Year Built: 1876

Purpose: Academic Building

 

“Old Main” is, with the possible exception of Christ Chapel, the most distinctive building on campus.  It holds the prominent position on campus being directly front and center on the top of “the Hill” and eyes are immediately drawn to it.  It is also the oldest building on campus and, at one point in time, it was the college. The cornerstone for the building was laid August 12, 1875 after the roughly $25,000 needed to build it was gathered.  It was designed by Rev. L.A. Hocanzon.  It opened October 16, 1876 for classes, which included a secondary school, as well as the higher education institution that remains today.  It was built to house what was St. Ansgar’s Academy after it moved from Red Wing, MN to St. Peter, MN.  The completed building lacked desks and a heating system, but school went on as planned.  Its space was well used.  The upper floors housed the sleeping rooms of students and a library, after 1897, the main floor housed the academic portion of the building with an office and classrooms that could be converted into a larger room that was used for events such as chapel.  The basement held a kitchen, bathroom, utility room and also acted as the president’s residence.  All academic departments were contained within.

    Change is a common part of Old Main’s history, it was said that it was meant to be adaptable and adaptable it is.  The start of this theme of change began early, when other buildings were built to enable the expansion of the college; by 1902, no students were housed in Old Main and it became completely academic by 1929.  1926 saw the building’s first facelift, which reversed some of the effects of heavy wear and renovated some rooms for science. The construction of the Nobel Hall of Science in 1963 allows the Biology, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics Departments to move out and make room for the admissions office and Math Department.  1974 sees another change of tenants as Psychology and Economics and Business move in Anderson Social Science Center and Religion and the chaplain’s office relocate from Uhler Hall.  Humanities becomes the main academic theme of Old Main when Math moves to Olin Hall in 1991.  In 2005 a major renovation puts the building in its current state housing Classics, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion and the chaplain’s office.

    The building has withstood two tornadoes and has been essential to the functioning of campus since its beginnings.  Along with these more college-like aspects of the building, there are also aspects that have a greater value to the trivia fiend.  The clock was stopped at 3:30 from 1945 to 1951.  Two ghosts stories are worthy of telling.  Chaplain Alvie was working on one of his sermons late at night and dozed off.  He was then awoken by a security guard on his rounds.  This would not be worth mentioning had the security guard not been dead for over a year.  And to leave you with a prank gone wrong, the ghost of the cow on the third floor is there because a group of students thought it would be funny to bring a cow into their professor’s office.  It should have been common knowledge that cows can go up stairs better than they can go down them.  The cow had to be shot and its ghost haunts the third floor forevermore.