Crawford Music Hall
Seattle Pacific University
As a singer and music Therapy student at Seattle Pacific University, a University in Seattle Washington, I oftentimes find myself in Crawford Music Hall. I have spent so much time in Crawford in the last two months that it is practically my second home. Whether it is for my Fundamentals of Music class or just to practice piano or learn a new song for voice lessons, I am in there every day.
Crawford Music Hall is one of the many unique buildings found on the campus of Seattle Pacific University. When I first saw Crawford as an official student I remember thinking it stood out like a sore thumb. The building is large and square. It is brick but it has eight thin, long windows that reach from the top of the building to the bottom. Surrounding each of those windows is a thick black border, making the windows look as though they are part of the wall. You can oftentimes see the bus sitting outside of Crawford since it is where the bus route begins and ends for buss 13. There is also the smell of the sandwich shops various smells wafting from across the street. The building itself is not necessarily ugly, but it is not exactly aesthetically pleasing either. Especially since it is right next door the beautiful church like McKinley Hall/Theater building. However, the building has trees that tower over it. They give the campus a fairytale effect. Every day I feel as though I am in a dream as I approach the building and the trees surrounding it block the sky.
I have been in it so many times in the last two months, however there are still things that I am learning about it. My recent discoveries led me to want to learn more about this building that I spend so much time in. I would like to know who the Crawfords were, and why the building is named after them.
As a result of my curiosity, I went searching. It turns out that Crawford is the name of a family that gave generous amounts of money to the school in order to build Crawford Music Hall. The son Harold was the successor of his family’s business. His mother, Wesley Crawford and his Father, Blodwyn Crawford both went to school at SPU back when it was Seattle Pacific College, also known as SPC. They loved the school dearly and their son went to SPC as well. According to Harold, in a short documentary he was in he was originally sent to school to be a Math major, even though he wanted to be a business major. It wasn’t until later that his father finally allowed him to go into the family business of farming. His family business eventually took off and the name was changed from Wesley Father and Son to Grow pack inc. and was moved to California. The family was generous enough to give money to the school in order to help it grow.
This particular instance reminded me of a piece of writing that I had come across. This particular piece was titled “Alabama” from the Novel, The Invisible man by Ralph Ellison. The speaker is young man, as student at a University. He was given the task of driving around an old and extremely wealthy man. This particular man was one of the founders of the school. The young man found himself wondering about the old man. What made him the way he was? He clearly emanated wealth and power, but he seemed friendly. The reasons to why this reminds me of the Crawfords is not because I feel as though they emanate power, but instead they show that they are generous. The old man in the story clearly wishes for the young many to be successful, he states, “A pleasant fate,” he repeated, “and I hope yours will be pleasant.” “, Yes, sir. Thank you sir,” I said, pleased that he wished something pleasant for me” (70). I feel as though the Crawfords wished or the success of the students, and this is why they donated in order to give the same kindness that the old man did. The old man was not necessarily looking for gratitude. He was however looking to help others grow. This is why he helped build the school the same way the Crawfords helped with the music building.
The building was started in 1958 and completed in 1960. However, according to Seattle Pacific University A growing Vision 1891–1991 the building was a subject of conversation for many years before it was even designed. The book says, “Further building plans in progress became the subject for announcement. Still final plans remained undrawn and the construction site empty” (128). This seemed odd to me. Why would they spend so much time talking about building it? They had not only discussed it, but they had announced it as well. It was almost guaranteed that it was going to happen. According to the same source, the President of SPU had started the planning to build a music hall but it was not started until after his retirement. There is no information as to why this happened.
Although we do not know why the building didn’t get started until after his retirement, they do have some information as to why its construction was delayed. It turns out that the Gym and music building had come in conflict with each other when the building was supposed to start. The school found itself with less money than they needed to build the two buildings. According to the same source as before, the “Royal Brougham Pavilion and Crawford Music Building had become inextricably bound together in 1956 by a transaction that became a plight when president Demaray faced the obligation to proceed with the music building” (128). This meant that the two buildings needed plenty of money in order to start and finish building. However, it was not available to either building at the time.
The gymnasium was started in 1947 because they figured that they would get plenty of funding from the city. However, their plans fell short. As a result of not having enough money to finish the gymnasium, they “borrowed” $180,000 from the money that was supposed to go toward the Music building. As a result of this the building of what is now Crawford music hall came to a stop. However, the president and the Crawford foundation had an agreement that if the school received $250,000 they would proceed with the building. When the school finally received $254,917.20 the President had to decide whether or not he was going to continue with building. Since they had an agreement they went through with it. However, many people became upset because the money was given to the school to go to the gymnasium, and not the music building.
The building is quite welcoming to anyone that enters it. When I walk in for my morning classes I am greeted by the sound of a piano playing within one of the rooms. I know now that if I go late at night the building will be dark, and only parts of the building will be lit. At the late hours of the night there are usually two or three students playing their instrument in one of the practice rooms in the back. Nevertheless the building is always alive with the promise of music and creativity.
On the main level there are two separate halls with practice rooms in it. One hall is shaped like a lowercase “n”, the other is shaped like an uppercase ‘L”. These practice rooms can only be accessed by students that have a pass and are Music majors. Each room is different. Some of the rooms have a grand piano that takes up just about the entire room. Some have upright pianos that are tucked into a corner giving the person plenty of practice space to move about. This is extremely useful for a person that has an especially large instrument such as a Cello. One thing that is constant in every room is the fact that music is unavoidable. There is almost always the sound of a piano seeping through the walls. If it is not a piano then it is a singer, violin, cello, trumpet, or some other instrument. To the left there is a classroom where I take intro to music therapy. According to Seattle Pacific University it is the first and only school in Washington with a music therapy program. The lower part of Crawford has a warm and welcoming feeling to it.
Up the stairs there are dimly lit rooms that belong to some of the staff. To the left is a large room where classes such as Aural Skills and Music Theory of is held. The room is always alive in some way. Every day there is an obnoxious beeping noise that sounds. It tends to interrupt many of the classes. Many of us ignore it now, but it resembles the sound of an alarm. Many times students wander the upper part of Crawford. To the right of the there is a faculty lounge and another classroom. Often times I run into a professor discussing music in this part of the building.
My favorite room in all of Crawford is the first practice room in the left hall. Walking into a room that features a large black grand piano, one might expect to see a beautiful and grand room. However, that is not necessarily the case here. The room is quite comfortable and laid back, and gives you a sense of security. The walls are brick, but three of the walls have been poorly painted white. The old red rug has specks of paint on it and along the black baseboard there is white paint covering parts of it. The room is often times a comforting temperature, allowing the musician to feel welcome. The piano appears as though it has been heavily used as it has dents and scratches in it. It also looks as though the last time it was moved was when it was installed.
There are still many things I would like to know about this building, such as where did all of the pianos come from? Were they donated? Were the rooms painted by students? I would like to know more about what changed when the remodeled it. Often times I was trapped at a dead end with these topics.
The importance of this building must be phenomenal to the school considering the amount of time and effort that they put into building it. There seems to be many layers to this story that I have not yet been discovered. There is however one thing that will not change any time soon, and that is the passion that comes from the students that practice there.
Works Cited:
- McNichols, Donald. Seattle Pacific University: A Growing Vision, 1891–1991. Seattle, WA: U, 1989. Print.
- Crawford, Harold, “The History of the Crawford Music Building” (2007). Speakers & Events.Paper 1057
- Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print
