Year Built: 1905, demolished 1970, Rebuilt as Edgar Carlson Administration Building in 1972

Purpose: Administration and Academic Building

 

The Auditorium was the seventh building on campus and the largest in size.  It was used as both an academic and administration building. The auditorium contained nine classrooms, an auditorium and administrative offices.  At 12:17 am on January 7th, 1970, the Gustavus campus awoke to the Auditorium up in flames. It was one of the coldest nights of the winter season, and a frozen hydrant stymied firefighters. The blaze was so intense that even the skeleton of brick outer walls left standing lost its structural integrity and had to be razed. Administrative offices were relocated in lounge areas of the Student Union while College officials combed through the debris trying to salvage

academic transcripts and alumni records, most of the latter eventually having to be reconstructed. The loss was immediately recognized at $500,000, then later revised to be $1 million.  By 1972 a new administration building had been erected on the site of the old Auditorium—and named Edgar Carslon Administration Building in honor of President Carlson and his wife, Ebba.