THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

Howe Memorial Gates

Artist: Fred A. Cuthbert Execution: O. B. Dawson. Date: Installed in 1938. Location: Howe's Field.

In 1935 when a baseball park was constructed near McArthur Court, plans got under way to create formal gates and entrances. The park was named for Herbert Crombie Howe, an English professor and athletics supporter. Early on, Fred Cuthbert, UO's landscape architect, and Orion B. Dawson, blacksmith, were involved in the designs. Dawson was concurrently working on iron projects at Timberline Lodge. Funding for the project came from the Works Projects Administration, several UO classes, the Soldiers' Memorial Fund, and the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. The gates, sometimes known as the Soldiers' Memorial Gates, also served the long-sought goal of honoring World War I veterans. A bronze plaque (below) honoring WWI veterans is mounted on the ticket booth.

Source: Force, Rachel Gwen. Blacksmith: The Sginificance and Preservation of O. B. Dawson's Ironwork for the WPA. University of Oregon Thesis, 2004.