History
The construction of Danforth Campus was accelerated through a profitable lease of several buildings to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. During the fair, Brookings Hall, Busch Hall, Cupples I & II Halls, Francis Field & Gymnasium (site of the 1904 Summer Olympics), Ridgley Hall, Eads Hall, and Prince Hall (a men's dormitory) were used as administrative and exhibition spaces. At the fair's conclusion, the newly-constructed buildings assumed their original functions as classrooms and administrative offices. Additionally, Francis Field and Gymnasium were converted for use by the Washington University athletic department.
The landscape design of the Danforth Campus was created in 1895 by Olmsted, Olmsted, & Eliot, a firm best known for designing New York City's Central Park. In 1899, after holding a national design competition, Washington University's administrators selected the Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson to design the entire campus. Cope & Stewardson, a firm known for its mastery of Collegiate Gothic, designed Brookings Hall as a centerpiece of a new campus plan. The plan, modeled after the distinctive quadrangles of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, has guided the construction and expansion of the Danforth Campus to the present day.
A large portion of the Danforth Campus is recognized as the Washington University Historic District, which achieved National Historic Landmark status in 1987.
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—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
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