Located in downtown Saratoga Springs from 1903 to the mid 1960s, the college’s Scribner campus stretched from Caroline Street to Park Place, from Circular and Henry Streets to Nelson Avenue. Students lived and studied in more than 80 buildings, the majority of which are still standing today, that had once been churches, sanitariums and houses belonging to the rich and famous.

Until recently, however, most of the history surrounding this campus remained unstudied.

In May, Skidmore senior Heather Moore and Professor Robert Jones coauthored The Architect of Necessity: Skidmore’s First Home in Downtown Saratoga. The 137-page black and white book shows photographs of more than 60 of the buildings that were once part of Skidmore’s campus, accompanied by facts and stories surrounding each one.

“Every house or structure has a unique story and found its way into the campus because of a new or expanded need,” reads the book’s introduction. “The necessity of bettering the Skidmore educational experience drove the college to buy or build each structure.”

Moore and Jones, who previously had completed research on the history of Skidmore’s current campus, got the idea for the book in 2006 while giving a lecture to alumnae. In Moore’s speech, she said, she mentioned the dormitories Penfield, McClellan, Kimball and Wilmarth, all of which are named after important figures in Skidmore’s history and share their names with buildings that used to be part of the old campus.

“They got really excited, thinking that we were talking about the dorms they had once lived in,” Moore said. “We realized that there really was no research done on Skidmore’s old campus, so in an effort to preserve that part of Skidmore’s history, we applied for a collaborative research grant.”

Once they received the grant, Moore spent the summer of 2006 reading old newsletters, presidential speeches, alumni bulletins and records of building dedications from Skidmore Special Collections. Jones used to teach on the old campus, and so was able to contribute his own memories as well. Moore also interviewed eight people who had once lived on the old campus. For the most part, she said, these alumnae were thrilled to have the chance to share their memories.

“Your own history is always what’s most important to you,” Moore said. “A lot of alums don’t feel as connected to the new campus.”

Once the collaborative research grant ended and the information had been collected, Moore and Jones wanted to find a way to share what they had found.

“We realized that we’d amassed the best manuscript of the old campus, and we thought it would be great to turn it into a book,” Moore said. She and Jones then approached the college advancement office, who helped fund the publication along with the Presidential Discretionary Fund.

For Moore, publishing the book was a new experience with some unexpected results, including her decision to change her major from government to history.

“I definitely had my hand in every part of the process,” she said. “I got to approve the layout, edit it about 50 times, find pictures and request funding. I also fell in love with archives – I’m in Special Collections almost every day.”

Two thousand five hundred copies of the book have been printed, and are available for purchase at Borders, Lyrical Ballad and the Skidmore Shop.