The beginning of the UVA construction boom

The cover story of the November 1951 University of Virginia Alumni News captures the start of a huge construction boom at UVA. With McCormick Road dorms in the background, the image includes nearly as much dirt and forest as built space. But the decade would see the openings of buildings that would become UVA landmarks.

Old Dorms were completed that year on an old golf course to “ease the University’s growing pains,” Alumni News reported. New Cabell Hall and Mary Munford Hall, the first dormitory for women, opened in 1952. Thornton Hall and Clark Hall were expanded twice during the decade. And Newcomb Hall began serving students in 1958.

The work came under the supervision of University President Colgate W. Darden Jr. (Col 1922), who sought to make UVA more accessible in some ways while addressing post-World War II enrollment growth. Old Dorms were built to serve GI Bill students. Newcomb Hall was an alternative to fraternities, open to all. When a professor complained that Darden was making UVA a “catch-all” for anybody who wanted to attend college in Virginia, he responded: “That’s what it’s supposed to be.”