Harriet Lyon was born in 1863 in Albion, New York. Lyon's family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia in 1867 when her father was appointed as Professor of English at the newly formed West Virginia University. &nbsp;As a teenager, Harriet was able to sit in on college classes at the university in an attempt to promote co-education on campus.

Harriet Lyon's love of learning would result in her being the first woman to graduate with a degree from West Virginia University.&nbsp; She transferred from Vassar College in 1889 as one of ten women admitted to study at West Virginia University in the school’s first year of co-education.&nbsp; She was interested in languages, taking classes in both Latin and Greek.&nbsp; Because her credits from Vassar were transferable to the university, she was able to graduate ahead of her fellow female classmates in 1891.&nbsp;

Harriet did not have an easy experience as a member of the first co-educational class at West Virginia University.&nbsp; She faced obstacles and hardships as a result of her sex.&nbsp; In an article she wrote for the WVU Alumni Magazine in 1936, Lyon said that she had been made to feel like an intruder by her fellow classmates [2].&nbsp; &nbsp;She remarked that her poor treatment at the hands of her classmates had led to emotional exhaustion upon graduation.&nbsp; Although Harriet faced many trials during her educational process, she maintained perfect grades and graduated at the top of her class.&nbsp;

After graduating from West Virginia University, Harriet moved to Fredonia, New York.&nbsp; She married a man named Franklin Jewett on Christmas Day in 1893 and went on to have three children.&nbsp; She died in May 1949.

In 1989, West Virginia University named a residence hall after Harriet Lyon to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of women studying at West Virginia University.

Photo courtesy of @LyonTowerWVU Twitter account

Two of the Towers dormitory buildings under construction, early 1960s.  Photo courtesy of the West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries.

Undated portrait of Harriet Lyon, after whom Lyon Tower was named.  Photo courtesy of the West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries.

Lyon Tower is named after the first woman to graduate with a degree from WVU, Harriet Lyon.  Lyon graduated at the head of her class in June 1891. Nearly a century later, West Virginia University officials named this structure in honor of Harriet Lyon's career and scholarly achievements.

Lyon Tower

After the Second World War, West Virginia University experienced a dramatically increased expansion of its student body as veterans returned from that conflict and entered higher education under the auspices of the G.I. Bill. Like many such universities that experienced similar growth, WVU chose to expand its facilities in response. In 1948, it purchased the Krepps and Dille farms in the Evansdale area outside Morgantown. Thirteen years later, the first structures on the new Evansdale Campus (the Agricultural Sciences Building, Agricultural Sciences Annex, and Engineering Building). Four years later, the Towers Dormitories and Percival Hall followed. The campus has since expanded to include the Creative Arts Center complex, the Earl L. Core Arboretum, and the WVU athletics complex known as the Coliseum. A number of university museums, art exhibits and galleries, and the Evansdale Library are also scattered across the campus in addition to athletic facilities and health services. The campus is also serviced by the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system, which connects it to the downtown and Health Sciences campuses.

Although we are young the&nbsp;WVU&nbsp;Division of Forestry and Natural Resources’ Natural History Museum has already made great strides. In 2007 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Estler graciously donated to&nbsp;WVU&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://wvnaturalhistory.wvu.edu/estler_collection" title="Link: http://wvnaturalhistory.wvu.edu/estler_collection">Robert Estler Collection</a>. The Estler Collection includes about 400 taxidermied wildlife mounts. We have developed a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://wvnaturalhistory.wvu.edu/r/download/77643" title="Link: http://wvnaturalhistory.wvu.edu/r/download/77643">Museum Concept Plan</a>&nbsp;to renovate the Percival Hall Lobby into the Natural History Museum. Moreover, we have received several donations to help build the natural habitat dioramas. Currently we have funding for one diorama and partial funding for a second. However, many named still exist if we are to have enough funding to build our initial 20 displays. In the future we would like to have a fully-functional stand-alone building to house our Natural History Museum.

Our natural history museum was created in 2008 and is currently housed in classrooms 308 and 309 Percival Hall on the Evansdale Campus at WVU. We created a natural history museum for West Virginia because we believe natural history museums are critical for educating future resource managers and the general public. We also believe that natural history museums are an essential component of a comprehensive land grant institution particularly in a rural state like West Virginia where people embrace a strong connection with the land.

WVU Natural History Museum

As West Virginia University began to expand with the growth of higher education after World War II, student housing and classroom facilities on the school’s campus in downtown Morgantown quickly began to prove themselves inadequate. While the university purchased the land upon which its satellite Evansdale Campus eventually stood in 1948, however, it would take over a decade before it finished construction on the first facilities there. The new Evansdale Campus was intended to serve as the new home of the university’s Colleges of Agriculture and Engineering, which moved onto the campus in 1961. Four years later the Division of Forestry (part of the College of Agriculture) moved to the recently constructed Percival Hall, and fours years after that the College of Education and Human Services followed it to an addition to the building that came to be known as Allen Hall. In 1973, the conjoined buildings were renamed along with two other university buildings. Percival Hall was named for Walter Clement Percival, founder and first director of the Division of Forestry, who was largely responsible for the department’s success and growth in its earliest years. Allen Hall, meanwhile, was named for James E. Allen, Jr., a native of Elkins, West Virginia who briefly served as Commissioner of Education for Richard Nixon before resigning over disagreements regarding Nixon’s slow-paced approach to school desegregation.While West Virginia University was originally founded as the “Agricultural College of West Virginia” in 1867 and the College of Agriculture has continued to be one of its most impactful departments since, it would take over sixty years before the school branched into the study of forestry. The impetus behind the establishment of the Division of Forestry at WVU was rooted largely in several decades of growing support nationwide for the movement toward forest conservation in the face of widespread deforestation. It would take a final push from College of Agriculture faculty member Walter Clement Percival in 1934, however, for the university to approve the creation of a Division of Forestry. When it did so the following year, Percival moved quickly to develop a four-year curriculum in forestry emphasizing responsible timberland management. As part of his efforts Percival secured the lease for 7,400 acres of forested land at nearby Coopers Rock for use by students as the University Research Forest, which remains under the management of the Division of Forestry to this day. Through such endeavors, Percival was able to mold his department into one of the most successful at the university, so successful in fact that within a few short decades its growth merited a move to new facilities. These facilities, constructed on the new Evansdale Campus in 1965, were named after the man who made it all possible eight years later in 1973.Percival Hall’s neighbor, Allen Hall, gained its name the same year. Unlike Percival Hall, however, Allen Hall’s namesake James E. Allen, Jr. is associated not with the university or the building’s occupant (the College of Education and Human Services) but with the broader history of the state and nation. Born in Elkins, West Virginia in 1911, Allen earned his bachelor’s degree from Davis and Elkins College in 1932 (where his father served as president) and his Ph.D. in education from Harvard University in 1945. Allen then went on to join Department of Education in New York, where he became the state’s Commissioner of Education in 1955. During his time as head of the education system in the state Allen took a firm stance in favor of the desegregation of New York’s public schools, a decision that at the time earned him equal parts praise and condemnation. His work there brought him national attention and in 1969 he joined the administration of President Richard Nixon, first as Assistant Secretary of Education and then as U.S. Commissioner of Education. When Nixon chose to abandon the aggressive desegregation policies of his predecessor President Lyndon B. Johnson in an effort to avoid alienating his more conservative supporters, Allen chose to resign in protest. He died the following year at the age of seventy and received numerous posthumous awards in recognition of his outspoken support for desegregation. Among those honors was the naming of Allen Hall on Evansdale Campus two years after his death.At the time of its renaming, Allen Hall’s occupant (the College of Education and Human Services) already had a well-established history at the forefront of its field. Before its move to Evansdale Campus in 1969 the college occupied Woodburn Hall on the downtown campus, from which it worked to develop cutting-edge curriculum reforms based on its research at University High School (a “laboratory school” founded by the college in 1925 to service rural areas in Monongalia County). Its expansion in the 1960s to include the Division of Clinical Studies (made up of several departments, among them counseling, social work, and home economics) drove the university to approve the construction of new facilities for the college. Like the Division of Forestry, the expansion of the College of Education and Human Services translated into new headquarters on a new campus. It moved into Percival Hall’s addition in 1969, and once there joined its long history of educational reform to the name of an individual that privileged principles over politics. Like Percival Hall, Allen Hall’s name connects the college inside it to much broader historical processes. Together, both draw the university and Evansdale Campus into a web of such processes across the state and the nation.

Soon after it completed new facilities for the Colleges of Agriculture and Engineering on the Evansdale Campus, West Virginia University moved forward with plans for Percival Hall as the new home of the Division of Forestry. Construction finished in 1965, and four years later the building was expanded with an addition known as Allen Hall. Both buildings opened with different names and gained their monikers in 1973. The former is named in honor of Walter Clement Percival, the founder and first director of the Division of Forestry. The second is named for James E. Allen, Jr., a West Virginia native and the Commissioner of Education for President Richard Nixon. Through their associations with these individuals, Percival and Allen Halls connect the site to both the history of natural resources management in West Virginia and the history of school desegregation nationwide. The connected structures currently house the Division of Forestry and College of Education and Human Services respectively, both of which are open during regular university hours.

Percival Hall and Allen Hall

The new Agricultural Sciences Building was built after it was determined that the old agricultural sciences building had too many structural issues to undergo major renovation. It was a significant part of the re-imagining of agricultural sciences at WVU's Davis College. The excavation started on September 12, 2013, and the building opened nearly three years later. The facility is five stories tall with 207,000 square feet and is adjacent to the old building.&nbsp;The building includes two computer labs, six general purpose classrooms, and numerous departmental teaching and research laboratories that support a variety of disciplines such as entomology, genetics, animal sciences, landscape architecture, soil science, human nutrition, and more.&nbsp; Many sustainability features are incorporated into the building's design, including&nbsp;an energy recovery system that captures heat or cold exhausted from laboratories and&nbsp;HVAC&nbsp;system that reduces exhaust from unoccupied laboratories; occupancy and motion sensors in many rooms; and a green roof on the west side of the building, which helps with regulating building temperature, reducing maintenance and replacement of roof systems, and retaining more stormwater than a typical roof. The green roof also provides beautification and improves air quality. Featured in the main lobby is the Pamela Mann Quilt, handcrafted by Pamela Mann, an interior design alumnus from the Davis College's class of '89. The quilt was designed to commemorate the opening and dedication of the new building. The quilt features representations of the various disciplines within the Davis college, including Land Management, Horitculture, and Landscape Architecture. Other finishing touches throughout the building include custom hardwood furniture&nbsp; from Gat Creek, a local West Virginia manufacturer.

The new West Virginia University Agricultural Sciences Building opened September 9th, 2016 and lies adjacent to the original Agricultural Sciences Building that was built in 1961, which had not undergone any significant renovations since its completion. It is a five story, 207,000 square foot building that is nestled in WVU's Evansdale campus and pays homage to the college's land-grant heritage. It was designed to accommodate the needs of the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, and features research labs that support animal and nutritional sciences, landscape architecture, and soil sciences, among other things. 

New Agricultural Sciences Building

The first iteration of a library on the Evansdale campus was opened on the second floor of the engineering building in 1961. After the transfer of all engineering and agricultural library materials from the Main Library to this new facility, there was not enough space to store all of the library's collection. This lack of space became even more apparent with the growth of enrollment and graduate programs and the resulting student population boom.&nbsp; A new, separate library was planned to serve Evansdale campus.&nbsp;The initial plans included three floors with the option of adding an additional two floors when needed.
Floor space of 62,000 square feet would provide seating for approximately 550
students and hold around 300,000 volumes. The new library was to house the Agricultural/Engineering Library, Education, and Physical Education materials.&nbsp; Groundbreaking for the Evansdale Library occurred on July 7, 1978. There were several construction problems and delays before the library finally opened to the public on November 19, 1980. The final cost of the facility was $3,601,800. Books were transferred from the Agricultural/Engineering and Main libraries until January 15, 1981. Evansdale Library provided students with access to new services including online literature searching and bibliographic instruction. &nbsp;&nbsp; On December 2, 1991, Evansdale Library was designated a U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository Library. This entails that the library receives current copies of U.S. Plant Patents and provides access to USPTO patent and trademark databases. All the tools needed to carry out a preliminary patent or trademark search are available in the library.&nbsp;Evansdale Library is the only Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) in West Virginia.&nbsp; The Evansdale Library currently houses a painting by Amy Schissel. Schissel is a Canadian artist and&nbsp;an assistant professor who teaches painting&nbsp;at WVU's School of Art &amp; Design. The painting is acrylic on canvas and emphasizes Schissel's self-described style of&nbsp;“imaginative reinventions of our contemporary landscape."&nbsp; Since July 2017, WVU's CESTA (Community Engangement in Science Through Art)&nbsp;program members have displayed their completed interactive science-art installations in the Evansdale Library. The projects have included 2017's "Object D4h," a rotating sculpture&nbsp;exploring molecular symmetry and 2018's "Cytochrome C," a sculpture inspired by the protein's role in the biological electron transport chain across all kingdoms of life.

Evansdale Library is located on the Evansdale campus of West Virginia University. It is currently located next to the Agricultural Sciences building. The library was built with the purpose of supporting the academic research and programs specific to Evansdale campus. It contains resources centered on agricultural disciplines, computer science, education, engineering, landscape architecture, art, forestry, music, theater, physical education, and mineral resources. 

Evansdale Library

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson is an African American physicist and mathematician. She worked for NASA and made contributions to the United States’ aeronautics and space programs with early application of digital electronic computers. She conducted technical work that spanned decades. Her work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency plans for many flights from Project Mercury, including the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.Born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, Katherine Coleman was the youngest of four children. Her parents emphasized the importance of education to their children and, because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African American students past eighth grade, the Coleman parents arranged for their children to attend high school in Institute, WV. The family split their time between Institute during the school year and White Sulphur Springs in the summer.At 18, Coleman began attending West Virginia State College, a historically Black college in Charleston, West Virginia. While studying, she took every math course that the college offered. She graduated in 1937, with the highest honors and degrees in both Mathematics and French, and took a teaching job at a Black public school in Virginia.In 1938, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada that states that provided higher education to white students also had to provide it to Black students. Coleman left her teaching job and, in 1939, became one of three African American students (and the first African American woman) to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University. She quit after one session, choosing to start a family with her husband, James Francis Goble, whom she had married in 1939. They had three daughters before James died in 1956.At a family gathering in 1952, a relative mentioned to Katherine that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which became NASA in 1958, was hiring mathematicians. Johnson applied and was became a part of the early NASA team in 1953. She worked as a “computer,” analyzing topics for aircraft, until 1958, when she began working as an aerospace technologist. She calculated the trajectory for the May 5, 1961 space flight of Alan Shephard, the first man in space. Johnson was called to verify numbers when NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around the earth. Later, Johnson worked directly with digital computers, calculating the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.Throughout her life, Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers. Her social influence as a pioneer in space science and computing is demonstrated by the honors she has received, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which she was presented by President Barack Obama on November 24, 2015. Additionally, in December 2016, the film Hidden Figures was released. Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, it follows Johnson and other female African-American mathematicians (Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan) who worked at NASA.

Room G64, located in the Engineering Sciences Building (ESB) on West Virginia University's Evansdale Campus, was renamed the Katherine Johnson Conference Room in early 2017, shortly after the film Hidden Figures was released. The film tells the story of a team of African American women mathematicians, including Johnson, who served a vital role at NASA during the early years of the US space program. Born in White Sulfur Springs, Katherine Johnson was one of three students to desegregate WVU's graduate school in 1939. 

Katherine Johnson Conference Room

Since the 1930s, West Virginia University
 has collected historical artifacts and archival materials from the 
mining and petroleum industries. The collecting began within the 
University’s School of Mines, which was later named the College of 
Mineral and Energy Resources (COMER). A museum, known as the COMER
 Museum, was formally organized in the mid-1980s, and the construction 
of a dedicated museum space was approved. At that time, the COMER
 Museum established its mission of “preserving and promoting the social,
 cultural, and technological history of the coal, oil, and natural gas 
industries of West Virginia through the collection, preservation, 
research, and exhibition of historical objects and archival materials.”

	The West Virginia Coal Mining Institute endowed the COMER
 Museum with a substantial pledge in 2005. As part of the endowment 
agreement, the Institute was given the opportunity to rename the Museum.
 The Institute requested that the Museum be renamed The Royce J. and 
Caroline B. Watts Museum in honor of “two individuals who have 
tirelessly supported its mission through both financial support and 
other resources.”

	Royce J. Watts, a WVU
 faculty member for over fifty years, and his wife, Caroline B. Watts, 
are long time supporters of the Museum and the state of West Virginia’s 
mining heritage. Royce and Caroline Watts spearheaded the establishment 
of the COMER Museum and made significant 
contributions towards the its growth and development. The Royce J. and 
Caroline B. Watts Museum reflects, supports, and preserves Royce and 
Caroline Watts’ dedication to West Virginia’s mining industries and 
their devotion to West Virginia University.

The Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting the social, cultural, and technological history of West Virginia’s coal and petroleum industries through the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of historical objects and archival materials. 

The Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum

The Nath Sculpture Garden was fully funded and directed by Dr. Joginder Nath. While his love of the arts made the sculpture garden a reality, it was Nath’s scientific achievements that brought him to Morgantown. Born and raised in India, Nath received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Panjab University and his doctorate in genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nath was one of three professors hired by WVU in the 1960s to start a genetics and developmental biology program. He spent more than 40 years at WVU, winning national awards for his research and teaching and investing in his student and the university community. His philanthropy supported lecture series, the Student Food Pantry, and restoration of the Metropolitan Theatre, efforts that led to his induction in the highly regarded Order of Vandalia. Nath’s wife, Charlotte, is a retired family medicine specialist in the WVU School of Medicine. Former WVU landscape architecture professor Ashley Kyber described the Naths as “lights of the community.”Shortly before his retirement in 2009, Nath supported the development of the Art Museum of WVU by donating funds to create a sculpture garden and courtyard in the front lawn. The Naths frequently attended exhibits and performances at the Creative Arts Center and enjoyed visiting museums while traveling. The new art museum, located in the former Erickson Alumni Center building designed by architect Michael Graves, would be a premier center for the arts in West Virginia. Designing a sculpture garden would expand the museum’s ability to share works of art with the public and make use of the greenspace between the museum and the well-traversed Patteson Drive.The Nath Sculpture Garden opened in 2016, providing the WVU community with a unique outdoor space to enjoy. WVU students and professors in design, landscape architecture, and related programs were instrumental in developing the sculpture garden. In an interview with WVU Today, Nath described his passion for this project, “The sculpture garden emphasizes nature and art in a space people will find appealing and attractive—a place they will want to spend time. It extends the museum setting to the outdoors for art to be appreciated and enjoyed by many and for students and faculty to learn and grow.”The design of the Nath Sculpture Garden was inspired by Nath’s role in the community and his personality. The garden features a path, an open field, and various symbolic elements, such as the pyramidal lanterns. The lanterns symbolize Nath’s relationship with his wife. A lover of visual stories of pace, Nath hand selected each rock incorporated into the project, one of them he called “The Fishtail,” which is located by the lantern dedicated to his life.The sculpture garden acts as an extension to the geometric forms of the Art Museum, designed by modernist architect Michael Graves. The Art Museum’s angular shapes contrast the softness of the sculpture garden. At the same time, the different designs of the sculpture garden and Art Museum’s architecture complement one another. The works of art in the garden were selected from around the world. According to Art Museum Director, Joyce Ice, “We want our students, faculty, staff and visitors to experience art from the U.S. and around the globe while enjoying the beauty and serenity of this outdoor space.”Works include Odell Prather's Steel Sonata, Wayne Trapp’s The Spirit of Growth 2015, He Zhenhai’s Bridge, Laxon Karisi’s Human Suffering, Shy Woman, and Spirit Bird, Bernard Matemara’s Protecting her Eggs, and Brighton Sango’s Shy.Joginder Nath passed away in December 2016, his sculpture garden a timeless legacy of his dedication to the WVU community.

The Nath Sculpture Garden is a 2.5 acre garden in front the Art Museum of WVU. It features a labyrinth-like path, works of art, and a variety of plants. The sculpture garden was developed and funded by the late Dr. Joginder Nath, professor emeritus and former chair of the genetics and developmental biology program at WVU. All rocks and plants incorporated in this garden were hand selected by Nath and the WVU School of Design and Community Development, and a number of programs at WVU contributed their time and talents to realizing this project. The garden features sculptures by artists from the United States, China, and Zimbabwe. The Nath Sculpture Garden opened in 2016, shortly after the opening of the Art Museum of WVU, and is open year-round.

Nath Sculpture Garden at Art Museum of WVU

Built between 1984 and 1986, the Museum Education Center (MEC) was built to serve as the original Erickson Alumni Center. It contained offices for employees of the WVU Alumni Center Association and served as an event space for alumni functions. The building can be roughly bisected lengthwise. The half of the building near the entrance contains offices and conference rooms on both floors. The other half of the building is occupied by a grand hall space that encompasses both floors and connects to the outdoor patio. The building served as the Erickson Alumni Center until 2008, when the building that currently houses the center was completed just down the road on Patteson Drive.The completion of the new Erickson Alumni Center building was serendipitously timed. WVU decided to erect the newly approved Art Museum of WVU attached to the original – and at that point vacant – alumni center. The original alumni center building was converted into the Museum Education Center. In many ways, the Museum Education Center has remained true to its original functions. The offices now house museum staff instead of alumni association staff, and the grand hall now hosts workshops, lectures, performances, private events, and other functions in addition to alumni events. The building remains a vibrant and varied hub of university activity.The MEC is the only building in West Virginia to be designed by internationally renowned architect Michael Graves (1934-2015). Known for his revolutionary expansion of architecture to be postmodern rather than simply modern, Graves drafted blueprints for hundreds of buildings around the world. For these creations he was awarded the American Institute of Architects highest award, the AIA Gold Medal. Despite Graves’ prowess as an architect, he is likely most familiar to the average person through his commercial designs. He was commissioned to design housewares and furniture by companies such as Target, J.C. Penny, and Disney.The MEC is built of unassuming materials; wooden frames, steel joints, and concrete floors. The building is characterized by simple geometric shapes and neutral earthy colors – though WVU’s school colors of gold and blue appear throughout the palette as accents. Some small changes have been made to the building since its creation. Previously open-air windows have had panes added to conform to fire code. Some of the arches on the colonnade that borders the grand hall have been walled. Finally, a cloister between the Art Museum of WVU and the MEC was added in a back corner of the grand hall.There is, perhaps, no more appropriate architect for an alumni center than Graves. His architectural philosophy is one that attempts to embody the future while honoring the past. This is easily seen in the eclectic mix of ancient Greek and Roman forms with modern country estate features. The columns, simple geometric forms, and the patterning and coloring of the exterior walls all refer to classical architecture. Meanwhile, the site was chosen to convey a more modern estate feel. Although, ironically, many of the trees on the site have been cut down, the land was once wooded with trees that shielded the building from the immediate bustle of Patteson Drive. A comfortable lodge feeling is also suggested by the overlarge fireplace and chimney, exterior trellises, and vaulted wooden ceiling in the grand hall. Graves’ postmodern mission to deconstruct previous styles, pilfer through the fragments for useful parts, and then create a new style certainly finds success in the Museum Education Center.

The Museum Education Center (MEC) building was initially built as the Erickson Alumni Center. Erected between 1984 and 1986, the structure was designed by famous architect Michael Graves to house the WVU Alumni Center Association. When the new Erickson Alumni Center was completed in 2008, the old Erickson Alumni Center building was repurposed as the MEC for the Art Museum of WVU. The MEC and museum are now attached. The MEC’s physical structure has changed relatively little since being built and remains one of Morgantown’s most unique architectural works. In addition to its educational aspects, it is home to administrative functions of the Museum and has a grand hall and patio which host frequent university and private events. 

Museum Education Center

Located on the Evansdale campus, the Art Museum of&nbsp;West Virginia University&nbsp;features two distinct and integrated facilities: <h4>The Art Museum</h4>In August 2015, the Art Museum of West Virginia University&nbsp;opened its doors after ten years of planning.&nbsp;Dean of the College of Creative Arts said at the dedication that the museum "put the visual arts community at WVU on equal footing with our peer institutions" and provides educational opportunities for students and children of Morgantown. President of WVU, Gordon Gee, emphasized that "preserving and&nbsp;displaying our cultural heritage is an important part of our land-grant heritage." The museum&nbsp;houses more than 3,000 works of Appalachian, American, and international art in its diverse collection. The University began collecting art without a formal exhibition space more than ten years prior to the Art Museum's opening. It holds the largest public collection of art by Modernist Blanche Lazzell&nbsp;(1878-1956), a native of Maidsville and graduate of WVU&nbsp;whom Gordon Gee called "one of West Virginia's true treasures." The Art Museum also houses collections of work by&nbsp;Albert Bierstadt, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Cole, Jean Metzinger, William Schumacher, Rockwell Kent, William Conger, and Tim McFarlane, along&nbsp;with collections of Asian and African art and&nbsp;pieces by world-renowned names&nbsp;such as&nbsp;Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, and&nbsp;Andy Warhol. Two galleries, with&nbsp;5,400 square-feet of exhibition space, display a sampling of this collection.&nbsp;The building was built to environmental standards for temperature, humidity, and light levels to safely&nbsp;display and store works of art. The Plevin Lobby&nbsp;of the Art Museum features a unique graffiti mural by Raoul and Davide Pierre, known as How and Nosm in the art world.&nbsp;Researchers are welcome to examine art up close in a study room, while educators and students have a classroom space available. <h4>Museum Education Center</h4>In 2010, the University completed renovation of an existing two-story building, the former Erickson Alumni Center designed by noted architect Michael Graves, to accommodate museum offices, halls for educational programs and receptions, and a gift shop. Additionally,&nbsp;an outdoor sculpture garden offers museum visitors a place to relax and contemplate works of art in a lovely setting.

Opened in 2015, the Art Museum of West Virginia University provides a welcoming and stimulating educational environment for diverse audiences to experience the transformative power of visual art. By exploring the varied artistic traditions of different cultures, past and present, visitors gain a better understanding of themselves, their communities, and their world.

Art Museum of West Virginia University

Around the perimeter of the WVU Creatives Arts Center is an outdoor sculpture site, comprised of permanent and temporary sculptures. The various permanent sculptures all have similar themes of synthesis to the natural environment and industrial elements. 	Installed in 2008, a 10 foot tall, 8 foot wide rectangular steel framed structure sturdily sits in front of Beechurst Avenue and the WVU Creative Arts Center. Designed by Ohioan artist Kevin Lyles, the “Last Dance” is filled with river stones to illustrate purpose and contrast of organic elements and manufactured components. This was successfully funded by the Myers Foundations and coordinated by Alison Helm, Director of the WVU School of Art and Design. Lyles was a visiting sculpture at WVU, and has had his works exhibited at Snowshoe Institute.	Standing in front of the Creative Arts Center is WVU’s first permanent structure, The Discovery IV. Weighing 1500 pounds at 19 feet tall, “The Discovery IV” was created by Johnathan Cox, a professor at Marshall University. The design process started with the Imperial Darby marble base to represent a beginning and a birth of the sculpture. From there, the stainless steel leaf component was made, with utilization of line and form, symbolic of the artistic relationship between West Virginia University and Marshall University.	“The Bubble Pack Bench Series” can be found on the left side facing the Creative Arts Center, featuring two bronze benches created by WVU Professor Dylan Collins. Both chairs are of different styles, but with the same methodology: cast iron mold and bubble wrap. His design process resulted in the peculiar bubble wrap pattern, found all over the furnishing. Collins sculpted this series to learn and have a chance to experiment with inorganic elements.	Another permanent piece is found on the right side of the Creative Arts Center, titled “Earth Giant.” “Earth Giant” was sculpted by Benjamin Gazsi, a former sculpture student at West Virginia University. It held 6th place at a prestigious international competition, ArtPrize, which featured more than 1,800 artists. “Earth Giant” comprises of concrete, resembles a human head emerging from the ground, and is split into layers. When observing the piece, its separated components requires viewers to walk around it to see the human head. Gazsi’s work has also been exhibited at Cooper’s Rock.

Around the perimeter of the WVU Creatives Arts Center is an outdoor sculpture site, comprised of permanent and temporary sculptures. The various permanent sculptures all have similar themes of synthesis to the natural environment and industrial elements. It features permanent structures: “Last Dance,” “The Discovery IV,” “The Bubble Pack Bench Series,” and “Earth Giant.”

Outdoor Sculptures at WVU Creative Arts Center

Located in the lobby is the sculpture "Interior Terrain" created by Alison Helm, the Director of the WVU School of Art and Design. Professor Helm describes the sculpture as a "composition of organic and geometric opposites existing parallel to each other." The piece exhibits both positive and negative shapes, creating the interior spaces of the 3 main bodies of the sculpture described by Helm as creating "one voice of unity." She further describes the piece as a representation of the human spirit, gradually disappearing at the end of our lives. Hidden on both sides of the expansive lobby to the Creative Arts Center, are two pairs of massive porcelain vases and cylinders, depicting the long history of the various Chinese dynasties that have existed, all in a striking off white and blue color that is unique to Chinese porcelain.&nbsp;The vases were acquired in 2012 during a
regional symposium held at the Museum Education Center, which all dates back to
a twenty-three year exchange program with the Chinese town that invented
porcelain over 1000 years ago, Jingdezhen. A former student who started an
import export business donated one pair, and the other pair was purchased. As a
pair, these pairs tell a folk history of the Spring and Autumn period in China,
a time where mystical heroes rise again, as well as depicting the heroes of
Daoism. In China, these pairs are used in entryways in banks and various
buildings in order to create a welcoming presence. The striking cobalt blue was
overlaid onto the porcelain using a rice paper transfer, where the drawings are
placed on rice paper, soaked in water and then placed on the porcelain to dry.
These majestic pieces will hopefully welcome visitors to the Creative Arts
Center for years to come. The CAC also houses the Paula and Laura Mesaros Galleries which host rotating contemporary art exhibitions.

West Virginia University's College of Creative Arts was formed in 1969 and the Creative Arts Center, or CAC, was dedicated to the college. The CAC was created to serve as a meeting point for 3 academic and artistic disciplines: music, art, and drama. This was thought to be a big step in emphasizing the state's culture and integrating it into academic spaces. The building itself was completed in three phases, with each one corresponding to a different artistic interest. The first phase, which was devoted to music, was completed as early as 1967-1968. This section cost $7 million out of the total $10 million needed for the complete CAC. The building currently houses a 1,420-seat concert theater, opera and studio theaters, and two art galleries.

College of Creative Arts/Creative Arts Center

The Core Arboretum&nbsp;owes its founding in large part to the WVU Biology Department, specifically biologist&nbsp;Earl Core.&nbsp; In the immediate postwar era, West Virginia University doubled in enrollment and put pressure on administrators and&nbsp;city planners to configure how the University would grow. Their solution was to acquire&nbsp;farmlands that later became the Evansdale campus.1&nbsp;The Biology Department and Dr.&nbsp;Core asked the University to set aside this&nbsp;area as it&nbsp;was already being used as a research and teaching space by the department. Much of this land was preserved, old growth forest due to the steep, 200-foot elevation drop that would have been impossible to farm. Originally the arboretum included the land that is now occupied by the WVU Coliseum, Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, baseball fields, and several indoor training facilities used by different WVU Teams. Today, the 91 acres of forest within the Core Arboretum is home to a wide variety of plants and animals indigenous to the region, as well as some trees that are over 200 years old.&nbsp;In addition to the Arboretum's namesake, some of the&nbsp;trails at the Arboretum bear the names of important naturalists at WVU, including the&nbsp;&nbsp;Guthrie Loop (Roland L. Guthrie, curator and professor of Biology),&nbsp;Strausbaugh Loop (Dr. P.D. Strausbaugh, former head of the Biology Department), Taylor Trail (Dr. Leland H. Taylor, former professor of Zoology), Sheldon Trail (Dr. John Lewis Sheldon, former professor of Biology)&nbsp;Melvin Brown Trail (Dr. Melvin Brown, Mineral County botanist and benefactor of WVU), Rumsey Trail (William Earl Rumsey, entomologist and botanist for WVU and the state), and Nuttall Trail (Lawrence William Nuttall, Fayette County amateur biologist).2The arboretum is famous for its annual Wildflower and Bird Watching Walks that take place every spring, where you can see over 40 different species of flowers as well as over 70 different kinds of birds. The arboretum also hosts a Pawpaw Festival every fall. In addition to these events, the arboretum boasts hiking trails and beautiful scenery that can be enjoyed in all seasons.

The WVU Core Arboretum was established in 1948 when West Virginia University purchased the land to expand the school’s campus. It encompasses 91 acres of forest and 3 miles of foot trails. It is also part of the 19-mile Rail-to-Trail that runs from downtown Morgantown to Reedsville, West Virginia. The Core Arboretum is managed by the WVU Biology Department and is located along Monongahela Boulevard next to the WVU Coliseum. These parklands and trails are open everyday from dawn until dusk. The Best College Reviews lists the Core Arboretum in the top 50 "Most Beautiful College Arboretums." 

West Virginia University Core Arboretum

Jerry West was born on May 28, 1938 in Chelyan, West Virginia. He attended East Bank High school and graduated in 1956.&nbsp;As&nbsp;East Bank's shooting guard he led them&nbsp;to a state title in 1956 while averaging 32.2 points per game. He was the only prep player to score 900 points in a season. West then attended West Virginia University where he averaged 24.8 point per game. He was also named an All-American twice.West then was drafted in 1960 by the Minneapolis Lakers, now known as the Los Angels Lakers. The man drafted above him was Oscar Robertson. West won a gold medal with Robertson and the US National Team in 1960 at Rome. West spent 14 years with the Lakers and made the All-Star team every single year of his career, and gaining the nickname Mr.Clutch among&nbsp;peers in the NBA.&nbsp;He led the Lakers to nine NBA titles games only winning one of those nine appearances in 1972.West retired from the game he loved and devoted so much of his time to in 1974. West left behind a legacy when he retired. West retired as the third leading scorer in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlin and Oscar Robertson.&nbsp;He career points per game average at 27 is fourth among retired players. West did not leave basketball however after he became head coach of his former team the LA Lakers in 1976 staying on only for three years. He then was a scout of the team for another three years and then became general manger in 1982. After 40 years connected to the Lakers in some way West retired. He then later was President of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzles in 2002. West now resides as one of the Board Members of the Golden State Warriors.

In February 2007, West Virginia University dedicated a life-size bronze statute to honor one of the greatest basketball players to play for the Mountaineers, Jerry West. Situated outside the Coliseum in Morgantown, the statue complements the Jerry West Lounge that was established during the 1998-99 season. Jerry West was a West Virginia native who went on to be a 14-time NBA All-Star and an NBA champion. This statue, created by Morgantown artist Jamie Lester, honors the man who many believe changed West Virginia University basketball forever. 

Jerry West Statue at West Virginia University Coliseum

Because freshmen were not allowed to play varsity basketball, Hundley did not start his college career until his sophomore year. In the 27 out of 30 games he started, he averaged 23.7 points per game and 8.1 rebounds. During his junior year, he averaged 26.6 points per game and 13.1 rebounds, with a season-high 42 points and 9 rebounds in a single game. He averaged 23.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game his senior year, breaking a school record by scoring 54 points and 18 rebounds in a single game. In just three years, Hundley became the fourth player in NCAA history to score more than 2,000 points in his career. He brought the Mountaineers to prominence with his talent and shooting antics, which included hook shots for free throws and hanging on the rim to await a lob pass. He led the Mountaineers to three consecutive NCAA appearances during the "Golden Age" of WVU basketball. In 1957, Hundley became the only WVU player in history to be the first pick in the NBA draft. He played for the Lakers in Minneapolis and Los Angeles from 1957 to 1963, averaging 8.4 points per game and over 1,400 assists. In 1960, Hundley was joined by former teammate Jerry West, who was drafted from WVU by the Lakers.After retiring from the NBA due to bad knees, Hundley pursued a broadcasting career, working for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns, CBS, and most notably, the New Orleans and Utah Jazz. He was known for his quick wit and sayings such as "from the parking lot" for a long distance shot. In 2003, he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. In 2000, Hundley graduated from WVU with a bachelor's degree in physical education, due to the fact that he left the university to join the NBA before he earned his degree. In 2009, Hundley retired from his career as the voice of the Utah Jazz, and in 2010 he became the second WVU player to have his number retired (the first being Jerry West). Hundley passed away at age 80 on March 27, 2015 from Alzheimer's disease. On February 20, 2016 his statue was unveiled outside the Blue Gate of the coliseum, just opposite of Jerry West’s statue. A documentary titled Hot Rod was recently made, chronicling Hundley's life and troubled upbringing. Artist Jamie Lester created the bronze statue.

Rodney Clark “Hot Rod” Hundley was born on October 26, 1934 in Charleston, West Virginia. Hundley played for WVU from 1954 to 1957. His signature style of dribbling and on-court antics led to the nickname of “Hot Rod.” Following his college career, Hundley was drafted in the first round to the Cincinnati Royals and was then traded to the Minneapolis Lakers, where he played from 1957 to 1963. After his retirement, Hundley continued to employ his passion for basketball by becoming a sports broadcaster for the NBA. In 2010, WVU retired his number 33, making him and Jerry West the only WVU players to be awarded the honor. Following his death in 2015, a bronze statue of him was placed outside of the WVU Coliseum. 

Hot Rod Hundley Statue

The Coliseum was built on the Evansdale campus during West Virginia University's (WVU) largest growth spurt in the mid-twentieth century. Various construction projects began on the Evansdale campus in the 1950s and 1960s. These projects added a Medical Center, engineering complexes, the Creative Arts Center, and the Evansdale Residential Complex. Rising enrollments, the popularity of basketball, and available land prompted the Coliseum's construction. The men's basketball team and its fans had outgrown the Field House, which was built in 1929-30 and seated only 6,500. Sports also played a symbolic role in West Virginia. According to historians William Doherty and Festus Summers, "Success in sporting events was a more powerful weapon for stimulating loyalty than academic performance or ceremonial occasions."1 Even as classrooms became overcrowded, the university committed itself to building an arena for basketball, a sport beloved by West Virginians since the early twentieth century. As the Mountain State's coal mining economy faltered and sports at competing universities professionalized, there was pressure for WVU to demonstrate its ability on the courts and fields of its athletic facilities.The 14,000-seat Coliseum opened in December of 1970. The Coliseum is built in the Brutalist architectural style, which rose to popularity in the mid- to late-twentieth century. This style consists of large concrete masses organized in a simple, geometric manner, creating a fortress-like appearance. Other buildings on the Evansdale campus, such as the Creative Arts Center and College of Engineering, also evoke this style. The Coliseum underwent restorations in the 1990s and in 2016 to resolve issues with asbestos, which was incorporated in the building's construction prior to knowledge of its health hazards. In 1970, the Mountaineers faced off against the Colgate Raiders and won their first Coliseum game.The Coliseum is home to lasting legacies of equality through the integration of basketball and establishment of a women's basketball team. In 1973, WVU was one of the first university teams to feature an all-Black starting five lineup when the Mountaineers defeated the University of Pittsburgh 82-78. Also in 1973, a women's basketball team was organized in response to Title IX, part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972, which made sex discrimination illegal in sports programs. Although other universities began women's teams earlier and the female players at WVU had to compete with the financial success of the men's team, women's basketball soon became important to recruiting talented students. As of the end of the 2015 season, the men's and women's basketball teams have a combined record of 832-294 while playing at this stadium – an impressive 73.9% winning percentage. Two of WVU's star players from an earlier era, Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley, have statues placed outside the Coliseum and their retired jerseys on display. West was regarded as such a dominant and iconic player that the NBA selected his image as the basis of the league's logo. Much like its Roman ancestor, the Coliseum at West Virginia University stands as a testament to the power of athletics in modern culture.

The West Virginia University (WVU) Coliseum is a venue that has brought Mountaineers together since 1970. It serves as the home of the WVU's men's and women's basketball teams, and is also used as a space for concerts and commencement ceremonies. Among the most historic moments in the Coliseum were the Mountaineers' first game – a 1973 victory over rival Pittsburgh – and the upset of #1 ranked University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels in 1983. The Coliseum holds the retired jerseys of leading players, including the legendary Jerry West (44) and Hot Rod Hundley (33).

Evansdale Campus Walking Tour

Lyon Tower

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources