A plan,7a campus, BY CHARLIE CASEY
When a little-known French architect meets a young and ambitious college president, the result is a vision for a campus and a model for American higher education. A fortunate meeting David Parish, if not realistic about his chances of building an empire in the hardscrabble frontier of northern New York, was honorable enough to ensure that a struggling young designer had work. With a fortune made in European banking and shipping, the Belgian financier had acquired thousands of acres along the St. Lawrence River, including the town of Ogdensburg. Parish had grand plans, first for an estate and ultimately a city. He began building his mansion in 1809, and three years later sent for an avant-garde French architect, Joseph Ramée, to design his dream. With
10 | UNION COLLEGE Winter 2013
Ramée came the architect’s wife and young son. But there were many obstacles—the War of 1812, a trade embargo with Canada, an economic collapse and a labor shortage—that would combine to thwart Parish’s dream. So, in January of 1813, no doubt feeling guilty, Parish brought Ramée and his family to Philadelphia in search of work. The cold and snowy trip, largely by sleigh, included a stop in Schenectady. Here Parish introduced the architect to a
young and energetic college president who was set to launch the ambitious expansion of a college not yet two decades old. Since assuming the presidency of Union in 1804, Eliphalet Nott had sought more room for the College. Housed in a cramped stone building known as (old) West College at the eastern edge of town, it