With an itch to photograph, I made a spur of the moment trip Wednesday to
Campbell University in Harnett County about a half-hour south of Raleigh.
I have learned a lot since then ... about the university, certainly. But also about some of its benefactors (founder J.A. Campbell, Bob and Pat Barker, John W. and Joyce Pope and their sons, just for starters) and about
Buies Creek, the "census designated place" (CDP) where the school is located. It is named for the stream that dissects a small portion of the university campus' west side.
For 53 years, Buies Creek was an incorporated community, but the state legislature repealed its charter in 1967 (for reasons I've not been able to ascertain). Today, Campbell University dominates the Buies Creek community. The school's oldest original building is Kivett Hall, pictured in the lead-off photo.
I've also learned that Campbell University was founded as Buies Creek Academy in 1877, and that construction of Kivett was necessitated after a 1900 fire destroyed many of the school's academic buildings. Kivett opened in 1903 and has served in many capacities in the ensuing years, one of its most recent being to house the university's law school, which was founded in 1976.
But in 2009, the
Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law and its library moved to a new facility -- 33 miles to the north, in downtown Raleigh. The Wiggins library then became the main campus library, which had been housed at the Carrie Rich Memorial building. After a renovation in 2010, Kivett became the new home of the university's English Department, and the School of Engineering moved into Carrie Rich Memorial.
On the outside, however, Kivett still serves as a commanding, aesthetic anchor of the academic circle, a major campus mall or green area accessible through a network of brick paths. The photo above offers a vista of the circle pedestrian path looking southwest toward McLeod Admissions and Financial Aid Center (left), Butler Chapel (center) and Dinah E. Gore Bell Tower (right).
Also situated around the circle are the Britt Hall bookstore, Wiggins Memorial Library (connected to Kivett), D. Rich Memorial and Turner Auditorium and Frederick Taylor Hall of Religion (Divinity School). Under construction next to the bookstore, to the left of where the above photo was taken, is a structure that will serve as the new student center, which currently operates out of Wallace Student Center about a 10-minute walk northeast of the academic circle.
Many of the university's academic buildings and residential halls are red brick, so there is a distinct -- and tasteful -- traditional aura to the school's architecture and landscape. I don't use that description with any expertise in architecture; I've seen campuses populated with old and new brick, with a mixture of success where aesthetics are concerned. Campbell uses it well, and I liked what I saw on my visit.
As always, to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. To see a
full gallery of my shots from Campbell University, click on the link in this sentence.
Photo geek stuff: I did the entire shoot using my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a polarizing filter. I removed the filter when I went indoors. I made three exposures of each composition to meld into one image during post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software.
Above: This 7-foot-tall 500-pound bronze sculpture of Campbell University founder James Archibald Campbell in front of Kivett Hall was unveiled during a ceremony during the inaugural Founders Week in 2015. Campbell served as school president until his death in 1934.
Wiggins Memorial Library (above), the atrium inside the library's main entrance (below) and the inside of the library main doors (second below).
Above: Carrie Rich Memorial Hall, former campus library and current home of the School of Engineering.
Above: Frederick L. Taylor Hall of Religion (background left) and D. Rich Memorial and Turner Auditorium. The latter is fenced off for repairs.
Views from the back (above) and front (below) of Butler Chapel.
I got shots of the Dinah E. Gore Bell Tower outside Butler Chapel from many angles. The one above, framed by two trees near the academic circle, was one of them. You can find the others in the full gallery. Adjacent to the chapel is the McLeod Admissions and Financial Aid Center (below).
Above: A look toward another green area, between Kivett Hall and D. Rich Memorial and Turner Auditorium. The green area is adorned with stately trees and surrounded by more academic buildings.
Maddox Hall (above), which houses the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Just to the right of that is a plaza and fountain (below), and in the far right background in that photo is the Wallace Student Center (closeup, second below).
The new student union under construction (above) fronts the academic circle, and according to a security staff employee I talked to, it is replacing two dormitories that were torn down after new residence halls were built and opened elsewhere on campus. Below is a rendering of the new union, which I found on the university's website.
Taylor Bott Rogers Fine Arts Building (above), a relaxation area (below) just to the north of Taylor Bott Rogers, and the outside of Lundy-Fetterman School of Business (second below), to which there was very brisk student pedestrian traffic when I approached it. You can see some of that in front of the Taylor Bott Rogers Building above. A closeup of the business school building's cupola appears in the third photo below.
The relatively new Luby Wood (above) and Bob Barker (below) residence halls on Leslie Campbell Avenue. Pat Barker Hall (second below) is near the outdoor recreational basketball and sand volleyball courts.
Above is a rare junction of three student housing facilities -- Small Hall (bottom left), McCall Hall (center, featuring the multi-level staircase) and Burkot Hall (bottom far right). This is found on the south end of campus, just north of U.S. 421 South. A tunnel (below, a photo I converted to monochrome) allows students to get safely across the highway's north and south sides. On the southside of the highway are more student residence accommodations as well as the football and lacrosse athletic facilities, including Barker-Lane Stadium (second below), where the Fighting Camels football team plays its home games.
Back on the north side of campus, the Fighting Camels basketball and volleyball teams play in Gilbert Craig Gore Arena inside the John W. Pope Jr. Convocation Center (above), which has a very large sculpture of its school mascot out front to greet fans as they commute to events. Just inside the main entrance fans are greeted by the Hall of Fame exhibit (below). In the center of the list of inductees are plaques identifying Pope and young Gore (second below).
Above: On the day I visited, April 17, the regular playing floor of Gore Arena had been removed to add temporary floor seating in advance of that night's 2019 Spring Concert featuring country music artist Hunter Hayes.
Above: A selective color photograph used in an arena concourse art display. I cropped the top to remove the sponsor. If you'd like to see who the sponsor is, an uncropped version of the photo is in the full gallery of the shoot.
Above: I started paying attention to exploits of the school's 2018-19 men's basketball team late this past season, when 5-9 senior guard Chris Clemons appeared to be within striking distance of passing LaSalle's Lionel Simmons to become the NCAA Division I's third-leading all-time scorer. I had an itch to ask Campbell if I could photograph the team's last-regular season home game against Radford on March 2, but I felt the timing was too spur-of-the-moment, so I didn't do it. Of course, I regret that now. Clemons did pass Simmons -- with a 32-point performance on March 19 in Campbell's 84-69 loss to cross-state school UNC-Greensboro in the first round of the postseason NIT Tournament. He finished his career with 3,225 points, eight more than Simmons. How historic was Clemons' accomplishment? There had been no change in the top three scorers since Simmons joined the top-three club 1986. Now, the only players above Clemons are LSU's Pete Maravich with 3,667 points (accomplished in 1967) and Freeman Williams of Portland State (1974) with 3,249. Had the Fighting Camels been able to make a deeper run in either the NIT or its own Big South Conference tournament (top-seeded Campbell was upset in the semifinals by eventual champion and NCAA Tournament participant Gardner-Webb), Clemons might have been sitting at No. 2. In the team photo, Clemons wears jersey No. 3 and is seated, third from left.
The promenade outside Pope Convocation Center (above) and peeks of Irwin Belk Track (below) and the exterior of Nathan Robert Johnson Aquatic Center (second below).
