Salina Post, in partnership with the Smoky Hill Museum, is proud to present Flashback Friday. Enjoy a weekly tidbit of local history from the staff at Salina Post and the Smoky Hill Museum as we present "Salina-Flashback Fridays"
By SALINA POST
Today's "Flashback Friday" takes us to Kansas Wesleyan University's campus. Before the construction of Pioneer Hall began in 1922, a different structure served as the university's administration building.
Donated land and building funds made it possible for the board of trustees to move forward with the university's first structure. Constructed in 1886, Lockwood Hall, as it would later be called, was simply known as the administration building. The administration building opened on September 15, 1886.
The administration building stood where Pioneer Hall stands today and remained in that location until it was moved to the southwest corner of campus in 1921. Moving the structure was a major undertaking, described by John Cornett KWU historian and professor in his 1936 book: "50 years of Kansas Wesleyan University 1886 through 1936."
The project was completed with an expenditure of $40,000. The foundations of the building were split and immense timbers were placed under the walls. Rails were laid on which steel rollers bore the heavy burden at the rate of 40 feet a day for a distance of 550 feet from the former site and the southwesterly direction, where the building was lowered upon a new foundation. It was a matter of engineering marvel that no crevices or cracks appeared in the masonry and that even the ivy upon the brick walls was saved.
On June 6, 1922, the relocated structure was rededicated, unnamed and Lockwood Hall in memory of the Reverend Dr. J. H. Lockwood, an original member of the Board of Trustees whose "tenacity and profound belief in higher education helped lead the establishment of Kansas Wesleyan."
Lockwood Hall was used for liberal arts classes until the new administration building the Hall of the Pioneers was completed. It then housed the division of music and arts while the liberal arts classes moved into that new building. Lockwood Hall continued to serve the university until it was torn down in 1959.
Excavation began for Pioneer Hall, KWU’s second administration building, in 1922. The project was finished in 1929 and given its formal name, The Hall of the Pioneers, to honor those in the city, state and region who gave of themselves to establish KWU.
It became the 19th location in Saline County to earn the recognition, joining such places as the former post office building (now the Smoky Hill Museum), the Fox-Watson Theatre (now the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing Arts), and the Masonic Temple (now The Temple) in Salina.