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chapter 8 the 1900s a temple grander, lovelier T he Civil War had a great effect on Eclectic, as previously discussed; the Spanish-American War, just before the turn of the century, less so. There are a number of reasons for this. The war was much shorter (Secretary of State John M. Hay characterized it as ‘‘a splendid little war’’); it caused far fewer casualties on both sides; and its results produced far less national trauma. Eclectic men served in the war, but much less was made of their service than was made of that of theirelder and younger brothers-in-arms. An exception is highlighted in a letter of William North Rice (1865) to his son, Edward L. Rice (1892), dated April 1, 1899. Billy relates reports concerning Brother Charles R. Blundell (1891), a physician serving in Florida in the Army Medical Corps. Other medical officers reportedly went into town ‘‘bumming’’ (i.e., carousing ), leaving the men under their care to suffer—mainly from malaria and yellow fever, but surgeon Blundell was a ‘‘model . . . a pattern of conscientiousness and self-sacrifice.’’ He stayed behind to minister to the sick . . . and even gave up his quarters to house the wounded and diseased. The events were mentioned in the address of G. ‘‘Rowley ’’ Munroe (1893) at the annual Eclectic banquet in March 1899, and Billy commented that they were ‘‘told beautifully . . . and touching[ly].’’ The purist reader may object that the Spanish-American War belongs to the last decade of the nineteenth century, and that is true. In a larger sense, however, the war marked the United States’ entry onto the world stage as a great power—and the historyof that role belongs to the twentieth century. Events in the Eclectic Society of Phi Nu Theta in the last two or three years of the nineteenth century also presage developments in the next century. Chief among these was the development of plans for and the construction of a fraternity house that would include living quarters for undergraduates. The minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Socratic Literary Society, the alumni organization specifically 55 chartered to undertake capital projects, discussed a plan in 1898 to expand the existing clubhouse to include undergraduate living quarters, but the next year, the minutes of the Socrats’ Annual Meeting (June 27, 1899) record that the plan was withdrawn and a committee appointed to look into the construction of a new house in a different location. To accommodate undergraduate desires for living accommodations, the Board of Directors (an executive committee composed of resident Socrats ) was authorized to lease a ‘‘dormitory structure’’ for their use for the academicyear 1899–1900 and for fiveyears thereafter.The structure was a house at 246 High Street.The Socrats’ minutes make no mention of the actual location, but the undergraduate minutes of the Regular Meeting on May 13, 1904, refer to the residence house at that address and to the fact that brothers would have to pay past bills before they could select a room for the next academic year.Three years earlier rules for the ‘‘dormitory’’ had been adopted1 and provision made for room rent to be on the same basis as the term tax.2 The seven years from 1900 to 1907 witnessed the complicated process of authorization (Socrats’ Annual Meeting of June 26, 1900), financing and fund-raising, groundbreaking (June 27, 1906), laying of the cornerstone (November 5, 1906), first use of the new Eclectic House at 200 High Street at the Annual Meetings held consecutively (as was the custom ) on June 25, 1907, and formal dedication of the new facility on October 11, 1907. The cost associated with the new edifice was initially estimated to be $30,000, to be raised by subscription; but by 1903 the estimated cost had risen to $50,000;3 and by completion of the building in 1907, the chairman of the Socrats’ Building Committee, H. C. M. Ingraham, gave the total cost as about $20,000 for the land and $40,000 for the building.4 After initially flirting with the idea of purchasing the Connecticut State Building from the recently concluded St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Centenary Exposition, disassembling it, and moving it to Middletown, the Building Committee of the Socrats—at the urging of member Stephen H. Olin—decided to engage architect Henry Bacon of New York City.5 His sketches and floor plans, presented to a special Socratic Literary Society meeting in NewYork...

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