Spirit & Stone

Birge Hall

Birge Hall, home of UW’s Department of Botany, was erected in 1910. It took its current name in 1950 in honor of Edward Birge, a prominent zoologist, educator, and two-time president of UW-Madison. Birge was one of the country’s first great experts on lakes. He contributed to Lake Mendota being nicknamed “the most studied lake in the world.”  Birge, an attendee and teacher at First Congregational Church for most of his fifty years at UW-Madison, has the distinction of being UW’s first twice-appointed president. His second stint from 1918-1925 was filled with religious drama. Birge became a lightning rod at the height of the national antievolution movement. He was a target of politician and Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan. In 1921, at a rally of thousands of students at the Red Gym, Bryan charged that, under Birge’s watch, UW was leading to the downfall of Christian civilization by teaching evolution in its classrooms. A public war of newspaper op-eds between the two ensued, with Birge insisting that biological evolution and Christianity were not necessarily in tension. In one of his final op-eds, Birge articulated a view of the relationship of modern science to Christianity that generations of faculty, staff, and students have embraced since. Birge said:  I have taken part both in the religious and the scientific activities of the world in which I have lived, with no thought of conflict or even division between them. I have never found it necessary to justify religion to science or to excuse science to religion. I have accepted both as equally divine revelations, and both are equally wrought into the constitution of the world.  Continue to the top of the hill and head toward Bascom Hall. Stop to the left of the main doors at the large plaque.

South Hall and the John 8:32 Plaque

South Hall, built in 1855, is the second oldest building on campus. It was the original women’s dorm before what is now Chadbourne Hall was built, and it is now home to the administration of the College of Letters and Science. Like all early buildings at the university, South Hall at one time possessed a chapel that was an active part of student life for decades.  Besides daily prayer meetings, the chapel was periodically used for student pranks. In the 1860s some students led a cow into the chapel and tied it to a center pillar. When someone untied her, she ran down the hall, jumped through a window to the ground, and broke her leg. A student collection was taken up to reimburse the owner and pay the janitor for his services in cleaning up the mess.  A century after it opened, and long after the chapel disappeared, South Hall was adorned with an overt religious artifact. The Class of 1955 gifted the university a plaque with a quote from the Gospel of John 8:32: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Although the plaque cites the verse’s biblical source, it decontextualizes the saying. To put the statement in its fuller context, Jesus tells his followers that, if they hold to his teachings, they are truly his disciples—in which case “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Stripped of this theological context, the quote takes on a new significance as a testament to the university’s commitment to academic freedom and the pursuit of truth. Although its meaning has been secularized, the verse highlights the Bible’s continuing significance as a point of reference for the university’s educational mission.  Continue up Bascom Hill until the walkway forks. Look left toward Birge Hall for the next stop.

Music Hall

Looks like a church, doesn’t it? It was built in 1878 and first named Assembly Hall because administrators were eager to have a space to accommodate the entire student body in one place. Today, many high schools wouldn’t be able to fit into its original 800-seat auditorium, but back then UW’s student body hovered around 500. UW’s student population has exceeded over 40,000 for many years now.  The president of the university would deliver a “Baccalaureate Sermon” every spring in this hall. The first to do so was John Bascom. A graduate of Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary, Bascom was a profoundly Christian academic and minister who wrote many articles and books on what he called “natural theology.” He was a proponent of the social gospel and of the temperance movement, an especially controversial stance in a state with major beer makers.   Bascom believed in both the advancement of religious teachings and in the correction of social ills, even though today we often find them separated. For Bascom, his faith informed his teaching and scholarship, and the knowledge discovered at the university informed his faith. Bascom offers an instructive example of a Christian who integrated his vocational and religious lives. He also helps us better understand how such key parts of UW’s mission, such as the Wisconsin Idea, also have roots in this integration of faith and learning.  Continue heading up Bascom Hill, past the Law School on your left, until you reach South Hall and the plaque on its nearest corner for the next stop.

Park Street Bridge

Stand in the middle of the bridge, facing away from the lake, and look to your right to Chadbourne Hall. Back in 1871, this building was the Female College and women’s dorm. The Female College had been created a few years earlier to separate men and women students, who had been enrolling together since 1863. The UW president who insisted on the separation was Paul Chadbourne. After he retired and John Bascom took over, the Female College was disbanded and co-education resumed. The original name of the building was Ladies’ Hall. In 1901, in an act of ironic revenge, the University renamed it Chadbourne Hall in honor of the president in UW’s history least enthusiastic about co-education.  Chadbourne Hall included a room designated as a non-sectarian chapel, as did North and South Halls. It’s hard to believe now, but through the 1860s, daily chapel was a compulsory part of the university program. Attendance became voluntary in the 1870s. As much as chapel facilitated student religious life, it was also seen, especially by faculty and administrators, as necessary moral instruction for young adults. The architectural legacy of these chapels has been entirely erased by successive remodeling of the buildings, providing a stark reminder of how much differently the relationship between church and state was conceived at the beginning of UW’s history.  Continue across the bridge and begin your way up Bascom Hill. Stop on the first building on your left, Music Hall, for the next stop.

The Humanities Building

You’re now standing in the middle of the Humanities Building. Contrary to popular myth, the building was not designed to protect against antiwar student riots. The architectural style is aptly called “Concrete Brutalism.” It looks more like a Soviet-era bunker than a place where history is taught and music recitals are held. The building was part of a burst of construction in the 1960s to accommodate a fast-growing student body. It suffered from major budget cutbacks, leaving it with an imposing, austere façade of sharp angles and concrete that became a playground for skateboarders.  In the long hallways of this building, however, there are multiple connections with religion. The building is named after beloved historian George Mosse, a Jewish émigré who lost most of his family in the Holocaust and spent thirty years at UW. Mosse’s early career was in the history of religion, and his numerous books have shaped scholars of religion and political ideology for generations. Today, the Humanities Building houses the Mosse Program in History and the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. It also houses the Center for Religion and Global Citizenry, which succeeded the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions.   Another sign of religious presence is the Children of Abraham art installation in the courtyard of the Humanities Building, by artist Philip Ratner. The sculpture was commissioned by the Lubar Institute at its opening in 2006. With the name of the biblical patriarch Abraham lettered in Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it symbolizes the braided histories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and signals the university’s quest for a vibrant religious pluralism on campus.  Walk up the stairs of the Humanities Building and head west toward the walking bridge. Turn left before the bridge and look on your left into the Humanities courtyard for “Children of Abraham.” Then turn around and head to the middle of the walking bridge for the next stop.