EXHIBIT HALL

At its meeting of May 9, 1918, the Board authorized the construction of “a wooden building approximately 80’ x 150’ for housing of trucks used for War Training work” with the cost to be paid from the War Training fund. No reference has been found to identify who prepared plans; nor is there any record of the change from a frame building to the structural tile walls as it was built. Construction was done by college personnel.

Five classrooms for automotive training were added inside on the west in 1919, using plans prepared by Dean Marston. ¹ Additional partitions were installed in 1920. ²

Some remodelling was undertaken in 1930.

The southwest corner of the building will be used by the Industrial Arts Department for a metal-working shop, while the Engineering Experiment Station will use the machine shop in the north end. The central part of the building will be cleared of partitions and used by the Engineering Extension Department as a demonstration laboratory for the various short courses which it conducts throughout the year.³

The following year the southwest corner was assigned to the Mechanical Engineering Department as a laboratory of aeronautics.⁴

In 1936 the aeronautical lab was moved out and the space made available for the college band.⁵ The band was forced out in 1942 to make room for the navy program in progress on the campus.

The date when the name “Exhibit Hall” was first applied to the building is uncertain. The Financial Report for June 30, 1938, lists it as “Aeronautical Laboratory”. A map dated 1938 identifies it as “Exhibits”, and it appears as “Exhibit Hall” on a 1939 map. The 1940 Financial Report calls it “Exhibition Hall”.

Remodeling of Exhibit Hall was authorized in 1951 to provide space for WOI-TV, and the studios were moved there the following February. At that time the Driver Training Laboratory was moved to a temporary building and the Engineering Experiment Station machine shop was moved to the Mechanical Engineering Building.

On June 30, 1960, the Iowa State Daily reported that “The rooms in the southeast part of Exhibit Hall are being changed into a laboratory for surveyors.” In 1964 the WOI-TV studios were moved to the new Communications Building, and on October 16 of that year the new uses of the building were described in the paper:

Four departments will acquire extra space in Exhibit Hall since WOI has moved out of the building into its all-new facilities. The vacant area is being remodeled into offices and classrooms for aerospace engineering, civil engineering, telecommunicative arts, and the Iowa State Bands.

When Town Engineering Building was completed in 1971 the engineering uses of Exhibit Hall were moved to that location and since then only music and telecommunicative arts have used the building.