A WKU student walks through the lobby of Van Meter Auditorium on Wednesday as classes wind down for the spring semester. Photo by Clinton Lewis

You may have driven or walked by them a hundred times on your way through the Western Kentucky University campus. Theres Cherry Hall, with the stately statue out front. Theres Van Meter Hall, with its large, white columns. On Saturday, WKU Special Collections Librarian Jonathan Jeffrey will share the stories behind the buildings and many others during a free Architecture Walking Tour. Were going to be talking chiefly about the buildings built before 1937, Jeffrey said. The tour will begin at 9:30 a.m., with free doughnuts and coffee at the Kentucky Building. The event is sponsored by WKUs Kentucky Library and Museum, the Kentucky Arts Council and the Landmark Association. On Thursday, Jeffrey talked about a few of the spots hell highlight Saturday. Many were designed by Louisville architect Brinton B. Davis. He had a real appreciation for classical architecture from Greece and Rome, Jeffrey said. Van Meter is a perfect example of a temple built on a hill. Van Meter was built between 1909 and 1911 at a cost of $811,654.The huge price in those days infuriated the state legislature because it exceeded the amount members had appropriated. In a way it was a precedent-setting thing, Jeffrey said of the buildings expense. Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry, the first president of what was then Western Kentucky State Normal School, worked with Davis and well-known landscape architect Henry Wright to ensure Westerns buildings outlined the hill on which they would sit in a way that would be pleasing to the eye from every view. They did it so each building sort of has its own portion of the hill, Jeffrey said. And then there are the buildings that cant be seen all that well from below, but still are interesting architecturally. The Faculty House at Western was built in 1922 by students who wanted it to be a student center. They hewed the logs for it from campus cedar trees that died in a drought the year before, Jeffrey said. But the building wasnt used for student fun for long. It became the library at Western until the building that is now Gordon Wilson Hall was built to be the library in 1927, Jeffrey said. The names of famous writers, including John Keats and Alexander Pope, adorn Gordon Wilson, which now is home to Department of Journalism offices, classrooms, an auditorium and a dance studio. Its something late Western basketball coach E.A. Diddle took advantage of when giving not-so-well-read recruits tours of the campus. Ed Diddle would tell new players, If you do well here, maybe youll get your name on a building like they did, Jeffrey said. Such interesting information is attached to every architectural work Jeffrey will discuss on the tour. The statue of Dr. Cherry, in front of Cherry Hall, has a somewhat sad story behind it. Unfortunately it was finished after Dr. Cherry and Wright died in 1937, Jeffrey said. The works sculptor, Loredo Taft of Chicago, died the same year, and Davis, who had worked so closely with Wright and Cherry, could not be at the statues dedication. Because of the Depression, he didnt get all of his pay for work he did at Western, Jeffrey said. But Davis still donated money to be used toward the building of Cherrys statue. Jeffrey thinks the public will enjoy such stories as they walk along, ask questions and discover details they may not otherwise have seen on buildings and other architectural works. Architecture is the most public form of art, and people pass by all the time details an architect intended for us to notice, Jeffrey said. The walking tour will last about an hour and 15 minutes. Jeffrey recommends wearing comfortable shoes for the trip. The walking is on a hill and will be a little rigorous, he said. For more information, call Jeffrey at 745-5265.