Sesquicentennial Campaign

In 1959 President Thomas A. Spragens announced the college would embark on a ten-year, $8,500,000 development program that was to culminate in 1969, the schools' 150th anniversary. It was a plan that reshaped the entire campus. Named the Sesquicentennial Campaign, it called for $6,500,000 in permanent funds for buildings and endowment and an additional $2,300,000 invested in self-liquidating residential facilities. The most important step was the abandonment of the old Kentucky College for Women campus and the moving of women students to the Centre campus. In addition, the program called for an increase in enrollment from 450 to 700-750 by 1970.

The first phase of the program included construction of two of three new women's residence halls, three duplex units to house the college's fraternities, and a central dining hall. The second phase called for a new library, student center, women's gymnasium, auditorium, freshmen mens residence, and infirmary. As might be expected with such an ambitious plan, construction did not proceed in exactly the sequence first envisioned. However, by the end of the the-year program, almost all the goals had been achieved.

The groundwork for the first phase was laid with the sale of the women's campus to the Danville school board for $100,000 and the old high school property and buildings, and the acquisition of several pieces of property laying along and behind Main Street next to the men's campus (today's residence halls, Hillside, and soccer field). Construction of the women's residences, the dining hall, and fraternity residences began in the summer of 1960. Two projects scheduled for the second phase became a reality sooner than planned, the renovation of McReynolds to include a student health center and the complete renovation of Boyle-Humphrey Gymnasium. On April 28, 1962, seven buildings were dedicated: Acheson-Caldwell, Cheek-Evans, Fraternity Quadrangle, Cowan Dining Hall, and Sutcliffe Hall. Construction of the six new buildings was financed largely by a $1,713,000 loan from the federal Housing and Home Finance Agency.