Kentucky College for Women's History: Revealing the story of women at Centre College

Lexington Avenue Campus

The Kentucky College for Women was noted for its aesthetically pleasing qualities. The beauty of its buildings and landscapes was said, by some, to rival that of Centre College. We wanted to offer visitors to our site a way to put themselves in the shoes of the people who visited KCW pre-merge. Referencing photographic evidence of the Lexington Avenue campus, we used the 3-D modeling software Sketchup in order to bring out the true color and beauty of the KCW campus. We attempted to recreate each documented building with the great detail with which they were originally built. Unfortunately, we were only able to uncover photographs of Morgan Hall, the gymnasium and the Music and Arts building. We know the location and shape of the buildings on the campus for which we have no photographic evidence, so for these structures we have created a basic outline and placed them in our recreation. Here are the recreations of Morgan Hall, the gymnasium and the Music and Arts building.


Morgan Hall was the main building on the Lexington Avenue campus and also the largest. Many classes were held here and, as you can see through the recreation, it was the iconic building on campus. Morgan Hall was the face of KCW at the time, but unfortunately the building no longer stands.

The gymnasium on the KCW campus was, naturally, a place for students to get exercise and enjoy recreation time. The gymnasium contained a swimming pool, a bowling alley, and additional floor space for other activities and exercises. The old gymnasium still stands today at the site of Danville High School and is still used for it's original purpose as a gym.

​The music and arts building was a place for talented young musicians and artists on campus to practice their craft. Music and art classes were held in this building and there was studio space for women to practice at their leisure. The old music and arts building, like Morgan Hall, is no longer standing.

There were four other buildings that we were unable to recreate because there was no photo documentation. These buildings were the science building, library, hospital, and president's hall. These buildings were just as essential to the operation on campus, but unfortunately we did not have the resources available to recreate them.

If you would like to navigate the campus yourself, you can download the file here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwaa3jFGDlxuajVTWFRHSEdUbjg/view?usp=sharing  
 
"After the fire which occurred at the old Caldwell Institute to which my mother went, the institution was moved across the street to the present site of the high school. There was a very dignified old building, really beautiful old building, with fine woodwork and lovely old stairways, high ceilings, and with a cupola on top."
- Mary Ashby Cheek


*The oral histories above come from a written transcript of an interview with Mary Ashby Cheek in 1983 (available renditions above recorded by Sarabeth Marlowe). Miss Cheek was an educator from a prominent family in Danville. She was also an alumnus of KCW and served as academic dean at the college from 1923-1924. She then went on to serve various positions at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and served as President at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois. You can currently hear her name on a daily basis around the Centre College campus due to the fact that an active dormitory has been named after her. 

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