Amasa Stone and the Western Reserve College
When it comes to the naming of a building, there are a few ways to go about it. One way is to pick somebody famous or important to the purpose the building and honor them forever in naming the building after them, unless you are the former Cornell Medical School, in which case you can default to option number two. Option two is to sell the name, whether permanently to the biggest donor, or on a lease basis like so many sports arenas. The third option is a variation on the second option: name it after who owns the building.
At Case Western Reserve the strategy has been no different. Buildings are either named after former presidents and famous faculty, or after important benefactors. There is one exception to this rule: Amasa Stone. Today his name has faded into obscurity, but if you were living in the latter half of the 19th century (that’s the 1800s to those who have trouble with century counting), you would have known his name. And you would have known him as owner of the Western Reserve College.
Originally born in 1824 in Massachusetts to a farming family, Amasa Stone soon outgrew his humble beginnings. He had little education, having the equivalent of only a year in high school. Instead he came out to Ohio to build railroads that connected New England to the rapidly expanding frontier. While Stone accumulated wealth prior to the Civil War, it was not until after the war he became millionaire. His major source of income came from investing in the pre-war floundering Western Union Telegraph Company; after the war, his finances skyrocketed.
But this doesn’t provide much in the way of his personality. One way to sketch a man is to consider his friends and his rivals. For Stone, there were more of the latter than the former. His competitors included names like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt and Case. John D. Rockefeller in particular was an archrival to Stone. Both men called Cleveland their home, and had aggressive personalities. Rockefeller was described as “the man that everyone disliked, and Stone was the man everyone feared.” And what they both wanted was control of Cleveland’s oil.
You can read accounts of the conflict between Stone and Rockefeller as they fought a war of acquisitions. They both sought to secure and acquire smaller oil entities as an attempt to create a horizontal monopoly. In short, Rockefeller won out in the end, leaving Stone behind in Cleveland and with a second tier name on the national stage of the noveau riche.
That does not mean, however, that Stone was left poor. In 1880 Amasa Stone had six million dollars to his name, the modern day equivalent over 130 million dollars. Like many of his contemporaries, Stone was concerned with his legacy as he entered middle age. In 1880 Stone gave $500,000 to Western Reserve College, which at the time was in Hudson, Ohio. $350,000 was given to move the university to its current location in Ohio, with the remaining mean to construct buildings at the new site.
However, ever the businessman, Stone stipulated that he would become chairman of the board of trustees for the Western Reserve College. While his title indicated a role in the decision-making, his demands suggested he saw this more as an ownership situation. For example, one of the first things he requested that the entire college’s name be changed to Stone College, as surnamed colleges were becoming increasingly popular. This may have been in no small part due to Leonard Case in Cleveland and the newly formed Case Institute of Technology. However, the board of trustees resisted, and Stone was force to compromise with naming it after his deceased son, Adelbert Stone. And thus Adelbert College came into existence.
His domineering reign on the college was also marked by conflicts out of the college. For example, when moving to Cleveland, it was suggested that two scholastic entities like Case Institute and Western Reserve should share the same space to maximize resources. Both institutions moved to a forty acre plot of land south of Euclid Ave and west of Adelbert Rd, where they both reside now. Case and Stone frequently argued over placement of buildings and who would get what plot. While unconfirmed, it is often told that Case, wanting the East plot, told Stone that he really wanted the West plot. Stone instantly replied that Adelbert College was in much greater need of such a fine piece of land, and that Case would have to be satisfied with the East plot. Many such stories have emerged from the construction of the two schools adjacent to each other.
Unfortunately, Stone was troubled with outside issues at the time. In 1876, outside of Ashtabula, OH, one of Stone’s railway bridges collapsed, plunging nearly 160 people into the icy cold water. None survived, and the sensational newsprinting of locals looting bodies in the night soon made national headlines. Official investigations yielded Stone at fault, for his hand in designing a bridge. He went through several engineers in designing the bridge, all of whom would not agree to his specifications of material and design due to safety reasons. Ultimately Stone had his way, and the bridge was built in 1860. The bridge did not collapse until the adverse conditions in 1876, but the damage was catastrophic. By 1883 he had resigned his post at Adelbert College and later committed suicide.
But what remains of the man who owned Adelbert College? For the most part, his name has faded into obscurity. Stone College never came to fruition, and Adelbert College was integrated into the Western Reserve University and later the Case Western Reserve University. However, one building stands as a monument to his memory: Amasa Stone Chapel, which ironically is made of stone. Built in 1911, it is a clear example of 14th century gothic architecture. Stone Chapel is one of the most beautiful building on campus, it’s stark flying buttresses and clearly gothic cathedral architecture are a reminder of who Amasa Stone was.
By Greg Wu (gregory dot wu at case dot edu)
Sources: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ , the Inflation Calculator
Case Western Reserve: A History, by C.H. Cramer
http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/UPTO52.HTM, A History of Western Oil.
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