In the October 21, 1961 edition of The Pioneer Log, the dean of women, Hester Turner, was quoted as saying the lower dining halls in Templeton would be used on evenings as quiet rooms where “men and women together could study and smoke.”
Today, the Fowler Student Center acts as a hub of student life, holding both dining halls, the bookstore, the health center and offices for many student organizations, including The Mossy Log. At its creation, however, it was named Templeton. It was nearly identical in use, and entirely reflective of the vastly different student needs of the 1950s.
The Mossy Log archives, which are available in print in Watzek Library and digitally, shine a light on the student perspective of the era, providing invaluable documentation of the college’s past. Lewis & Clark College, then named Albany College, acquired the Fir Acres campus in 1942, purchased for $46,000 from the Lloyd Frank estate. The move of students and faculty from Albany, Oregon, prompted the adoption of our college’s current name.
At the beginning of this transition, the architecture and configuration of the buildings on campus were not designed with a college in mind. During the 1940s and early 1950s the dining hall, “Snack Shack,” campus bookstore and club offices were all their own separate buildings scattered across campus.
The college began construction on Templeton Hall, named after longtime trustee Herbert Templeton, in the early 1950s, finishing initial construction in 1956. During the holiday season of 1957, LC opened up its new dining hall, located in Templeton and named Fields Dining Hall. It received its name from Arthur L. Fields, who dedicated 40 years of his life toward the improvement of our city, and was named Portland’s “First Citizen” in 1936. At the start of the 1957-58 school year, the college’s president, Morgan Odell, said it was his hope that one day the lower floors would house a coffee shop, bookstore and student offices. Nearly 70 years later, Odell’s vision is a one for one reflection of Fowler’s role at our college today.
In the year of its opening, Templeton immediately became a hub for social and academic events. At the beginning of the fall semester, it was utilized to host that year’s homecoming dance, themed “90 years of Pioneers.” Athletic teams had team dinners, chapters of the on-campus Greek organizations held alumni banquets, and academic conferences and religious events took place in the Templeton Commons. In March 1958, the coffee shop in Templeton officially opened with “beige and blue with brown naugahyde booths” as according to the February 28, 1958 edition of the Pioneer Log. At the end of its first year, the graduating class of 1958’s senior gift was a fiberglass panel to protect the “Spirit of Progress,” a 23-by-16-foot mural painted in the Templeton stairwell by Sherrill Houser ’58.
In the fall of 1958, the Trail Room, whose name has endured, rented portable television sets and served as the home of a makeshift watch party of that year’s World Series between classes. They even held “traffic court,” where offenders were “brought to justice” every Monday.
We see the gradual move of student organizations into Templeton through the 1960s, with KLC, today known as KPH, making the formal request to the school in the spring of 1962. This hope was brought to fruition with the completion of the “College Center” in 1965. KLC moved in alongside other media groups including The Pioneer Log, The Voyager; the school’s former yearbook, and the News Service; a campus department responsible for keeping Northwest publications updated on LC news. Commons in Templeton were used to hold elections for student body representatives and registration for college retreats and courses.
In 1963, LC’s football team won the Northwest Conference and their victory dinner was hosted there in the Commons. Before LC had galleries, Templeton displayed the work of art majors, until a series of art thefts in the mid-to-late 1960s made that difficult. However, it was not just the students and organizations of LC that made home in Templeton. On-campus resources were expanded in 1966 when a barbershop signed a lease and offered haircuts for $1.75.
Today, we do not call it Templeton, now renamed after Board Chair Stephanie Fowler following the 2023 remodel. Certainly no faculty members are encouraging students to use the Trail Room to smoke with your mixed-gender friend groups, but the spirit of the building remains virtually unchanged.
Fowler is a place to gather, eat, laugh and connect with peers. Student organizations still call it home. As a college student, you can sometimes feel like you are charting a new path, and I think it is important to take a step back and look at how much remains the same. It has been nearly 70 years since the construction of Fowler, but when you take the time to look back, so much of the college and its student body is a reflection of the hopes of the past.
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