
The first sign of improving twentieth-century conditions at Delaware College was the state legislature's funding of two Colonial Revival buildings for the new women's college, this and adjacent Robinson Hall, both by Rogers. Until 1913, Delaware was the only state in the nation with no provision for the higher education of white women; black women could attend Delaware State College. Newark resident Everett C. Johnson (of Press of Kells, NK13) led a crusade to remedy this “burning injustice,” culminating in the purchase of the twenty-acre Wollaston farm. A crowd of 3,000 gathered for the dedication of Robinson and Warner halls, the latter originally called Residence Hall, to which a driveway made a close approach so the women could hurry inside after dark. An inventive touch is the Beaux-Arts wooden portico of coupled Doric columns with an unusual segmental pediment (a windowed dorm room occupies this lofty perch). Equally surprising is the tall fanlight over the pedimented front door. Robinson was originally called Science Hall; Warner was named for Emalea Pusey Warner, champion of women's education. The colorful Rogers, of New Castle, was an artist who studied architecture at Harvard and entered practice in Washington, D.C., with classmate Charles Totten before setting up his Delaware practice in 1903.