduct. ”

“ The memorial, dated June 16, 1817, recited the facts here given and said: “It is conceived by the Historical Society that it is worthy the care of a cultivated and enlightened people to ascertain and perpetuate by a monumental stone the aforesaid site.” It also called attention to the fact that “Your magnificent City Hall has been erected considerably to the northward of the place where Fort George formerly stood,” and requested that its latitude also be accurately determined and marked by a monument with appropriate inscriptions. ”

“ Another current, more conspicuous and abounding—that of hurrying human feet—will make this magnificent conservatory the centre of one of its principal eddies. A second will be the Japanese head-quarters, and a third Memorial Hall. The outlandish and the beautiful in Nature and in art take chief hold of our interest. ”

“ Two of the larger gifts to the University have come through collective effort on the part of the alumni. The Michigan Union, made possible through the $1,200,000 raised by students and alumni, has been mentioned in another chapter. Alumni Memorial Hall, which stands just across the street, is also largely the result of comparatively small gifts from hundreds of graduates. It is an imposing building of classical outlines, designed as a memorial of the men who served in the Civil and Spanish-American Wars. ”

“ It is generally assumed that the face of this bust was modelled from a death mask, possibly even from the cast which is now at Darmstadt; and although either the execution was originally poor or the likeness has been spoiled by restoration, the monument is, of course, of the greatest interest to all admirers of the poet, and to those who are students of his life and works. It is believed that the memorial was provided by Dr. Hall and his wife, and at all events there seems little doubt that they superintended its erection. ”

“ It is a Corinthian temple built of white Vermont marble with a wonderful colonnade, thirteen majestic pillars, typical of the thirteen states which formed the first American union and given by the Daughters from each of these historic commonwealths. Magnificent among the stately buildings which are its near neighbors, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Bureau of American Republics, the Memorial Continental Hall is an achievement of which every woman in the land may be proud, because it is the result of the conservation of the vital forces obtainable when worthy women are leagued together. ”

“ The “Father of the Club” still happily flourishes at a great age—a link with the past.
As we enter the great church-like hall of the Law Courts, we notice that to the right one of the lower arches is filled in with a memorial to the architect of the structure, the late Mr. Street. There is a large sitting figure, well sculptured, a monumental inscription of high compliment and panegyric in which it is conveyed to the spectator that all the wonders he sees about are the single work of this man thus celebrated. ”

“ But the men of the American nation have conquered fate in other fields than those of war, and such services are elsewhere commemorated in Washington. In the Hall of Fame at our national capital each American State places the statues of its two most distinguished servitors—in memory of deeds done for the good and the greatness of the State. And near by the Congressional Cemetery contains stately shafts and memorial columns that mark the graves of other men famous in national annals through civic worth. ”

“ After the death of Inez Milholland, Alice Paul decided to hold a memorial service in Statuary Hall at the Capitol.
“Oh, Miss Paul, we can’t do that! Memorial services are held there only for those whose statues are in the Hall.” But in the end she did it. When her Committee spoke about it to the officials who have Statuary Hall in charge they said, “One thing we cannot permit. You cannot go up into the gallery because the doors open from that gallery into rooms containing old and valued books and those books 26might be stolen.” ”

“ A memorial of the “ compact,” of polished Acton granite, 6 ft. high, with two bronze tablets, was erected before the town-hall by the Old Colony Commission, and on High Pole Hill on the 20th of August 1907 the cornerstone of a second memorial (completed in 1909, dedicated Aug. 5, 1910) , a granite tower, 252 ft. high, was laid, addresses being delivered by President Roosevelt, James Bryce and H. C. Lodge. ”

“ About this time, fearing that the sports arena function of the coliseum was being overemphasized, the president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce reiterated its primary purpose: “War memorials should be for the living, not for the dead alone. The living must be enabled to derive a spiritual lift from them. There must be a shrine to which one may go to commune with the missing and to pay tribute to the returned. A mere building does not serve this purpose. The true memorial building has a heart, a focal point. ”

“ There is no department of the Hall which is not in a healthy condition, and the fact that £1800 was taken in pennies and twopences for admissions during 1887, though the Hall was closed in the summer for repairs, may well encourage the Council and their devoted manager to take courage and persevere in their present effort to purchase the freehold as a fitting memorial to Mr. ”

“ Ida Dick of the Dick Piano and Organ Company donated the organ in memory of her husband.
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a southwest view of the Coliseum showing the entrance to the Exhibition Hall.
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The Exhibition Hall occupies the lower level of the building and covers an acre and a quarter in area. The hall provides ideal accommodations for agricultural and industrial exhibits such as the 4-H Club Fair and the Automobile Show. Because the level has its own separate box office, lobby, and concession stand, events can be scheduled concurrently with those in the Sports Arena without interference. ”

“ Years passed. City and cemetery were each grown vaster. It was again an afternoon when the people strolled among the graves and monuments. An old man had courteously attached himself to a group that stood around a crumbling memorial. He had reached a great age; but his figure was erect, his face animated by strong emotions, and his eyes burned beneath his brows.
"Sirs," said he, interposing in the conversation, which turned wholly on the monument, "you say nothing of him in whose honour it was erected."
"We say nothing because we know nothing." ”

“ In these sweet solitudes the morning passes quickly, and in the afternoon we go to the cemetery, which is about three miles from the town, to witness the decoration of the soldiers’ graves—for it is Memorial Day—the one day set apart in every year now and for all time for people to come to do honour to the dead who fell in the lost cause; nay, for the dead who fell on either side. Streams of people crowd the highways and byways, all flowing in one direction, and all mass together at the wide-open gates of the cemetery. ”

“ People infinitely prefer some huge ungainly statue or some indifferently stained glass window, any seven-days' wonder in the way of marble, granite, or glass. They would like the Cenotaph to fill St. James's Park, and fondly believe that the "Glorious Dead" would find pride and pleasure in such a monstrosity. But it seems to me that any memorial to the dead heroes falls short of its ideal which does not, at the same time, help the living in some real practical and unsectarian way. ”

“ When a whole town passes, as Ypres and Louvain and Arras, then as it fell so let it lie. A kindly nature will slowly turn these bleak piles of fallen masonry into beautiful memorials, clothing them with grass and vines and flowers and trees. Let them stand so for ever, a memorial to the dead and a warning to man in his pride of life and insolence of will; and for the new cities, let them rise as beautifully as may be alongside, but not over, the graves of a dead era. ”

“ On either side of the chamber stand a few memorial statues,—real works of art,—each one of them keeping alive the memory of some one who in his life was either good or great. 156Many of the marble slabs in the sides and floor of the temple bear in plain, sunken letters, a name and two dates. Behind or beneath them are niches containing urns where rest the pure white ashes of the beloved dead. On a simple dais in the middle of the room lays the body of our beloved friend. ”

“ The great monument to King Victor Emmanuel, of mingled architecture and sculpture, a colossal structure of white marble with arches and pillars forming beautiful colonnades, the capital of each column heavily carved, and the sculpture, which is being done by a number of artists, will be of the most artistic and beautiful order. This memorial will occupy an entire block, and it is located very near the Capitol. All the old buildings in the vicinity will be torn down to give a fine vista for this transcendently noble and sumptuous memorial. ”

“ There stand the buildings of Washington and Lee University, in the chapel of which lies buried Robert E. Lee, and a short mile beyond is the Virginia Military Institute, from which Stonewall Jackson went forth to his fame. The memorial at Jackson's grave is appropriate, a figure in bronze, rugged as he was in face and attire, the image of him as he fought and fell. Different, but more impressive is the memorial of Lee. You enter through the chapel where the students gather daily, then passing the chancel, stand in a mausoleum, where nobly conceived in marble the soldier lies as if asleep. ”

“ The idea is to build a new hall outside London for all these relics of the past, where they may be viewed by the very few who are anxious to study the curios of an old worn-out civilisation. The Committee has come to the conclusion that our newly-revealed sense of modesty must inevitably be shocked by these indecorous memorials to our great men; and it has decided that the education of the masses must at once begin by the removal of objects more fit for a chamber of horrors than for the contemplation of pure-minded citizens. ”

“ He trusts, that, if he fall nobly, there will be for him the memorial window through whose blazoned panes the sunlight will fall softly across the "squire's pew," where as a boy he knelt and worshipped, or touch with a crimson and azure gleam the marble effigies of his knightly sires recumbent on their tombs. Or he thinks of a place among the lettered names high up on the old oaken wall of the school-room at Winchester or Harrow or Westminster,—that future boys, playing where he played, shall talk of him whom they never knew as "one of ours." ”

“ All we could do was to make an official declaration of the death at the town hall. A small linen sheet served as shroud, a clean, flower-lined soap box formed that baby's coffin, and Greorge and I were the grave diggers and chief mourners, who laid the tiny body at rest in the little vine-grown churchyard. War willed it thus.
When I got back from the cemetery I found another load of refugees installed in the courtyard. This time they proved to be a hotel keeper and her servants from the Ardennes. ”

“ The galleries, with marble columns and stone roofs, enclose a court with tall trees and a cistern in the centre. Numerous black memorial tablets let into the walls have failed to keep alive the memory of the dead. ”

“ Long after this great building, "Jubilee Hall," which is dedicated to their memory, shall have crumbled to dust and shall no longer mark the spot upon which it now rests; long after its present occupants and the Jubilee Singers, who gave it birth, along with this humble author, shall all have returned to their mother, dust, and be no more among the living creatures of earth, still the deeds of this most wonderful company of self-sacrificing singers and ex-slaves will ever live as imperishable monuments to their memory. ”

“ The Tobacco Exchange is the business centre, and this industry is of the first importance. The modern-built City Hall, adjacent to the Capitol Park, is one of Richmond's finest buildings.
In the western suburbs, upon the river bank, and in a lovely position, is the famous Hollywood Cemetery, the terraced sides of its ravines being occupied by mausoleums and graves, while in front the rushing rapids roar a requiem for the dead. The foliage is luxuriant; and, while occupying only about eighty acres, it is a most beautiful burial-place. ”