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Burns Tower

Which is the oldest university in California? The Jesuits began teaching at the University of Santa Clara in 1851. In the same year, and in the same town, a gaggle of Presbyterians received a state charter to found a college that only began teaching the following year.

The Jesuits decided to crack on and start instruction before they could raise the $20,000 endowment the state required before a charter was granted whereas the Wesleyans went the other way round. That latter institution eventually moved to Stockton, east of San Francisco, where it is today known as the University of the Pacific.

When a university actually began operating seems a more appropriate foundation date than mere form filling, so despite its 1855 charter I’d say Santa Clara still beats the 1851 University of the Pacific.

Since that time, Pacific has claimed a few honours. It has educated students as wide-ranging as Jamie Lee Curtis, who left after a term to become an actress, to the orthodontist Arif Alvi who was President of Pakistan until last month. Jazz giant Dave Brubeck studied veterinary medicine here.

The campus’s Ivy League look with a California location has led to it appearing in many films, including ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.

In the late 1950s, the elders of Pacific were looking for a way to cut the university’s water bill. They decided building a 150,000-gallon water tower was the solution. But they didn’t want to blight their beautiful campus with an unsightly functional design.

They turned to architects Howard G. Bissell and Glen H. Mortensen who created the tower that has become an icon of the university and was the tallest building in Stockton for decades.

Burns Tower houses eight floors of offices, a radio studio, and the massive water tank, painted white and hidden behind four giant stained-glass windows. A carillon of 122 miniature bells rings out at half past midday and half past five every day.

The design is a curious transition, grasping towards the modern but still firmly rooted in collegiate gothic. There’s something very 1950s about it, but not in a bad way. Had it been designed even just five years later, one can imagine it would be much more streamlined, and not necessarily for the better.

The tower’s ground floor has now been turned into a centre for welcoming prospective students and guests to the University of the Pacific. Burns Tower serves as a symbol not just of the university but of the city of Stockton itself now more than sixty years since its completion.

Published at 1:57 pm on Friday 19 April 2024. Categories: Architecture Tags: , .
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