Date of Construction: 1924
Architect/Designer: Charles Klauder
Current Function: Department of English; Writing Center
Memorial Hall, designed by Charles Klauder, was built in 1924 as the college library and a memorial to soldiers from Delaware killed during World War I. An H-shaped building, it has a one-and-one-half-story main block with one-story hyphens connecting to wings on eachside. The main block has a slate, hipped roof topped by an octagonal dome. Identical porticos with four Doric columns face the former men's campus to the north and the former women's campus to the south, symbollically linking them via the central passage. A public campaign during the fall of 1922 paid for the construction of Memorial Hall. The campaign, organized by H. Rodney Sharp (see Mitchell Hall profile), drew pledges from alumni, schoolchildren, clergymen, clubs and others. Efforts culminated during the week of October 20 through 28 with a parade and formal benefit dinner. Students and faculty excavated the basement, and the cornerstone was laid during commencement of 1924. When completed, the center passage of Memorial Hall contained bronze tablets engraved with the names of casualties and a book with one name on each parchment page. The flags of the Allied nations stood in the corners. The east wing had a reading room on the first floor and stacks in the basement. Offices occupied the west wing. The growing collection of volumes soon exceeded space in the basement. University officials were debating whether to extend the space when the basement flooded during a storm one night in 1937. The librarian and a few professors and maintenance workers carried most of the volumes on lower shelves to safety, but 1400 books had to be sent to Philadelphia to be cleaned, dried and rebound. The flood prompted the extension of the side wings in 1938, partially financed by benefactor Fletcher Brown (see Hullihen Hall profile). In the 1940s and 1950s, the basement of Memorial Hall was the site of "The Scrounge," a coffee shop sponsored by the Student Government Association. Memorial Hall's central location made further additions difficult, and the rapidly growing collection moved to Morris Library in 1963. Memorial Hall serves as the home of the Department of English.
