BEARDSHEAR HALL

Less than a month after the fire which destroyed the north wing of Old Main the Board of Trustees discussed the need for a replacement of the main college building.¹ Discussions continued during the rest of 1901 and through 1902 concerning the cost and nature of the building, with much emphasis placed on the need to ensure a fireproof structure,

In April 1902 a reporter for the ISC Student interviewed President Beardshear and obtained these comments about the status of the proposed building:

The work will be begun as soon as definite plans can be made and the contracts let. State Architect Liebbe had drawn tentative plans for the building which will be of stone, four stories, and thoroughly fire proof throughout, The frontage of the building will be three hundred feet. As regards location, that is not yet settled. Of course, if the present location is selected, the old Main must go soon. The space, however, is not ample for a building of this size without seriously covering the engineering building. The site may be south of the present emergency hall. In that case the old building will remain until the new one is completed.²

The fire of August 14, 1902, which resulted in the loss of the balance of old Main resolved the question of site for the new building. It was November of that year, however, before architects were retained to prepare final plans for the new building,³ Plans included provisions of space for the departments of Mathematics, English, Botany, History, Modern Languages, Elocution, and offices for the President of the Col lege, Secretary and Treasurer, and Board of Trustees.⁴

The structure was referred to as the Central Building during this planning period and retained that designation until 1938 when it was renamed Beardshear Hall.⁵ That name had been proposed as early as 1905, just three years after the President’s death.⁶

Bids for the new building were opened on March 26, 1903, but all were rejected because they exceeded available funds. Low bidder was Henry W. Schleuter, of Chicago. The architect subsequently worked with him in developing modifications in the plans and specifications to reduce the bid to $262,000, and a contract was executed in June. Construction started the following month. One of the deletions from the original plans was the dome and attic story. This was reinstated, however, in September 1904 when additional funds were made available by the legislature.

Construction continued through 1904 and 1905. No formal completion date is recorded and it was determined that “As soon as any of the rooms in Central Hall are ready for occupancy they will be occupied.”⁷

By March, 1906, most of the work was completed and the newspaper⁸ provides an excellent description of the space assignments at that time:

Owing to so many alterations of plans and delays in getting material, the completion of the building is still a matter of the future, considerable work in decorations, ornamental work, lighting and work on the outside of the columns being yet undone. The new hall occupies the site of the old main, is built throughout thoroughly fire-proof of buff Bedford stones and other durable materials, there being nothing inflamable in the building but hard wood furniture. It has a frontage of 216 feet, is 112 feet deep and has 78,000 square feet of floor space. It has been described as designed in the classic rennaisance style with a strong Grecian feeling running through the detail of its exterior. The interior is plainly furnished with the exception of the trustees’ room, the secretary’s room and the president’s reception room, which are ornamented with stucco cornices and plastered wall treatment. Looking down the main corridors, one sees the massive columns of scagliola work, so good an imitation of marble that experts are de ceived. Taken together with the rotunda and two stair halls in the first story form an immense apartment 166 feet long and 36 feet wide, in which the work of registration can be carried on rapidly and comfortably without using any of the offices.

The building is already occupied, although complete furnishings are not yet in place. The whole first floor, consisting of 18 rooms, is devoted to the English department. Along the west corridor are the offices of Prof. Noble, Miss Maclean and six recitation rooms and a room furnished with six tables and 24 chairs to be used as a study room of our future debating teams. Just south is the English library, which, when it is equipped will be used by the English instructors and students alike in re search work. It contains 54 chairs and nine tables. The south east corner contains the essay filing room, Prof. Noble’s private office and the general English office.

The main or first floor is largely devoted to executive offices of the school. The main entrance is on the east side of this floor. Opposite the main entrance are the six rooms given to the President, consisting of a general reception and a private room, a catalogue and stenographer’s room, a room for his secretary and a faculty room. Directly opposite and to the south are Treasurer Knapps’ private office, two bookkeepers’ rooms, the main office and a stenographer’s room. The southwest corner is occupied by the department of Civics and consists of Prof. Barrett’s office, a seminar room and a class room. To the right of the main entrance are the German and French departments, occupying two rooms on the right side of the corridor, and two on the left. At the north end of the floor are six rooms occupied by the board of trustees, board of audit, the purchasing committee, the secretary of the board of trustees and the dean of the junior college.

The second floor is occupied by the mathematical, economics and history departments. The economics department has an office, a seminar room and one classroom on the southwest corner, The history department has three offices, a reading room and three classrooms on the north end. The mathematical department has the rest of the floor, consisting of nine class rooms and four offices, ample blackboard room has been supplied.

On the third floor at the north end is Prof. Newen’s office, three classrooms and a second office. One of the rooms is equipped with folding chairs and a movable platform. The remaining part of the floor is occupied by the botanical department. Prof. Pammel has ample quarters here, having nineteen rooms on the third floor and seven in the attic in all. The corridor on third floor will con tain museum cases, showing organisms, illustrating the structure and biology, and going from this to higher organisms. It is the intent to show the natural relationship of plants and the uses they serve. The east side of the corridor contains a lecture room, Prof. Pammel’s private office, a combined seminar and office room, Prof. Pammel’s private dispensary in which the supplies of the department will be kept, and at the southeast corner is Miss King’s room. It will contain all the drawings, photographs and illustrations used in the department and Experiment Station. At the south end of the stair is an office, and a bacteriology lab oratory with a small side room for preserving pure cultures. This laboratory, as is the one just north, is fitted up with glass top tables, incubators, ice-chests, etc., for the individual use of the student. Further on north are the rooms for general botany and ecology. The herbarium occupies a large room in the center of the hall and accomodates ninety herbarium cases, three high, all made of a distinct kind of wood. Next comes the library of the department and then the room for general botany, accomodating 30 students at separate tables with microscopes. The attic in front of the dome is devoted to economic botany. North of the dome is the unmounted material, the mounting room being south of the dome. North of the dome is a large room with skylight, where some very exact experimentation such as germination of seeds and infection experiments are to be carried out.

The total cost of the building was reported, with a detailed itemization, in the 21st Biennial Report for 1903-1905, as $406,934.85. By the end of 1908 additional costs as reported in the 23rd Biennial Report brought the total cost to $415,502.84.

In the years since the building was first occupied there have been many changes in use and various changes in room arrangements, but the main halls and stairways have remained essentially as originally built.

The first major change in use came in 1913 then the library was moved from Morrill Hall to Central because of the greater protection of the fireproof building. It took space on the west side of both the ground and first floors, and remained in the building until the new Library was ready in 1925.

The Botany department was moved out (to Botany Hall) in 1928.

As the institution has grown, more and more space became needed for administrative and staff offices, and classrooms have been remodeled to satisfy those needs. Air conditioning from the central chilled water system was installed in much of the building in the 1970’s.

Little has changed on the exterior of the building. After the college became a university it was necessary to change the inscription over the main entrance to show the new name, Iowa State University.