New Beginnings
The 1883 fire prompted a search for a new site away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Bloomington. In due course a 20-acre plot on the eastern border of town was purchased from the Dunn family. Two new buildings were planned, and, even though the state failed to appropriate special funds, contracts were let in 1884 for their construction. Wylie Hall and Owen Hall thus formed the nucleus of the new campus and marked the beginning of a crescent of buildings enclosing about 10 acres of the original woods.
As the new campus took shape, it embodied a different vision of a space for learning. In contrast to the Seminary Square site, at Dunn’s Woods much of the existing landscape was left undisturbed as new buildings were erected and pathways connecting them were built. Now the forest was seen as an environmental amenity instead of an obstacle, and it provided a visible link to an earlier era already passed into history.
Although it resulted from a catastrophic fire, the change in location proved in the long run an enormous stroke of good fortune. It provided the university with room to expand, unconstrained by the increasingly urban environment of Bloomington, and the opportunity to develop a distinctive campus identity apart from the city.
The move to the new campus coincided with a momentous change in administration. David Starr Jordan, professor of zoology, became president on Jan. 1, 1885. Unlike his predecessors, Jordan was a scientist rather than a clergyman, and his selection marked a watershed in the history of I.U.
With a biologist at the helm, the university adopted a research model that provided the impetus for introducing the elective system and specialized majors in the curriculum, as well as creating a departmental structure organized along disciplinary lines. Although Jordan left IU in 1891 to serve as the first president of Stanford University, the reforms he championed put the university in step with national trends and fostered a vigorous culture of research on the campus.
Next: Into the 20th Century
