Profiles of the Past—continued fice with but one restriction—the expenditures of the school must not exceed its income. In his book, The Story of Georgia Tech, Brittain set down his first project: the plan that the Board and the new president had agreed upDn to settle the troubles brought about by the second Greater Georgia Tech campaign: "At the outset it was planned to settle and conclude as harmoniously as possible the ill-feeling campaign recently completed. The proud and high-spirited college wanted less appeal to the public for help. Instead of such appeals, it was believed that it would be better and wiser to take the position that as a useful and potentially powerful i n s t r u m e n t a l i t y of the state, the school had a right to be supported and enlarged." Brittain's first break Then Brittain turned to his major task, rebuilding a faculty that had been seriously decimated as a result of World War I and the financial crisis of the period from 1919 through 1921. The Board, who named all new members of the faculty, agreed that each prospective new teacher or administrator must be interviewed by Brittain before his election by the Board. This eliminated the chance of friendly political appointments through members of the Board of Trustees. In his initial year, Brittain, always politically astute, got his first big break. A small, nearby college ridiculed in a printed pamphlet the low salaries paid by Tech, a school of national reputation, to its professors. Brittain seized the pamphlet, which was originally planned as a faculty-recruiting folder by the other school, and made it the center of his drive with the legislature for more money for Tech's faculty needs. That fall, a deficiency bill of $39,000 was pushed through the Georgia General Assembly. The new president immediately used the funds to raise faculty salaries. Meanwhile, Brittain received permission to approach the Carnegie Foundation for the $150,000 that it had promised Tech if the pledges to the Greater Georgia T e c h f u n d d r i v e r e a c h e d o v e r $1,500,000. The money was for Tech's new Physics Building which would cost roughly $200,000 with the rest of the money to come form the Tech fund drive. Brittain went to New York and was assured by the head of the Carnegie Corporation that the money would go to Tech. Construction on the Physics Building got under way, and by the fall of 1923 it was in use housing both the physics and architectural departments. 22
It was this building that established the architectural style for Tech's campus for the next twenty years. This style—English Collegiate—was agreed upon by Professors Skinner and Bush-Brown of the Architect Department and the new president. During the Brittain era, buildings costing more than $2,250,000 were erected on the campus, all of them bearing this architectural trade mark. Following the completion of the Physics Building, Brittain began work on another new building as well as a new department—Ceramic Engineering. Brittain, much more of an opportunist than his mild manner indicated, used a project of the Central of Georgia Railroad to trigger this campaign for support. The railroad had hired a geologist to make examinations and reports on the non-metallic minerals of the state. The Georgia newspapers—still true to the m e m o r y of H e n r y G r a d y — m a d e much of the fact that all of the samples of these minerals had to be sent to Ohio State University for analysis a,s there were no ceramic research or educational facilities in the South. Brittain immediately went to Columbus, Ohio, to check the tests himself. Satisfied that Georgia indeed had great potential in this valuable resource and that an educational and research program in this field was necessary for the economic growth of the state, Brittain invited the top men in the state who were involved in ceramic activities to a meeting in Atlanta to discuss the importance of developing the first ceramics department at Georgia Tech. After two meetings and a series of letters to those who couldn't attend, the president had secured over $500,000 in money, material, and equipment to start work on the school. Despite his statements concerning the raising of private capital for Tech use during the Greater Georgia Tech campaign wind-up. one of Brittain's first actions was to go after private funds for this building. It didn't take him long to realize that the state was neither interested nor financially able to properly support the growth of the school. The Ceramics Building was dedicated on November 15, 1924, a little more than a year after Brittain began working on the problem. The Ceramic Engineering Department was created the same year. The first big building program Brittain's building program be?an to pick up steam. In 1925, Brown Dormitory (complete name—Julius Brown Memorial Hall) was completed at a cost of $85,000 with the funds coming from the Brown Estate and the Greater Georgia Tech Campaign. T h e same year, the
$100,000 Emerson addition to the Chemistry Building was completed. The funds for the Emerson addition also came from the Tech Campaign. It was named for William Henry Emerson, who headed the Department of Chemistry from 1888 until his death in November 1924. Emerson, one of the most beloved members of the early Tech faculty, spent his final year on the campus as the last of the brave group who opened the college in 1888. As Tech's first dean, Emerson, speaking at the Quarter-Centennial celebration in 1913, recalled the problems of convincing people, especially the politicians, of the value and importance of technological education. In his tribute to Tech's first president that June day, Emerson said, "I recall at one time, and it was not too long ago, a member of the General Assembly actually moved that the state present this school to President Hopkins rather than pass the bill to support it for another year." Although this motion may have been made in jest, there was back of it the feeling of distrust that many people in the state felt concerning the new concept of education for the South that was the early Georgia Tech. During 1925, Harris Dormitory (named for the founder of Tech) was completed with the funds again coming from the Greater Tech campaign. New era in athletics Also in 1925, the first section of the concrete South Stands of Grant Field was completed. Along with the East Stands completed the year before and the West Stands finished in two sections in 1913 and 1915, this gave Tech the largest, best-equipped football stadium in the South at that time. The East-South Stand complex marked a new era in Tech athletics. It was built at a cost of $300,000 using hoped-for gate receipts and the good name of the Georgia Tech Athletic Association as the financing. Since that time, the Athletic Association has not erected a single facility using state funds. Yet, the State of Georgia holds titles to all of this property, and the Athletic Association still pays rent for its use. With the help of the money still left from the Greater Tech Campaign, federal monies from various agencies (including the WPA and P W A ) , private donations, and a stronger state support, Brittain managed to add a total of 22 buildings to the growing Tech campus. Included in this group were the Army Headquarters Building (1927), the Brittain Dining Hall (1928), Rose Bowl Field ( 1 9 2 9 ) , C l o u d m a n D o r m i t o r y (1931), the Naval Armory (1934), Techwood Dormitory (owned by a Federal Agency but used by Tech, 1935), another TECH ALUMNUS