1909-On
Building and Expansion

In 1909, construction was completed on Main Hall, the first academic building (later named Hopwood Hall), and Carnegie Hall, a men’s dormitory, partially funded by a gift from industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Dr. Hopwood declared that Carnegie would “stand for a thousand years unless destroyed by dynamite or earthquakes.”

From these beginnings, a continuous building program has been carried out per the College’s original campus master plan that called for future buildings to form an elliptical pattern that would exemplify Dr. Hopwood’s guiding principles of faith and reason. As part of this plan, Hopwood Hall (1909) and Snidow Chapel (1966) were built at the east and west ends of campus, completing the ellipsis. The period from 1964 to 1983 saw the largest building expansion in College history, increasing the number of major buildings on campus from nine to 19. Today, more than 40 buildings, many of Georgian Revival-style architecture, grace the campus.