Owen Hall

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Rose Owen Hall in 1906

Rose Wellington Owen Hall was the original home of the North Alabama Conference College (now Birmingham-Southern College), constructed on the 16-acre Flint Ridge site donated by Rose Owen in 1898. Known as Owenton College, and later as Birmingham College, it was the only substantial building on campus before completion of the Science Building in 1916. It was demolished in the mid-1920s for construction of the larger Munger Memorial Hall, which today commands the Owen Quad at Birmingham-Southern.

At the time that the college was authorized by the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, no funds were made available for construction. In addition to donating the land, Owen took it upon himself to travel the district by carriage to raise subscription funds for the first building. An unknown benefactor delivered several loads of brick to the site. Owen and two ministers each sent one of their African American servants to the site to dig for a well. The second pit was successful. Critics of the project joked about the "pile of bricks and two holes in the ground" that represented the unfulfilled prospects for the college. First Methodist Church pastor Zachariah Parker, who served as the college's first president, referenced the jeer in a sermon in which he promised that the college would open in the fall, even if students had to meet "under an umbrella".

The building was far enough along in time for classes to be held indoors in mid-September 1898. The three-story building housed not only classrooms and offices, but also meeting rooms for the R. E. Lee Society and Eumenean Society literary clubs, and an auditorium. It was sometimes called "Owenton College" for the subdivision Owen developed around it, and was renamed "Birmingham College" in 1906. After Birmingham College merged with its older sibling, Southern University of Greensboro, Owen Hall was named in honor of its benefactor and remained as the combined college's administration building.

Owen Hall also served as the home of the Simpson School from 19218 to 1923, when it moved into a new building designed by D. O. Whilldin.

References

  • "Owen Hall" (October 3, 1924) The Gold and Black. Vol. 7, No. 3, p. 3

External links