# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S206
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

206 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

who attended the synodical District conventions received a prog-
ress report in the President’s booklet entitled Know Your Synod’s
Work. At the invitation of the College of District Presidents, every
North American District convention — except one—in 1955 was
personally visited by Dr. Martin J. Neeb, president of Concordia
Senior College, or, in a few instances, by the executive secretary
of the Board for Higher Education. In addition to special articles
and special reports, for many months the Lutheran Witness carried
a regular column on phases of the planning and organizing of
Concordia Senior College in accord with the objectives and func-
tions which Synod, after many years of careful study and debate,
had assigned to its newest school.

For the sake of the record, it may nevertheless be desirable
to include a rapid recapitulation of developments since June 1953.
Almost before the Houston Convention had adjourned, a joint sub-
committee of the Board for Higher Education and the Board of
Directors of Synod was active in a preliminary survey of the
Fort Wayne area. After intensive search of more than five months,
an attractive 177-acre site was located directly north of the city
of Fort Wayne and lying between Highway 427 and the St. Joseph
River. This was bought from Mr. Howard Kramer, with ten more
acres subsequently purchased from Mr. George Sweet, in order
to fill out one corner of the new campus.

Following the synodical precedent at the time of designing
a new seminary, the Boards determined to choose an architect
of highest professional competence who would be able to under-
stand and interpret the objectives of Synod’s school in both the
beauty and the efficiency of the design. Mr. Eero Saarinen was
selected and commissioned as project architect on July 25, 1953;
and he and his associates proceeded immediately in the next months
to develop the scope of the program and the plans necessary to
provide an appropriate environment for the new Senior College.

The 1954 Fiscal Conference had an opportunity to hear and
meet Architect Saarinen and several of his associates. To this
conference he described the site of the Senior College, the buildings
which were being planned for it, and the location of the buildings
and their functions on the site.

The capacity of the various buildings provided for various
functions is only one measure of this developed program. The
chapel is designed to seat 600; the library will seat one third of
the student body —to conform to the standard of the American
Library Association; the instruction building has ten classrooms
for 33 students each, a lecture room seating 125, and a speech
department with individual and group practice rooms. Three
seminar rooms and three counselors’ offices are included in the

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