Gignilliat Memorial Quadrangle  

1955 - 5 Jan 1955 1 1/2 Million Dollar Building Program At Academy

Col. W. E. Gregory Says Construction To Begin Early In March

Construction will be started Culver Military Academy by early March on the three academic buildings which are to comprise Gignilliat Memorial Quadrangle.

Announcement of the scheduled start of the work was made this morning by Col. W. E. . Gregory, superintendent, of the Academy.

The $1,500,000 project will include tje erectionof thee class room buildings inclundinb the Eppley Hall of Science, the Eppley Hall of Humanities, and Gignilliat Memorial. The Hall of Science and Hall of Humanities buildings were made possible by a one-million-dollar gift from the Eppley Foundation of Omaha. Nebr.

The entire project is a spontaneous outgrowth of a desire on the part of Culver alumni over the nation to erert a memorial to the late Brig. Gen. L. R. Gignilliat who became associated with Culver in 1897 and served as superintendent from 1910 to 1939

The proposed memorial was approved by The Culver Educational Foundation and plans were first announced in August 1953 when unsolicited funds $200,000.

In response to the proposed memorial Eugene C. Eppley, prominent hotelman and chairman of The Eppley Foundation, announced the gift of one million dollars to The Culver Educational foundation. Mr. Eppley a longtime friend of General and Mrs. Gignilliat, is a 1901 honor graduate of Culver and a member of the board of directors of The Culver Educational Foundation.

Gifts of nearly 1,000 alumni patrons, and friends of CMA now amount to more than $230,000 in addition to the Eppley Foundation gift. At its recent semi-annual meeting the board of 'directors of The Culver Educational Foundation approved final plans for the Memorial Quadrangle and announced that the architectural firm, W. B. Ittner of St. Louis, had been instructed to complete the working plans.

Actual construction is scheduled to start March 1 and it is expected that the, building will be completed in two years.

The academic buildings forming the Gignilliat Memorial Quadrangle will be located south of Beason Hall and west of Argonne and Chateau Thierry barracks in close proximity to the north shore of Lake Maxinkuckee.

The Eppley Hall of Humanities and the Science Hall will be L-shaped buildings, each 101 x 138 feet and will complement Gignilliat Hall, a building with an overall size of 100 x 60 feet.

Faculty departmental committees have cooperated in the detailed planning of the classroom buildings which will afford the most modern "facilities and equipment.

The Humanities Building will provide 20 classrooms, four office conference rooms, a tutorial room, cadet publications office, and an assembly room which will seat 200 students.

Two general physics laboratories and a preparation room together with an advanced physics lab, a science library, two recitation rooms, a darkroom and projection room, and an office will be on the first floor of the Hall of Science. Two combination general science classrooms and laboratory, a biology lab, biology recitation room, plant and animal room, two general chemistry labs and preparation rooms, an advanced chemistry lab, chemistry recitation room, project room, and shop will be situated on the second floor.

A memorial rotunda will be an architectural feature of Gignilliat Memorial Hall, the center building of the quadrangle. An entrance foyer in honor of Col. J. S. Fleet of La Jolla, a former acting superintendent of Culver, is the gift of Maj. R. H. Fleet of San Diego, former Culver alumni president and a director of The Culver Educational Found ation. There will be six classrooms in the building, a combination office and testing room, and a reading center.

The new academic buildings will greatly enhance the program of Culver, officials state. Thirty modern buildings now comprise the physical plant of Culver, one of the nation's leading preparatory schools whose students came from all sections of the nation and from the far corners of the world. CMA is now in its 61st year.

A view from the west is Eppley Hall of Science (l), Gignilliat Hall (center), and the Hall of Humanities (r) began in 1956 and was completed in 1958.

Formerly the Eppley Hall of Science - It is a part of the Gignilliat Memorial Quadrangle. Eugene C. Eppley Foundation (Eugene C. Eppley class of 1901) provided the funds for the Science and Humanities Hall.

Eugene C. Eppley ’01, responded to the 1954 announcement by the Board of Directors of a campaign to raise funds for a new classroom complex. Impressed with its centerpiece, a proposed Gignilliat Hall, Mr. Eppley pledged $500,000 for the construction of a new science building. With the sale of his hotel empire of twenty four properties and 5,420 rooms in May of 1956 to the Sheraton Corporation for $30 million, Eppley turned to philanthropy and Culver was one of the first recipients. During the next four years, this former C Company commander contributed an additional $700,000 toward the completion of the Gignilliat Quadrangle

Construction on new classroom buildings, Eppley Hall of Science), Gignilliat Hall, and the Hall of Humanities began in 1956 and was completed in 1958. Weigand Construction of Fort Wayne, Indiana done the renovation project; the brochure promoting the funding of the renovation of Eppley Hall into the Crisp Visual Arts Center Thus it has become the Crisp Visual Arts Center named in honor of the Crisp family - Rosemary Berkel Crisp and Harry L. Crisp II ’53 and opened in the fall of 2011.

The building honors General Leigh R Gignilliat.