A Statement from George IngramLike many of you, I spent half of my student years at Temple down in the basement of Thomas Hall, working at WRTI. (A good portion of the other half was spent in classes at Pete's Bar at 13th and Montgomery.) After graduation, I became a newspaper reporter for The Press of Atlantic City, The Times of Trenton, and The Philadelphia Inquirer before returning to Temple to labor in the vineyard of public relations.

With that as background, I want to explain why I support Temple's ambitious plans for the Main Campus. The blueprint for this effort is The President's Report to the Board of Trustees on Strategic Initiatives, and I encourage everyone to read it on Temple's Website.

First, let's address the complaint that the University is turning its back on the past.

Temple takes historic preservation seriously. The University has already allocated more than $20 million in Temple funds, State capital funds, and private funds for these Main Campus preservation projects:

---Historic Shusterman Hall, the former Bible Christian Hall located in the Park Avenue Historic District, was completely renovated with the review and approval of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Built in 1890, Shusterman Hall is used today as a conference center by the School of Law and the University.

---Rock Hall, on Broad Street near Cecil B. Moore Avenue, was completely renovated, and is now Philadelphia's premier venue for chamber music.

---College Hall, a City registered property next to Baptist Temple and the first building constructed specifically for Temple University, is being renovated for use by the Law School.

---The interior of Mitten Memorial Hall, a historic building at Broad Street and Berks Mall, was renovated for a new Student Health Service and a new Alumni Center.

---The IBC Student Recreation Center, a spectacular fitness center for students, which opened this past January as part of The Apollo complex; plus community activities, and entertainment, including, possibly, new headquarters for WRTI and a jazz/blues club and restaurant.

---A cyber-age classroom building, The Tuttleman Learning Center, which will open next May at 13th Street and Montgomery Avenue; and

---A new Student Recreation Field House, which will open in 1999 on a site west of Broad and Berks Streets.

Now, about Thomas Hall:

On May 26, 1998, the Architectural Review Committee of the Philadelphia Historical Commission recommended approval of the following Temple plan to continue Main Campus revitalization:

1. Temple University announced that, following discussions with Mayor Rendell and City Council President Street, it is prepared to withdraw a proposal for the partial demolition of Baptist Temple. The University is ready to work with the Foundation for Architecture and the Historical Commission to explore once again the potential feasible reuses of Baptist Temple within the framework of Temple's strategic initiatives and programmatic needs. (In recent years, the University has engaged in many studies of the possible uses of Baptist Temple.)

2. A private developer would renovate 26 rowhouses in the 1800 and 1900 blocks of the Park Mall Historic District. Most of these buildings, which date to the last quarter of the 19th century, have been vacant since 1983. Under this proposal, their character would
be preserved while they find new life as student oriented retail establishments, offices, and apartments.

3. There's a critical shortage of undergraduate beds on Temple's Main Campus. Over the next decade, the University plans to add 1,500 student beds to the Main Campus, dramatically increasing the number of undergraduates residing on campus. Part of this plan to create a more active and vibrant campus environment involves construction of a new Student Residence Hall for 507 students on a site extending from the southeast corner on Broad and Norris Streets to Norris and Park Mall.

The request follows an in depth study of seven possible locations for a new Student Residence Hall. The selected location is the only one that meets the University's programmatic needs at a feasible financial cost. It is a site that is wholly owned by Temple. It is near the available food services in the expanded Johnson/Hardwick Dining Hall. It is accessible for existing utilities, and it is on a site within Main Campus. This site would require demolition of Thomas Hall within the Park Avenue Historic District. The original church parsonage, located at 1938 Park Mall and known today as the Presser Learning Center, would be preserved. (As I mentioned earlier, another church within the Park Mall Historical District was magnificently preserved by the University as Shusterman Hall.) By the way, as our CFO, Martin Dorph, explained June 10 at a meeting of the Historical Commission, Temple plans to save Thomas Hall's stained glass windows. There are no plans (repeat), no plans to sell these artifacts.

This demolition will also remove a serious safety hazard that exists with the co-mingling of pedestrian and vehicular traffic along Watts Walk.

Personally, I don't like to see any piece of history destroyed. But I believe Temple's overall plan shows respect for the past while strengthening the future of our University.

Please post the e-mail, and keep me advised of any reunions. I'll probably some of you folks at the Hardship Committee meeting! ...and thanks for letting me share my thoughts on the subject with the Old Gang.

George