[Newspaper clippings on the Fire]
[Newspaper clippings on the Fire]
1905
John Thomas McGill Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections
“Vanderbilt, April 20, 1905”
The poem by Garnet Noel Wiley was written in response to the fire which destroyed College Hall (now known as Kirkland Hall). Mrs. Wiley was the wife of Vanderbilt english professor Edwin Wiley. The poem alludes to the campus library, most of which burned with the building, and mentions the statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt which escaped the catastrophe unscathed.
“New Bell for Vanderbilt”
The College Hall fire destroyed the campus clock tower and bell. The total cost of replacing the building far exceeded the insurance coverage of the structure. When the decision was announced that there was no money to replace the clock tower bell, the children of local Nashville citizens and those of the faculty collected money toward the purchase of a new clock, bell, and chimes.