Bearkat Den
Location
Timeline
Unknown:
Construction
194x-c.1956:
Named Bearkat Den, served as residence
c.1956-59:
Demolished
Demographics
Namesake:
Bearkat
Architect:
Unknown
Contractor:
Unknown
About
Bearkat Den was a two-story frame residence at the southwest corner of Avenue J and Sixteenth Street that housed some (but not all) of the scholarship football players.
It was used in this capacity shortly after WWII through the Fall 1956 semester when the athletes moved into the new gym dorms [1]. King Hall was constructed on this site three years later.
According to another source, the Caballeros, a men's social group that later became the Epsilon Psi chapter of Sigma Chi fraternity, leased a new home for its 17 members located at 1603 Avenue O that had "formerly been the Bearkat Den" [2].
It is unclear how the two houses, separated by six city blocks, were related other than possibly sharing a similar name.
The name Bearkat Den was later applied to Men's Gym.
Photographs
An aerial photograph from the mid-1950s shows the northern wing of Elliott Hall and two residences - the northernmost one being Bearkat Den - alongside Avenue J.
Sources
[1] Thomas Davis (2012)[2] "The Caballero Years" (1997)