chapter 3:
Lancaster, Lankford and newman
More property fell under Longwood College’s umbrella while Fred Wygal was acting president in 1963. Vera O. Allen’s house on Madison Street was purchased. Within a four-year period, the college had bought a dozen pieces of property. Growth and improvement continued. Not just new buildings helped turn the institute into a thriving twentiethcentury college; at the same time, Longwood’s signature building, Ruffner, underwent a significant change. Part of it was turned into classrooms, and the kitchen was completely remodeled and upgraded, including the installation of new equipment. Soon to follow was a new shop building named for Samuel P. Graham, Longwood College’s business manager for many years. Then the Old Training School, which had been in use since 1913, was refurbished and used for the Department of Education and some of the social sciences. Expansion of the Dining Hall increased the seating capacity and eliminated the overcrowding problem. Rising enrollment resulted in the need for even more living quarters, and the construction of South Cunningham Hall added student rooms. Longwood had not completed its growth spurt yet. Even before South Cunningham began housing students, plans for expansion were under way. A new student activities building was in the works, and plans were under way for a new athletics field. Quite unlike the plans for the first student building, the state supported the need for the activity building in 1960s, and the result was a 34,695-square-foot building that had a bowling alley, pool tables and housed the post office. It also was home to the bookstore for a time. The structure was completed in 1966 and dedicated to Lankford on March 16, 1968. Lankford had even laid the stage for a fine arts complex before his retirement, and the groundwork for Iler Gymnasium also began in the Lankford years. One reason for all of the building during the Lankford years was the rapidly growing student population. Lankford followed Lancaster’s lead and continued the use of selective admissions. Still, in Lankford’s ten years as Longwood’s longwood university
Top Ruffner interior post 1963 renovations
Above Left
Samuel Graham, from The Rotunda March 15, 1967
Above Right
Current view of Graham Building
Below
Cunningham Hall, 1950
23
the first 175 years