Last Post Babson College Archives are closed.

I am no longer archivist at Babson College as my position has been eliminated. The archives and museums will be closed. I don't know who at Babson College will be available to answer your questions.

Links to many of my former pages at the Internet Archive can be found on the right.



R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar

George Francis Marlowe, Jr.

In 1921 Roger W. Babson began buying up land to build a residential school for his new Babson Institute of Business Administration. Ten years later, where once was farm and field, there were nine campus buildings and six other buildings bracketed by the pre-existing Children's Convalescent Hospital on the Needham side and the Channing Sanitarium on the Wellesley side. Most of these new buildings were designed by one man—British-born architect George F. Marlowe.

George Francis Marlowe, Jr. was born in Norwood, London on March 30, 1877. His parents, George Francis and Fannie S. Marlowe moved to Worcester, MA where George attended primary and secondary school. As a young man he studied architecture with Constant-Désiré Despradelle. Despradelle taught architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a major proponent of the “Beaux-Arts” school of architectural design. Marlowe also studied drawing and painting with Charles Herbert Woodbury.

George married Diantha Williams Horne (1879—1966) on July 28, 1909 in Framingham, MA. Diantha was a children's book illustrator. One of George's first designs was a house he called “Little Maynard” which he built for his wife's parents. George and Diantha eventually took up residence in this house at 198 Maynard Road in Framingham.

Early in his career he worked for Peabody & Stearns and Andrew, Jacques, and Rantoul, two Boston firms with national reach and reputation. (Unfortunately the records of his time at these firms was unavailable to me.) He worked on a variety of local projects. Marlowe was a member of the Boston Society of Architects from 1912 and was elected a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1921.

How did he get associated with Babson Institute? In the absence of a definitive record I am limited to conjecture. In 1921/2 he worked with Eliza Newkirk Rogers. Ms. Rogers (Wellesley 1900) taught at Wellesley College and designed several of their buildings. George Marlowe worked with her on two college buildings, Hallowell House and Horton House. Horton House is to the top left of this display. Does the building look familiar? I am assuming that Wellesley resident Roger W. Babson saw this building and decided that this was the style he wanted for his new campus. (He later insisted that all future buildings be of a “Georgian” style. No pun intended.)

George Marlowe became a salaried employee in January 1922. In quick succession he designed the Administration Building (now Mustard Hall), two classroom buildings (Lyon Hall—today's Luksic Hall—and Bryant Hall) that were mirror images of one another, Richard Knight Auditorium, Peavey Hall Gymnasium, and the Babson Park Clubhouse (now Park Manor South). In his second breath he designed the Bank Building (which is known as Publisher's Hall), Coleman Hall (the central area designed for the Great Relief Map with a wing designed as a library), and Westgate Hall (which was the original residence of the President as well as the infirmary). He made time to do decorative pieces as well. The location dial off the Athletic Fields was designed by Marlowe in 1926. His last project was Park Manor (later renamed Park Manor Central) and at the completion of this building in 1930 he resigned from Babson Institute.

From 1928 through 1938 he had an independent architectural practice. He did work for St. Andrew's Church in Framingham, the Framingham High School, Walnut Hill School in Natick, and the Edgell Memorial Library in Framingham.

He was very active in arts, historical, and preservation matters in Framingham. In addition to his architectural society memberships, he was a member of the Edgell Memorial Library Board of Trustees for 46 years. He was a member of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. He was a long-time member of the Framingham Historical Society serving as President from 1932 until 1942.

In later life his life-long interest in travel joined with his interests in New England architectural history. From 1937 until 1954 he wrote social-cultural histories of New England. In the fall of 1941 he gave a series of public lectures “The History of Framingham in Six Periods” for the Framingham Historical Society. That same fall he published an 11-part series on the history of Framingham for the Framingham News.

His 46 year marriage to Diantha ended with his death in April 1955. She died in 1966. They are buried in the Edgell Grove Cemetery in Framingham.

R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar

Easy Street & Cheer Up! by Roger W. Babson

In the fall I scanned a copy of Roger W. Babson's response to the Great Depression which he called Cheer Up! Easy Street is the rendering of the life of a man from Maine who shared his story with Mr. Babson. How does one make his/her way in the world?

R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

Babson College Accreditation

In November Babson College was accredited by EQUIS. At this writing only three colleges in the United States have been accredited by them and only Babson earned a five year accreditation. The complete list of EQUIS accredited colleges can be found here. (Thanks to Dean Ansari for posting the details and link to the list.)

Babson College is accredited by two other organizations: The New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Babson Institute's undergraduate program was first accredited by the NEASC in 1950. The rules of the AACSB (known then as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business) required that accredited schools be independant schools attached to universities. When the rule was changed to allow free-standing colleges of business to be considered for accreditation Babson's programs were accrediated.

AACSB first acccredited Babson College's undergraduate program in 1980 and the graduate program in 1981.

R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

"Somethin's Cookin' at Babson" recipe collection (1984)

Last year at about this time I acquired a copy of Somethin's Cookin' at Babson from President William Dill. This collection of Babson College staff favorite recipes was printed in 1984 as a fund-raiser for the Babson College Women's Club with the proceeds going for scholarships. With a week before Thanksgiving 2008 I re-post it for the use and amusement of the community.


R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

What Roger W. Babson Said September 5, 1929

In these uncertain economic times there has been much quoting and noting of the comments made by Roger W. Babson at his 25th Anniversary Conference on September 5, 1929. The following excerpt is from the September 16, 1929 issue of Babson's Reports and it is said to be verbatim:

"Sooner or later a crash is coming which will take the leading stocks and cause a decline of from 60 to 80 points in the Dow-Jones Barometer. Fair weather cannot always continue. The Federal Reserve System has put the banks in a strong position; but it has not changed human nature. More people are borrowing and speculating today than ever in our history. Sooner or later there is a crash coming and it may be a terrific one. Wise are those investors who now get out of debt and reef their sails. This doesn't mean selling all that you have, but it does mean paying up your loans and avoiding margin speculation." [emphasis in the original]

PBS did a film on the Crash of 1929 [see transcript] which has a useful Timeline of Wall Street activities.

R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

The Presidental Election...1940

In early November of 2008 we have just ended a long campaign for President of the United States. Here at Babson we have an association with campaigns for the White House. In 1940, our founder, Roger W. Babson, ran for President of the United States as a candidate of the New Prohibition Party. The party was much more broadly reform-oriented than its name might suggest. Mr. Babson and his running mate Edgar V. Moorman ran a vigourous campaign but received only 57,903 of the 49,903,113 votes cast. Mr. Babson writes of the experience in the 1949 edition of his autobiography Actions and Reactions (p. 299-316) and in a book Our Campaign for the Presidency which is available in the Babson Collection (E811.B2 1941) in the Horn Library.

R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives