A Historic Look at the Buildings of SVU
By Kedryn Chandler
Southern Virginia University (SVU) is approaching its thirty-year mark as an institution, but its unique campus buildings have a much longer history. Each building, while now used by SVU, once was a part of different programs and schools, with some buildings being more than just decades old, nearing the century mark or more. As one looks upon the school, it is easy to tell with the naked eye that all the buildings were built in different styles, with different backgrounds influencing how they were erected. The aging of the buildings adds to the culture on campus and invites viewers and guests in to see what the buildings behold. As you wander around campus, you’ll encounter various buildings, each with its unique history.
A couple of the buildings that are of most significance on campus are Kimball Student Center (Round Table), Chandler Hall (PAC), The Academic Center (Durham Hall), The Stoddard Center/Knight Arena, Roby Hall, Craton Hall, the Library and of course, Main Hall. These eight buildings make up the core of the campus that unites students into comrades. The history of each building started the foundation of these common meeting grounds for friends. So make sure to read to the end to find out what makes the most iconic building on campus reign in glory.
Kimball Student Center
Currently serving the University as the school’s student union, this building started with an indoor swimming pool being built. The pool was built in 1925 in what is now The Round Table. With dimensions of 60 feet long and 25 feet wide, the pool met the requirements to hold official meets and break official records. You can hear the echo if you jump on the floor.
In 1933, the school continued to add to the building. Above the indoor swimming pool, a room with wood floors and tall windows was constructed using white bricks. The school intended this to be the gymnasium the student body would use. Before the gymnasium was built, a small gym was used temporarily while the new gym was being built.
The top of the roof was left flat which students would use at the time to bathe in the sun, play games or just hang out. It was a gathering place for students to commune and socialize when not in classes or lessons without much supervision from teachers and administrators.
Thanks to a generous donation, the building was remodeled from 2008 to 2009. A new cafe, an expanded game room, and new rooms and windows were added. The donor asked that the building be named after Elder J. Golden Kimball. Because of this change, the building was able to keep up with modernity.
Chandler Hall (Now the Performing Arts Center)
Immediately following the addition of Durham Hall, Chandler Hall was added onto the campus in 1940. Along with an auditorium inside the building, a colonnade was added between Chandler Hall and Main Hall to connect the two together so students could travel between the two without stepping outside. The auditorium has a capacity to seat 400 people with a small stage at the front, which served the school’s needs just fine.
When completed, the building housed the school’s library before the official library was built. There were private study rooms, tables to study at, and shelves of books for the students to use. 1967 came along with plans to enlarge the building. As of 1994, it was known that Hilltop Cafe used to be underneath Chandler Hall on the first floor before it moved to the student center. There were snacks, tables, vending machines, and television screens for students to lounge.
The Academic Center
Also formerly known as Durham Hall, this building was completed in 1939 to serve as the main academic classroom building. White columns surround each entryway, and large hand-made bricks coat the outside of the building. Because of the addition of Durham Hall, classrooms and offices were moved out of Main Hall to make more room for dorms there. The hall was equipped with eight large sunny classrooms, and the chemistry and biology lab was moved here once the building was complete from the basement of Main Hall. In 1967, Durham Hall was added to create even more classroom space, adding onto the west side of the building. If you look, you can see where the addition to the building was and the difference in bricks used. Today, the building sits as the primary building used for classes and labs, with faculty offices being housed on each of the floors as well. With recent work, the building now is air conditioned to cool down the building from the hot summers.
The Stoddard Center/Knight Arena
This complex first started out as a temporary gymnasium for the school. The temporary gym was built in 1923. Robert Durham built the gym in a simple structure, intending it to work just fine, while a more elaborate place was made for a new gymnasium. In 1933, when the gym was added to the swimming pool, it was transformed into an indoor center for horses. 1969 would see the complete redoing of the building to turn it into an indoor equitation arena. This is where the intercollegiate riding team would train for competition. Years later, this building would be turned into the main gym or Knight Arena, where today’s volleyball, basketball, and wrestling teams practice and compete.
In 1983, the school would build an attached facility to the indoor riding center. This facility would house all the horses and all the amenities needed to care for them. There were 69 box stalls for the horses to live in. The hatches into the building were left on and can still be seen today. Now, that portion of the building stands as an annex gym to the main gym and holds athletic offices for coaches and athletic training rooms.
Robey Hall
Acting as the male-only housing on campus today, the dorms were built in 1965 due to the intense growth of SVU. Robey is named after H. Russel Robey, who served as treasurer for Southern Seminary. As all of the buildings once were, Robey would only house girls even into the 2000s. During the summer of 1993, the dorms were completely redone to allow 70 students to live there. Each room would have two people in it, with two community bathrooms with showers on each floor. In 1994, the college store was housed in Robey’s back, where a classroom sits now.
Craton Hall
This hall now houses only girls living on campus. Completed in 1968, Craton Hall is named after Mary Craton Durham. Mary was Robert Durham’s wife and the mother of Margaret Durham Robey, who would be the head of Southern Seminary. As the newest of the residential halls at the time before The Lofts, Walnut, Carriage, and Mods were built, Craton was capable of housing 60 residents with a lounge and parlor. Craton is now one of the main dormitories for lower-classmen girls.
Von Canon Library
Constructed in 1974, this was one of the last buildings on campus constructed beside dormitories. The building is named after a graduate from the class of 1926 from Southern Seminary, Elizabeth Hogwood Von Canon. The library is said to house at least 44,000 books as of now. Classes are held in the library, specifically in the basement computer lab, which is equipped with modern-day computers. The library also has many places along the main floor and upper floor for students to sit and study quietly without disturbance. With professor offices in the basement as well, the library is always busy with schoolwork.
Main Hall
Main Hall currently sits as the school’s identifying building and is the last standing building in the Shenandoah Valley from the hotel boom period in the 1890s. The project to erect the time-prevailing building started in the late 1880’s. The exact year of completion was unknown, but different records say between 1888 and 1892, meaning the building is more than 130 years old. The building was designed by SW Foulkes of New Castle, PA, who had designed several other hotels in the area and in Pennsylvania. An official 1892 brochure said that the building was. “a beautiful structure of pressed brick, Cleveland stone and ornamental shingles, occupying a hill 100 ft high and commanding a full view of the town…It has 140 rooms, of which 83 are chambers and five are parlors.” Once the hotel had been completed, the town of Buena Vista had spent $125,000 to finish the building. As we are all too familiar with the story, it was built to be one of the most prestigious hotels in this part of the nation. Though the Queen Ann Hotel was breathtaking, it was taken away from admirers in July 1890 when a fire in the kitchen burned the structure entirely to the ground. Hotel Buena Vista was rebuilt immediately after at a cost of $125,000. Reconstruction of the hotel took less than a year to complete, and it resumed its role of housing travelers. The magnificent building operated as a hotel for several years until 1894, when the promise of Buena Vista being a boom town went out the window. In 1901, the land and building were sold to Mr. Rowe, who was the head of Bowling Green Seminary at the time. As he aged, he looked to sell his share of the school. He eventually sold it to Robert Durham and H.R. Robey in 1922, who would engineer the school into becoming what we now know. When Robert Durham took over as president of the school, the hill was unimproved land.
Cows roamed everywhere; there were no walkways or pathways around the campus. Roads did not lead up to the school’s entryways. With carefully thought-out plans, landscaping, and paving, the school was slowly crafted. The Robeys and Durhams even made sure that the road up Chestnut was cleared and paved and a sidewalk leading up to the school from the town was placed. Stairs from back then can still be seen coming up from Main Street directly to the school. Being filled with good faith, Robert Durham was told that the fireplace in the lobby was unsafe to use. He looked up at the fireplace and told them to light the fire anyway. It was also one of his personal projects to inscribe on the fireplace, “God rest ye all that linger here.” Unfortunately, those words are now covered, and the fireplace was removed. Starting in 1935, the building underwent several additions and remodels, starting with the building of a cafeteria adjacent to the Main Hall. In 1936, the basement, also called the ‘lower level,’ in Main Hall was remodeled to add lounging rooms, a biology lab, and a chemistry room. The basement used to house The Mary Craton Durham Chapel, where students were encouraged to meet. When the chapel was remodeled, the stained glass door was left and sat next to the security office. Right after, in 1937, the building underwent a remodel on the lower floor, which was followed by sprinkler installations to fireproof the building, and finally, dorms were added on the fourth floor. Main Hall served as the main dorm through almost the entirety of the school’s existence.
There were 87 bedrooms with 17 bathrooms, each room housing from one to four girls, depending on the size. Even as the school transitioned from Southern Seminary to Southern Seminary Junior College to Southern Virginia College, Main Hall would switch between housing for males and females.
Currently, however, Main Hall no longer acts as housing. The halls are filled with offices and classrooms and are the main administrative building for the campus. Offices such as finances, the registrar, accommodations, student success, and admissions now sit in Main Hall. The building is currently on the National Register of Historic Places. With a recent renovation a few years ago, Main Hall has been revitalized and is constantly undergoing improvements to keep the building in great condition so the history of the building will last.
With numerous buildings on campus that are older than 50 years old, Southern Virginia University has many stories to tell. With historic halls like Main Hall, Robey Hall, and the Academic Center, many people’s contributions helped shape the buildings to hold that old-time class we all have grown to know. With not many resources online, there are some books and volumes on the history of the school as well as the timeline of the buildings. You can check out the book “The History of Southern Seminary” at local libraries or read it online. With the legacy the school holds, students are attracted year after year to the school to add to the heritage and history that stands so proud. To more fully experience what the University looked like in the early 2000s and what resembles very similar to what the University’s campus looks like today, check out this YouTube video of students talking about the school.
All photos courtesy of “The History of Southern Seminary” by Fredrick William Kling.
