The post-World War II years saw an explosion of growth and change at Rice. New buildings went up, new curricula were instituted, new entrance requirements were adopted. After decades of stagnation, it all happened very fast. As soon as 1947 Homecoming had become what it is now–a time to explain all that change to returning alumni:
Bonus: And yet the comfort of tradition remains.
This one seems to have just given up and laid down. (Thanks to several alert readers who sent pictures of this most recent carnage!)
The list thus far. More research to come, and assistance from anyone accepted.
I fully expect WordPress to completely mangle the formatting, and I gave up on moving the years to the right, and on the other two columns (year demolished, president at time of opening)
Name Year Built
Lovett Hall 1912
Will Rice College Old Dorm (South Hall) 1912
Mech Lab and Central Plant (Power House) 1912
Baker College Commons (Central Dining Hall). 1912
Harris Gully Footbridge 1912
Rice Field (old Rice Stadium) 1913
Railroad spur 1913
Herzstein Hall (Phyics) 1914
Baker College Old Wing (East Hall) 1914
Chemistry Annex 1915
Hanszen College Old Section (West Hall) 1916
Wiess (President’s) House 1920
Rice Field House 1920
Keck Hall (Chemistry) 1925
Cohen House 1927
Engineering Annex (formerly Chemistry Annex) 1928
Cohen House kitchen addition 1929
Rice Stadium (old Rice Field south brick edifice 1938
the turnstile 1938
Navy ROTC 1941
Anderson Hall 1947
Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory 1948
Original Wiess College (North Hall) 1949
Fondren Library 1949
Huff House (O’Connor House 1949
Historic Rice Stadium 1950
Tudor Field House (Rice Gymnasium) 1950
Army ROTC Building 1951
Bonner Nuclear Laboratories 1953
Baker College – New Wing 1957
Hanszen College – New Section 1957
Will Rice College – New Dorm 1957
Baker College Master House 1957
Will Rice College Master House 1957
Wiess College Master House 1957
Hanszen College Master House 1957
Jones College – North and South 1957
Jones College Master House 1957
Baker College Entrances 1957
Rice Memorial Center 1958
Anderson Biological Laboratories 1958
Kieth-Wiess Geological Laboratories 1958
Hamman Hall 1958
Cohen House dining room additon and kitchen extension 1959
Cohen House garden – fountain and wall 1960
Rayzor Hall 1962
F&E buildings along Sunset 1964
Addition to old Wiess 1964
Brown College (The Tower) 1965
Brown College Master House 1965
Rice Health Center (Brown College Commons) 1965
Ryon Engineering Laboratory 1965
Central Kitchen (OEDK) 1965
Space Science and Technology Building 1966
Ley Track and Holloway Field 1966
Allen Center 1967
Herman Brown Hall for Mathematical Sciences 1968
Lovett College 1968
Fondren Graduate Research Wing 1969
Sid Richardson College 1970
Rice Media Center 1970
Martel Center (Art Barn, next to Media Center) 1970
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium 1970
Sewall Hall 1971
The R-Room 1972
East and West Practice Gyms 1979
Anderson Hall extension 1981
Seeley G. Mudd Computer Science Laboratory 1983
GradLands (Tidelands Motor Inn) 1983
Herring Hall 1984
Cox Mechanical Engineering Building 1985
Ley Student Center 1986
Allen Center Fourth Floor 1987
Rice University Police Department 1987
Alice Pratt Brown Hall 1991
George R. Brown Hall 1991
Cohen House office wing 1994
John L. Cox Fitness Center (original) 1995
Anne and Charles Duncan Hall 1996
James A. III Baker Hall 1997
Dell Butcher Hall (now Keck Hall) 1997
F&E Shop 1998
Rice Graduate Apartments 1999
Humanities Building 2000
Humanities Building 2000
Reckling Park at Cameron Field 2000
Morningside Square Apartments 2001
Martel College 2002
McNair Hall 2002
Brown College – The Quads and College Commons 2002
Jones College – Central 2002
Jones College – Master House 2002
Jones College Commons 2002
North Servery 2002
Wiess College 2002
South Servery Complex 2002
5620 Greenbriar Building 2003
Library Service Center (off-campus high-density storage) 2004
Jess Neely and Joe Davis Scoreboard 2006
Brochstein Pavilion 2008
Rice Children’s Campus 2008
Youngkin Center (and extensive renovation of gym) 2008
Rice Village Apartments 2008
Duncan College 2009
McMurtry College 2009
BioSciences Research Collaborative 2009
West Servery 2009
Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center 2009
South Plant 2009
Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen 2009
Lovett College – Baker Wing 2010
Abe and Annie Seibel Servery 2010
Baker College – New New Wing 2010
Will Rice College – Newer Dorm 2010
Rice Village Apartments 2010
Brockman Hall for Physics 2011
Wilson House (new Wiess Master House) 2011
Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Pavilion 2012
Anderson-Clarke Center for Continuing Studies 2014
George R. Brown Tennis Center 2014
Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center 2016
Wendel D. Ley Track & Holloway Field 2016
Moody Center for the Arts 2017
Cambridge Office Building 2018
Cambridge Parking Structure 2018
Social Sciences Building 2019
Music and Performing Arts Center (opera house) 2020
extension of the HRS dressing rooms
Data Center (south somewhere)
Tennis Courts (next to Wiess)
Student Tennis Courts (where McMurtry is now)
old baseball field (next to old Wiess, behind those tennis courts)
FE&P Training Center
NROTC firing range
Handball Court
HRS storage on east side concourse
car wash rack
new SRC
new SRC magister house
new WRC magister house
original baseball field (where track stadium is now)
Rose Garden
Thanks, Grungy.
I’ve been wondering for years if some of those additions were there in my time and I hadn’t noticed them.
There was also a building (more of a shack really, with a front porch) over near the track stadium. It served as the Rice recycling center. We’d go over there and break up glass into large barrels to be loaded into the back of a beat up old pick-up (3 on the tree). We would take the glass over to the east side at Anchor Glass to sell. No idea when the shack was built or torn down but it was there in the late 70s and early 80s. I’ve never been able to pin-point it in any of Melissa’s photo postings.
Your listing of the Weiss House (now the President’s residence) raises an interesting question: How to account for buildings that were not part of the Institute/University at the time of construction, but later came to be owned by the school?
With respect to Tidelands (was it not originally the “Tides II”?), you seem to handle that by listing the date that the property became part of the school (or was remodeled as part of the acquisition–I’m not sure of the dates of each).
Additions:
Baker College Commons (Central Dining Hall) expansion in 1938. (Per Stephen Fox’s Campus Guide)
In 1957, Hanszen, Will Rice, Jones, and Wiess Colleges each had a Commons building built. The Wiess Commons was remodeled in 1975. The Hanszen Commons was destroyed in a fire in 1975, and replaced by the second commons in 1976. The second Hanszen Commons was torn down in 2001 and replaced by the third Hanszen Commons and South Servery in 2002. (All of this per Stephen Fox’s Campus Guide.)
Excellent!
I’ll point out that Jones itself was built in ’57, with the included commons.
We’re going to have to draw the line somewhere for inclusions to this list, and if we include all remodels it’s going to become quite cumbersome. I propose setting the inclusion threshold at “changes to footprint (area)”. Did the remodeling of Wiess Commons in ’75 change the included area? I just don’t know, and I have yet to look at the Fox guide.
The destruction of Hanszen Commons by fire and subsequent rebuild, even if it didn’t change the area, seems worthy of inclusion.
I welcome comments on these factors as well.
The Fox guide doesn’t say whether the Wiess Commons remodel changed the footprint. You’d probably have to ask someone who was there at the time.
I was thinking about footprint. There could be a graph of total square feet for Rice year by year, along with lines for square feet added or demolished that year. 1957 would show a massive jump.
Regarding the Wiess Commons remodeling. Yes, it almost doubled the floor space by expanding to the interior side, one next to the residential rooms. That new wall was mostly window, making the commons brighter and more welcoming. Another neat feature was a sort of mezzanine walkway running the length of the commons to a projector room at the end. We had a foosball table up there. Also great for lights for WTT.
The comments on this past posting said the footprint was changed, and describes the change:
https://ricehistorycorner.com/2016/03/07/barbara-jordan-1977/
It was before my time, but I remember when I read that comment, that it made sense based on what I remember of Weiss Commons.
In the past week we’ve narrowed one thing down fairly well – the windowless building on the west side of the locker room complex on the south end of HRS was a weight room.
I found a photo showing the ground preparations for it in the online Thresher archives, from Spring ’84. The caption said that it should be complete in Fall ’84.
However, we also have a report from that era’s strength and conditioning coach, Keith Irwin, who says that it opened in Spring ’86. I do not doubt him, but I’d like to find the reason for the disparity in the years.