UT began a School of Aviation under the direction of Professor W. R. Woolrich in 1929. It was one of five Curtis flying schools in the South. UT applied to the Guggenheim Fund Trustees to become the Guggenheim-funded school in the South. (They were not successful in the application, although Guggenheim representatives did visit the … Continued

A 1958 magna cum laude graduate of the university majoring in English and French, Marilou Awiakta has received international recognition for her writing, which blends her Cherokee and Appalachian heritage with science. A quote from her third book, Selu: Seeking the Cornmother’s Wisdom, is engraved in the River Wall of the Bicentennial Mall in Nashville; … Continued

The passage of the Million Dollar Bond Issue in 1917 by the Tennessee Legislature provided funds for the university to expand its buildings. President Ayres strongly advocated razing Old, East, and West Colleges to provide for a large, stately structure to crown the Hill, and the board of trustees adopted his plan. Alumni, among them … Continued

The mystery of the misspelling of President Ayres’ name takes on a life of its own when the history of the making of the plaques for Ayres Hall and the Agricultural Building (later, Morgan Hall) is reviewed. The firm that cast the plaques was Chicago Ornamental Iron Works. Architects Miller, Fullenwider and Dowling ordered the … Continued

The architectural firm of Miller, Fullenwider and Dowling of Chicago designed Ayres and Morgan Halls. Morgan Hall echoes Ayres’ architecture but lacks the tower and grander elements of the design. The firm used the Ayres plans for their design of the Olmstead Administration Building at the University of Evansville, built in 1921–22. That facility is … Continued

In 1924 President Morgan unsuccessfully sought a donor to install chimes in Ayres. In 1939 President Hoskins solicited information from Duke University about their bells, with an eye toward installation of chimes for Ayres. In 1940 the All Students’ Club installed chimes for the Ayres Hall Tower and floodlights lighting Ayres. The chimes were installed … Continued

The original plans for the 1921 building included the clocks, which were to be the official clocks of the institution. Limestone surrounds (10 feet in diameter) to frame clock faces on the four sides of the tower were part of the 1921 building, as were the openings for the hands and the structure for the … Continued

John S. Stewart, a 22-year-old employee of the Southern Ferro Concrete Company, was killed February 16, 1921, when the supporting cable of a scaffold just beneath the clock face on the east side of the building snapped because of the corrosive acid he was using to clean the building’s brick. In 2010 an anonymous donor … Continued

On November 26, 1919 (at 9:15 a.m.), the first brick was laid for the new building by Blanche Bingham, a sophomore from Bell Buckle who had been elected to represent the students. Although without ceremony or speeches, the event was attended by a large number of students and faculty. Bingham had a union card pinned … Continued

Ayres Hall and Morgan Hall were dedicated during the university’s commencement exercises (June 5–8) in 1921. Threshold of a New Day, the university record history of the institution from 1919 to 1946 (by James Riley Montgomery), recounts that the dedication proceedings were enlivened by efforts to get Governor Alfred Taylor to the ceremonies on time. … Continued