Construction fence tells of birth and rebirth of UD's Memorial Hall

When is a construction fence a history lesson? When it’s circling Memorial Hall–a signature building on campus currently undergoing extensive renovation.

In late September, rectangular panels–each 4 feet high by 10 feet wide–were installed on the fencing. The text and color illustrations include architectural drawings and historic and recent construction photographs celebrating the building’s rich history and future.

The $9.5 million Memorial Hall project, which began last January, includes the complete renovation of the interior of the building, plus an increase in the floor-to-ceiling height of its basement. Additional space also will be created with new construction in what were two, three-story court-yards.

The panels begin on the north Mall, with 1917 and a reprint of the plan for the Mall and the central portion of Memorial Hall’s massive rotunda that was to be "the unifying structure between Delaware College and the Women’s College."
Heading west, toward Hullihen Hall, the next panel spotlights three individuals who played major roles in the birth of the structure as a library–UD President Samuel Chiles Mitchell, who envisioned the new library as a memorial to Delaware’s World War I dead; UD President Walter Hullihen, who initiated the statewide campaign on behalf of the building; and H. Rodney Sharp, who led the fund-raising campaign committee for Memorial Hall.

The next panel points out that "small contributions from school children were sought" to raise money for the building.

The 11 remaining panels extend along the west side of the construction area and conclude on the south Mall.

Passers-by read about:

• The Dec. 11, 1923, groundbreaking, when administrators and faculty pitched in to excavate the basement of the new building;
• The pomp and circumstance, with flags waving and soldiers marching, that marked the building’s May 23, 1925, dedication;
• The long-time custom of honoring Delaware’s war dead from the First World War;
• The 1937 flood that destroyed books and documents;
• The look of The Scrounge in 1950, when it was located in the basement of Memorial Hall;
• The birth of the carillon in 1959; and
• The transfer of 300,000 volumes to the Morris Library in 1963.
• The last two panels spotlight the current renovation and its expected conclusion in 1999, when the Department of English and the University Writing Center will move into the building.

–Beth Thomas

http://www.udel.edu/ums/MEMhtml/memorial.html