The legend goes like this: A long time ago, an architect at the University got a little confused. Somehow, he mixed up his designs for a U.Va. building with his plans for a building at a fill-in-the-blank Ivy League school -- and somewhere up north is a neo-classical style building meant for the land of Jefferson.
U.Va. got Brooks Hall.
For more than a century, Brooks Hall, located directly east of the Rotunda and steps away from the Corner, has preserved its reputation on Grounds as being the building that just doesn't fit. The looming structure engraved with mysterious names and animal heads stands out like a sore thumb against the Academical Village's picturesque backdrop of white columns and the Pantheon-reincarnate.
Today, Brooks Hall is home to the Anthropology Department, the Kevin Berry Perdue Folklore Archive of Traditional Culture and studios for the Art Department. Yet with its unique appearance, it isn't hard to imagine that it once housed a life-sized reconstruction of a woolly mammoth and 25,000 other specimens and dinosaur artifacts in its basement.
But when it comes to the myth, inside Brooks Hall doesn't count. Its unusual facade has sparked a tradition of myth to account for its presence.
"No matter what I tell the Guide Service about the building, they always go back to their tour groups with the same rumor," said Anthropology Prof. Jeff Hantman, a Brooks Hall aficionado. "I guess that it is an interesting part to University mythology. It is their way of trying to explain things that don't fit."
If anyone knows Brooks' real history, it's Hantman, who has taught in the building since 1983. Brooks Hall's name, along with its unusual architecture, piqued Hantman's interest, and unraveling the true history of the building became his off-the-job passion.
In 1989, Hantman published an essay on the building in The Magazine of Albemarle County. Titled "Brooks Hall at the University of Virginia," the essay provides an in-depth exploration of the building's architectural significance.
According to Hantman's essay, Brooks Hall is firsthand evidence of northern Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War. In April of 1876, Rochester, New York resident Lewis Brooks donated $45,000 worth of bonds to the University for the addition of a department in the natural sciences. Brooks' donation was inspired by fellow members of a gentleman's club, who were committed to advancing natural science education throughout the country.
Brooks admired Jefferson, and directed his charitable energies toward U.Va. because it was the highest system of intellectual culture in the southern states. Thus, Brooks Hall opened in 1876 as "Lewis Brooks Hall of Natural Science," and was one of the most impressive museums in the country at that time.
The building's design was left to northern architect John R. Thomas. Hantman says it is probable that Thomas purposefully designed the building with hopes of recreating the South in the northern image.
This northern spectacle has not always been greeted with southern hospitality. Hantman said a "cycle of love and hate attitudes" characterize over a century's worth of sentiments toward the building.
Initially, Brooks Hall was appreciated as an architectural example of the Victorian era, just as the Lawn had served as a neo-classical gem since 1820. Corks and Curls volumes from 1890 to 1910 reveal that sports teams, fraternities and other organizations had their group photos taken on the Brooks stairs rather than at the Rotunda. And when President Rutherford B. Hayes visited the University in 1905, he made sure to visit Brooks on his tour of the school, Hantman said.
Yet by 1910, with Reconstruction complete and the re-emergence of southern pride, Hantman said the building was ridiculed as ugly -- a disgrace to Jefferson.
Even today, there are those who view the building as a disrespectful obtrusion amid Jeffersonian splendor.
"I hate it," third-year College student Vera Gerrity said. "I think that it is ugly and that it completely takes away from the other buildings."
University Guide Service Historian Steve Ander said tour-takers often note that Brooks "takes away everything that the Lawn has."
To these naysayers, Hantman points to another architectural standout just up the brick path from Brooks.
"What always amazes me is that people dwell on the lack of fit with the Lawn. But, the Chapel is not neo-classical, it is gothic. If anything, Jefferson wouldn't want the combination of church and state on Grounds," Hantman said.
Animosity toward Brooks Hall has dwindled, especially in the last 20 years, Hantman said. Hantman keeps photos in his desk drawers of all the fond times that Anthropology professors and students have spent restoring the building. Their efforts include repainting, landscaping and even giving the building a new roof.
"The future is looking bright," Hantman said. "The students and Anthropology department are committed to its continuous restoration."
And Hantman has another project up his sleeve that will spice things up a bit for Brooks Hall. Just recently, the original, antique cabinets that held the artifacts in the natural science museum were discovered in Miller Hall's attic just before it was torn down.
When the Art Department moves out of its studios in Brooks, the cabinets will go on exhibit on the first floor.
Hantman isn't looking to reinstall another woolly mammoth in Brooks Hall's basement. He just wants it to be a welcoming space for the public.
"I see it as a stopping point on the way to the Rotunda," Hantman said. "It should not be an anonymous curiosity anymore."
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