William Penn Life, 2010 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2010-05-01 / 5. szám

The door to the Hungarian Room.

“When the door is dosed I feel as if we have shut out the restless world. N\y class and I are alone in surroundings comfortable and beautiful, ready for poetry." - Unknown professor of English at the

University of Pittsburgh

Previous Page - Four of the five stained glass windows depicting famous persons and events from Hungarian history.

the room and solicit donations. All through this time, the Hungarian Room Committee could always count on the generous contributions of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, today known as the William Penn Association. The room's dedication program lists 61 Hungarian societies which made donations to the project, including eight branches of the Verhovay. There were another 400 individual donors who gave major contributions.

With enough funding to keep the project moving forward, focus shifted to Budapest where the room was being constructed. Once completed, the room was shipped by the Hungarian government to Barcelona where it was displayed at an industrial arts exhibition. Then, near catastrophe struck. At the close of the exhibition, the room was dismantled, crated and readied for shipment to Pittsburgh. The crates disappeared.

The mystery of the missing room would never be solved. Nevertheless, Gomory and the Hungarian community were determined to fulfill their dream of a Hungarian classroom. So, Gomory traveled to Hungary to expedite the construction of a duplicate room. This time the room was shipped without its carvings. Those were completed in New York by master craftsmen using plaster casts of the originals.

On September 29,1939, the Hungarian Room celebrated its official dedication with a ceremony in the Cathedral of Learning's Common Room. "Now we have a place in the university as a part of the universe," Gomory wrote.

G

yörgyi said he designed the classroom "trying to follow clearly the Magyar folk ornament, the character of which lies in that fact that in the main it is quite simple, yet in certain places it is highly ornamental." Györgyi's intent is clear the moment one reaches the entrance to the classroom. There stands the room's imposing dark oak door which—like all elements of the room—is simple in its construction but offers classic renderings of Hungarian folk traditions. "The entrance door is a superb example of Hungarian plastic carving," Mitchell wrote in her description of the room. "Tulips and pomegranate leaves, daisies and sheaves of wheat, cross the door in vigorous alternate patterns."

Once inside, those contrasts of simplicity and ornamentation continue everywhere one looks. The walls are sheathed from floor to ceiling with tobacco-brown oak veneer. They are unadorned, but the carefully selected and arranged grain patterns of each panel form a fluid and symmetrical whole.

The simple walls contrast with the highly ornamental ceiling, for years the room's outstanding feature.

The ceiling consists of 70 wooden squares each dominated by the brilliant orange-red of Hungarian paprika and painted with traditional Magyar folk motifs in turquoise, green and white. Györgyi viewed the colorful ceiling as representative of Hungarian peasant homes "every one of which is adorned with embroidered or carved or painted roses, tulips, carnations, lilies, pome14 0 May 2010 ° William Penn Life