Newsom Hall, 1957-
From CSU's Sense of Place: A Campus History of Colorado's Land-Grant University, by James E. Hansen, Gordon A. Hazard, and Linda M. Meyer. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University, 2018.
Architects – James M. Hunter and Associates, Architecture Plus, P. C. of Fort Collins
Builder - Mead and Mount Construction Company of Denver
700 West Pitkin Street
On January 6, 1954, Dr. Isaac Ernest Newsom died at the age of 70 at Larimer County Hospital. He had been a major figure at the University for 50 years. With his passing, the State Board of Agriculture decided that the second new men’s residence hall that was to begin construction in June 1954 would be named in his honor. James M. Hunter was the designer, and the Mead and Mount Construction Company was the builder of Newsom Hall.
On Sunday, September 18, 1955, Newsom Hall was opened to its first residents. It was still getting construction work completed such as painting, some interior finish work and landscaping. A construction workers’ strike lasting seven weeks during the summer of 1954 along with the decision to redesign the building’s heating system to use steam from the Central Heating Plant instead of its own furnace caused the delay. Newsom Hall was dedicated during Homecoming on October 22, 1955, with Dr. Floyd Cross being the featured speaker. He was a longtime friend and colleague of the late Dr. Newsom.
Later in 1955, site preparation work began on the next residence hall just east of Newsom Hall that became Aylesworth Hall. At the same time, a new residence hall west of Newsom was started which was to become Ellis Hall. The fall quarter of 1955 had Newsom Hall and Braiden Hall housing male students. On the north side of campus, Rockwell Hall and Green Hall housed women.
In June 1968, due to low demand for housing students in residence halls, Newsom Hall was turned over to the Division of Continuing Education and its Office of Conference Services to be used as a “Residential Conference Center”. It was used this way in 1968-69 and again in 1969-70. The opening of the new Towers Complex in the fall of 1969 provided enough beds so Newsom Hall did not have to be used for student housing in 1969-70. Some renovations took place during the summer of 1970, and in the fall of 1970, it was returned to use as a traditional all-male residence hall. In the fall of 1972 Newsom Hall became a mixed-gender residence hall.
During the summer of 1985, the rooms were gutted and remodeled, the lounge was redesigned and air-conditioned, and the façade of the lounge wing was redesigned to accommodate new windows. About ten years later, the building received the necessary wiring to provide internet access with outlets for two separate connections to the University “backbone” as well as a telephone. The exterior received a new paint job using the “buff and brick red colors” that was to become the standard around the campus. The Newsom Dining Center was no longer used for food service when the new Rams Horn Dining Center at Academic Village opened in 2007. Architecture Plus, P. C. of Fort Collins designed the renovations. It soon became known as Newsom Events Hall.
In the summer of 2016, Newsom Hall received a fresh coat of exterior paint (minus the brick red stripes), a few metal “sunscreens” and was landscaped to tie it into the area around Academic Village. To the south, the new on-campus stadium was being built. The University Master Plan shows Newsom Hall and Aylesworth Hall eventually being replaced by two housing villages. The work done in 2016 likely puts this event several years in the future.
In March 2019, plans were announced that had Newsom Hall remaining operational until the completion of Phase 1 of Meridian Village. This was expected to be ready for the fall semester of 2022. Phase 2 is expected to be done by the fall semester of 2025.
Sources by Gordon A. Hazard
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