Preview
Creation Date
1966
Description
Other Names - Dormitory No. 7
Date Built - 1966
Dedicated - October 14, 1967
Cost of Construction - $1,300,000
Gross Sqare Feet - 74,426 (1969)
Architects - Frank Cain, W.S. Arrasmith, Arnold Judd & Joseph Wilk
Namesakes:
Sheridan Barnes was born March 3, 1894 in Hardin County. He attended Hardin County schools and the University of Kentucky. He founded the S.C. Barnes Insurance Agency in 1936. He is a past president of the Elizabethtown Rotary Club and of the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce. Barnes was a member of Western's board of regents from 1955-58. He died November 21, 1975 in Elizabethtown.
Donald Campbell was born August 16, 1901 in Springfield, KY. He attended Centre College and graduated in 1922. Campbell was mayor of Lebanon, KY from 1946 until 1954. From 1954 until 1959 he was a director of the American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods, New York City, and in 1957 he served as president of the Associated Industries of Kentucky. In 1961-62 he served as Executive Director of the Louisville Title Insurance Company. He was also a member of the Board of Regents from 1955-56.
History:
Constructed in conjunction with Bemis Lawrence Hall. Barnes-Campbell was dedicated on October 14, 1967. The 9 story men's dormitory was equipped with air-conditioning, self-service elevators, a spacious lobby and waiting areas, and apartments for a director and an assistant director. Barnes-Campbell housed 392 men. Each room accommodated 2 students.
Ghost story:
ca. 1967 - a resident assistant in Barnes-Campbell went downstairs before the building opened for the semester when the elevator stopped. The elevator became stuck between the fourth & fifth floors.
Trying to pry the door open, the elevator began running again, and crushed the R.A. to death.
Every year during opening & closing procedures when no one but the staff is in the building, it is said that the fifth floor ghost rides the elevator to the fifth floor, takes a shower, and leaves footprints leading from the shower to the resident assistant's door.
It has also been reported that when doors are locked, chairs will fall from desks, shades will be pulled up, and drawers will be slammed. [Alumni Magazine, Fall 1997]
Additions:
2002 - 12 new rooms making a total of 374
Park City Daily News:
Louisville Firm Low Dorm Bidder, Sep. 5, 1965
Six Big Western Construction Projects to Cost $9.6 Million, May 1, 1966
WKU Investigating Two Attempted Arsons, Oct. 16, 2001
Sisco, Scott. Western Shuffles Students During Renovation, Jan. 4, 2003
Louisville Courier-Journal:
Building Boom at Colleges Keeps Growing, Aug. 21, 1966
Duncan, Tom. Western Pushing Dormitory Plan, Louisville Courier-Journal, Mar. 20, 1965
Honor for Barnes and Campbell, Elizabethtown News, Oct. 10, 1967
Western Dorm Named for Lebanon Man, Lebanon Enterprise, Oct. 19, 1967
Western Names Dorm for Sheridan Barnes, Hardin County Enterprise, Sept. 28, 1967
Keywords
Western Kentucky University