John and Deborah Seiter

John Seiter is a professor of Speech Communication. USU's barn was the location of his first office on campus, and the wellspring of many wonderful stories of camaraderie for both he and his wife Debora.

John Seiter remembers:

Antonio (a large ceramic pig from San Antonio that John keeps in his office) ended up being in the barn and it's the best conversation piece for a professor, especially a professor whose office is in the barn.... My students joked that there was a ghost in the barn. And of course a lot of things started being attributed to this, it started as a ghost, and it ended up as a pig ghost....for a while they were blaming it on my pig, and then it went from my pig to it's an actual ghost pig. And they had a name for it, it wasn't Antonio. I can't remember what the name was but, you know that banging (the building had steam heat) that happens at odd times when your in class. Sometimes your teaching and the banging would start and the students would go "It's the ghost pig."

I have an amazing office, third floor of Old Main, just a beautiful view of the Wellsvilles. But if someone was to tell me that I could move back to the barn, with air conditioning, and have the same crew that was there originally, I'd move back. I'm thrilled what they are doing with it because for a while I thought they would tear it down and that's so much a part of my memories of Utah State University.

I never noticed this, but...I do remember students telling me when it rained, that the barn, that they could still smell the hay.... I never smelled it but I heard some many students tell me that 'I can smell hay in here.' I'm saying eight to ten students said it that I thought maybe they had extra sensitive noses or something. I don't know if after years, and years, and years, it gets into the walls.

Debora Seiter remembers:

My uncle Mike (Miles Grant Davidson) is still alive and still lives in Magna, Utah and he is my mother's oldest brother. He was in WWII, and after the war he wanted to be an engineer….He took advantage of the GI bill and he went to USU. The irony of the whole thing is that my mother, who was much younger than my Uncle Mike actually came up here with him to inspect the school with him.... And so when my Uncle Mike knew that John had started teaching here, he wanted to come up and look around, and we walked him all over the campus. And, of course, a lot of the buildings were brand new, but he recognized the older ones, Old Main and he just really honed in on the barn. We took him in there because he knew John's office was in there and he could tell us things about well this used to be here and that used to be there, and thoroughly delighted him that it was still there.

Charlie (Huenemann) was the first person to accept an office outside the barn.... I remember feeling like, well gosh, this isn't going to be the same, and honestly it hasn't. People have kind of branched out and made new connections and networking. But the original group, and I am so glad there had been, three or four years that they were able to make a bond that would carry them elsewhere. But as far as recreating as a group and being able to bounce from office to office, still in your chair rolling around, or being able to have a snake, or whatever. Those times were over.

Dr. Don Smees

Today I had the pleasure of gathering the oral history of Dr. Don Smees of the ADVS who used to work in the virology lab on the second floor of the Art Barn. I am working on transcribing the interview but I think my favorite parts were about how he liked the lab because it had windows, the 400 salamanders he raised there on accident, ad how he thougt it was funny tht they had to cut the railin g to ge the giant hoods that they used up the stairs. He was funny when he was lamenting about wishing there was elevators there-especially when the oxygen guys came to deliver and whined about having to carry the heavy stuff up the stairs. Anywho happy Tuesday.

A lead for stories and an intresting ancedote

I was recently awarded a scholarship for the Art Barn project and in the letter from Gaylen L. Ashcroft, President of the Cache Valley Historical Society he relates in my award letter:

"I have a great interest in the horse barn. When I was a student at USU, it stabled horses and the cow barn was just west of the horse barn with a corral that occupied the area now occupied by the Taggart Student Center. As I remember, when they removed the cow barn, they planned to demolish the horse barn and actually started with a jackhammer; but the demolition seemed so difficult that they scuttled the idea and decided on a renovation for other uses. It is wonderful that it was saved."

He might be a good contact to get some stories out of.

The OTHER Art Barn

While looking for more sources about our Art Barn, I found out it's not the only one in Utah! The other "art barn" is the home of the Salt Lake City Arts Center, in Reservoir Park. It was built during the Great Depression as an art center. Our art barn is still unique, however, because the other art barn doesn't ever seem to have been a barn. There is a connection between the two art barns. From 1943-1963 there was a Logan Artists Group, many of whom were professors in the USU art department, and the group displayed their work at the Salt Lake City art barn. Since this group was around when the horse barn became the art barn, I wonder if the name of the SLC "art barn" provided any inspiration for the creation of our REAL art barn. Has anyone interviewed any members of the Logan Artists Group? Apparently the group disbanded because many of the members moved away or died, but the papers of the group are in special collections, and we might be able to find some surviving members.

Art Barn

In my research in the Student Life newspapers, I found an article about when our barn became the Art Barn. According to the article from January 30, 1959, the ceramics building burned down over the summer of 1958 (unfortunately there wasn't a summer paper, so I didn't get more details on the fire from this source - and it did say ceramics building as if it were a separate building).

By the time of the article, the old horse barn had been converted into the Art Barn. The first floor was used for the ceramics program, which was the largest in the West. It was described as having "taffy-colored" walls and cabinets, with "persimmon" colored doors and accents. The windows were covered with green material to provide the right lighting for throwing pottery.

On the second floor was 3D design, metal smithing, leather working, and jewelry making.

The third floor was for graphic arts, where they had a rare lithographic press, and a painting studio on the north end, for which the wall was replaced with windows for better lighting.

Skidmore follow-up

The Skidmore connection is a dead end. Like I said previously the Skidmores are a polygamous family. One half lives in the valley or in Eastern Idaho. That half has stayed LDS and is well connected with each other. The line that W.L. Skidmore (our architect) came from is scattered all over the West and points beyond. Most are not LDS, though there are six other architects of various generations, and they have little contact with each other. Also most are not LDS and know little of their family history. I think I have gathered more than they have!

Most of the contacts were excited that I had found that their great or great great grand father was an architect but that was all. Dead end on that front.

Though I did find out that W.L. did die in Blackfoot, ID in the 1970's.

Old barn, New barn

I've been digging through old newspapers, and have found out a little more about the destruction of the old barn and the building of our barn. The old barn was not burned down, but some students in editorials suggesting burning it down if the administration did not remove it - the article I read initially was one of those editorials, written like an actual article. Apparently the barn and its removal was a bit controversial. It was historic, one of the oldest buildings on campus and was considered a "model" barn, but as the campus grew around the barn it became a nuisance due to the smells/sounds/sights associated with it. It was finally removed throughout May of 1919.

On October 10th 1919 the new barn was completed. The article about it said that it was built by Alston & Hoggan of Salt Lake City for about $6,000. It was designed, they said, by members of the animal husbandry department with help from a local architect. It was designed to fit 11 horses, with 6 individual stalls and 4 box stalls. It had a cement floor, running water, grain bins, a hay and straw chute, harness room, office, and hay loft with hardwood floors. It was considered very modern and attractive. The article suggested that the hay loft would be a great place to hold a barn dance but, as someone else said in a comment, it doesn't look like they ever did so.

Does that mesh with what other people have found so far?

Man's Best Friend

In the 1943 yearbook I found a reference to the "cavalry motto" on the barn by the "new" vet building. I think this means the horse barn, and that would make the cavalry motto "Man's Best Friend." Has anyone found or heard anything else about the inscription on the barn?

That yearbook also lots of pictures of barns on campus, but it's hard to put them in context with our barn. What year were the other barns moved away?

Also, there are frequent mentions of barn dances around this time, and it sounds like some of them may have actually been held in barns. Any stories about dances in the horse barn?

W.L. Skidmore

In my quest to find out more about W.L. Skidmore, Architect I have discovered that he is NOT related to Skidmore Construction  . I spent time with Richard "Dick" Skidmore and he founded Skidmore Construction more that 50 years ago. He directed me to his brother Bill "William" Skidmore who lives in Brigham City. Bill is a geneologist and knew that his grand father William Lobark Skidmore had a son named William Lorenzo "Lonnie" Skidmore in his old age.Lobark was a polygamist that had two wives and 18 children; Lonnie is the half brother of Dick and Bill's dad. Unfortunately Bill stated that he doesn't know much about that side of the family but he did offer two tidbits

1. Jay (?) Skidmore was a Sociology professor here on campus and was the son of Lonnie. Jay's wife Hannah Jean might still be alive though remarried.

2. He would look up that side of the family and get in contact with me if anymore information was  forthcoming.

Dick did mention that there was a Skidmore architectural firm in L.A. and Bill mentioned one in Chicago. Leads.....

I am going to follow up on the LA and Chicago and let y'all know.

The Plot Thickens

I was going to post the information I found in the 1919 yearbook about the old horse barn burning down, but when I went through the yearbook again I found different accounts of what happened - the more detailed one seems to have been meant as a funny exaggeration of the destruction of the barn. So I think I'll be moving on to research in the old "Student Life Weekly" campus newspaper for more on what really happened to the old barn and what people thought about "our" barn.

Speech Communication in the Barn

Harold Kinzer is a retired Speech Communication Professor who wrote a detailed history of his connection to the Barn. Below are some excerpts which provide a feel for his relationship to the building, the students, and the program.

From 1994-2007, the primary Barn use was speech communication instruction, the Barn continued to be known either as the “Art Barn” or “PSYAL” (psychology animal lab).

During the 14 years that I was in the Barn, I began each term by joking that the Barn is where the university hid embarrassing professors. Possibly some students, after working with me, thought that this was a truthful statement. While I was out, an unknown student taped a vinyl clown to my office door. I took this as a compliment and kept it there until my retirement. Of course, I might have misunderstood the student’s intent.

Most students had a hoot presenting speeches in an actual barn haymow. While waiting for class to begin some students would explore the abandoned equipment I had piled on the first floor. None had seen electronic equipment with tubes. Yes, radios once had big glowing tubes!

Interview with Jerry Fuhriman

This is from an interview with local artist Jerry Fuhriman. He is a Cache Valley native, whose dad Wendell Fuhriman took care of the cattle and was a cattle judge on campus. In the 1960s, Jerry was a student at Utah State University and later became a faculty member of Landscape Architecture. He remembers art classes in the Barn:

I took a class in the Barn, and that would have been ceramics, it was either ceramics or sculpture, I could have had two classes but I remember that they were both from [Larry] Elsner. So my memory of the Art Barn is less the structure, and more the personality of the instructor.

I probably didn't appreciate how great of an artist he was at the time. I remember he was very, very quiet and you would show him your project, and unlike most people he wouldn't just start chattering about it right away. He would say nothing but he would pick it up and he would hold it, and he would caress it with his hands because part of the sculpture was just the tactile, you know the surface and how it felt, and the weight of it, and proportions and so. And then generally he would say something none committal like 'you know you might work on the form a little bit,' which left you wondering what you should do about the form.

It wasn't until years later, in fact, it's interesting that he was my professor when I was a freshman and he was also on my tenure committee. So I went a long time knowing him and then eventually collecting his work, and realizing what a terrific artist he was.

Text from interview

Manon Caine Russell ‘53, daughter of George B. Caine, longtime department head and dairy teacher Utah State University remembers campus and the barns:

He'd walk down the hill for lunch.... Well the barns were near the office. The Dairy department was on the north side of the Quad in that building. And the barns were behind that. Campus ended there…. Dad spent his life with the Dairy department at Utah State and it was a very important part of all of our lives. Of course we lived right across from campus, so we were there a lot.

When talking about campus today, she said:

It is not the same place at all. You know what I do think is fine though is that someone, in their infinite wisdom, kept the Quad free of classrooms and buildings, because it really adds to the beauty of the campus.... You see how much goes on there too. People play there. Rest there and study there when the weather is decent.

Manon Russell excerpt?

Jeannine, any chance you could excerpt a couple of nuggets from Manon's interview that would be appropriate for posting to the public web site? Nothing big--just an anecdote or two would be good to spice up the blog. -B

Folklore interview

I think the folklorists need some representation on this blog, especially since we outnumber everyone else.

Since interviewing is our first step, I thought I would post the suggestions Elaine made at our meeting and invite you to respond with what works or doesn’t work for you. I've added a few things I wish I had done.

Have them sign the release form before you get started – tell them what will happen with their interview and where it will be stored.

Background, get general information on the person:

Full name (correct spelling) When were you born? Where? Are you from Cache Valley?

Introduction

What is your first or strongest memory of the Art Barn?

How did you first encounter it? Did you walk by it, work in it, visit it?

Do you remember it with horses in (pre-1959), or ceramics, or offices?

What did it look like (or smell like)? Describe exterior, interior? Do you have pictures or articles?

Silence – give them a chance to recall memories

Stories- Tell me a story you remember from the barn - funny or sad?

Closing - Make sure that they know how to contact you if they remember anything else.

Thank you for your time.

Remodel Bid

Here is a 3 page bid that Anderson Lumber (now Stock Building Products) did for the remodel of the barn. As you can see there was extensive additions that changed the inside. This could be important for historic preservation.

 

 

 I have also found some letters from Dr. Twain Tippets, Chair of the Dept of Fina Arts and Dr. Groutage to President Chase requesting materials to make the Art Barn the a ceramic hub on campus as well as the materials, with estimates to do so. There is also a letter from the Board of Trustees to President Chase (all these are c. 1959) okaying the purchases and remodel. Another aside apparently there was no natural gas in Logan at the time so the kilns were heated through butane.

Blue Prints

Like I mentioned in the meeting I found the original blue prints for the barn. Unfortuately these files are HUGE and are not uploadable to either blogspot or imageshack.com. I can email them to anyone if they want them and I am giving them to Bonnie on Friday on a DVD so you can find them there too.

They are AWESOME, btw. So if any of you know anybody with web skills send me a holler and I would like to talk to them about resizing them so we can post them.

Art Barn 1962

Here is a photo of the Art Barn from 1962. You'll notice the changes from 1940 as well as the cultural changes, cars versus ponies.

Here is the Photo Info

Found at http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/USU_Photos&CISOPTR=2089&CISOBOX=1&REC=7
 600x498 Pixels with an unknown Author

The Blueprints will be up tomorrow

I'm not sure you should totally avoid the witty banter or biting social commentary, Jon! Thanks for setting this up and getting us going.

Some photos of the Barn

As this is our working group I will try to avoid the witty banter that normally acompanies my blogging. I will also endevour to not make bitting social commentary as well.

So my first post will be two photos of the barn I have collected. This photo is the original barn in 1916. You can see Old Main  behind and the Widsoe building to the left.

Below is the New Horse Barn taken in 1940.  It is still being used as a barn at this point.