Four Stories
Founders Hall's Vivid History Recalls a Legacy of Learning
Today if a visitor wanders up the spiral staircase to the central bell tower of Founders Hall their journey is blocked by a forbidding door, safely locked. Adventurous souls who venture beyond that point can learn little other than the archeology of dust, changing styles of student graffiti, and the peel patterns of paint. The only audible sounds are the crunch of wood scraps underfoot, the creak of loose floorboards, punctuated by an occasional dust-induced sneeze. That's about to change. Within a year or two, the halls of the upper floors will once again echo with the sounds of lectures, conversation and the occasional party.
Founders Hall has been with us since the 1870s, built by men who had faith in Church of the Brethren values and in the potential for a fledgling college to grow into its destiny as a shaping influence for young minds.
The College's plan to revitalize and modernize Founders Hall is a crucial thread of memory that binds together not only alumni and current students but also the educational values that began the College and have remained undimmed for the 128 years of its existence. The College is returning "The Building" to its original function as an administrative and classroom space.
Founders also was a dormitory-and in fact, as boys and girls once lived on separate floors in its early years, may have been the country's first co-ed residence hall.
Of utmost importance to a college that venerates history and tradition, the new-look Founders will incorporate most of the original building. The east-west wing of the building (including the tower and Moore Street porch) will remain in place and receive a top-to-bottom renovation. The existing north wing will be torn down and a transitional section, encased in glass (housing stairways, restrooms and elevators), will lead to a slightly larger new wing.
Betty Ann Cherry, who had an office in Founders and played in its hallways as a child, describes herself as "maybe the last living link with memories or stories of Founders going back into the 1920s." What better guide to describe the old and the new than a historian and former Founders resident whose father (Calvert Ellis, president 1943-1968) and grandfather (C.C. Ellis, president 1930-1943) traceconnections to the College nearly to its founding?
"I remember going into the women's rooms in the basement of Founders when I was about 12 or 13 and watching all the girls get ready for dinner. All the waitresses for the dining hall lived in the basement because you could get to the kitchen in Oneida Hall from there. They were all dressed in white, and they would serve these huge bowls of mashed potatoes, platters of meat and vegetables. I remember being in a room with a student and she changed into her white uniform in what seemed like an instant. I think I was transfixed by how fast she changed her clothes!"
The new plan for the ground floor is essentially unchanged from the old footprint. The floor will house the College's advancement staff. The additions to this floor include new restrooms for men and women and the new elevator. In addition, the mechanical and electrical nerve center of the new building is located on this floor.
"The president's office has never changed; it has always been the president's office. One of my favorite stories about Founders is from my parents. When they attended the College in the '20s the president, I.H. Brumbaugh at the time, met each student individually, and my mother was in line to meet the president in 1920. All of a sudden a young man came into Founders shouting 'Has anyone seen Elizabeth Wertz?' Well, the young man was my father, Elizabeth Wertz was my mother, and he had been sent by his father to ask if Elizabeth Wertz could come to their house for dinner. They were married six years later.
"The second floor was the center of the College, it was the administrative center and its doors led to the 'social room' in the adjoining hall. My father did not like my brother and me to hang around campus, but one of my best memories is walking through Founders to hear (English professor) Harold Binkley read 'The Christmas Carol' every holiday season."
Well, the President's office will no longer be where it always has been. In its place will be a Juniata History Room, flanked by the offices of Rob Yelnosky '85, vice president of finance and operations, across the hall. The area where the provost and dean of students currently reside will be dedicated to the registrar's office.
The dean of students and accompanying staff, as well as academic support services' entire staff, will occupy offices in the new north wing. The second floor also will have the north portico exit, which provides a new facade for the building that faces the quad. "Founders was designed to face the town of Huntingdon," says Tom Kepple, Juniata president. "The new wing will give students a welcoming entrance from the heart of campus."
"The third floor was the English department, but we all congregated there because that's where Verna Horne's office was. She was secretary for the humanities and everyone who drank coffee was always there and we would have parties there. The mimeograph machine was there, as was the only typewriter on the top two floors."
Betty Ann will be returning to the third floor to visit her history colleagues, all with offices in the old wing of the building. In addition, a 30-seat classroom will be added to the teaching space on that floor.
However, after more than a century, the president's office will be moving. On the third floor of the new wing, the president's and provost's office will flank a central conference room provided for with funds raised during the 2001 Celebration of Juniata Women. In addition, the Office of Institutional Research will move to the third floor. An added feature is an outdoor portico where, President Kepple jokes, "Jim and I will walk out and make addresses to the assembled student body and faculty."
"We all walked up four flights of stairs many times a day to go to our offices and we always used the circular center steps-don't ask me why. We were all in pretty good shape from going up and down those stairs! Fourth floor Founders was exciting-everybody's door was open and we were always yelling back and forth to each other. One of my favorite memories is that we would always have a jigsaw puzzle laid out on a table and people could stop by and work on it. They were always 1,000-piece puzzles."
The fourth floor of the renovated Founders is not puzzling in its layout. The English faculty will occupy the offices in the older wing, which also contains a 30-seat classroom. In the new wing, there will be an office, two 30-seat classrooms and a small seminar room.
Let's give Betty Ann the last word: "I'm very happy to see Founders coming back to students. When it became only an administrative building it became a place you didn't want to spend time hanging around. Now the architects have blended the old with the new-Founders has come full circle."