When is a construction fence a history lesson? When it's circling Memorial Hall-a signature building on campus that recently underwent extensive renovation.

Late last September, rectangular panels-each 4 feet high by 10 feet wide-were installed on the fencing. The text and color illustrations included 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 in January 1998, included the complete renovation of the interior of the building, plus an increase in the floor-to-ceiling height of its basement. Additional space also was created with new construction in what were two, three-story courtyards.

The history-lesson panels were removed in early February near the end of the renovation so landscaping could proceed at the site. The first panel celebrated 1917 with 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 spotlighted 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 pointed out that "small contributions from school children were sought" to raise money for the building.

The 11 remaining panels extended along the west side of the construction area and concluded on the south Mall near the Morris Library.

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 spotlighted the renovation. Memorial Hall is home to the Department of English and the University Writing Center.

-Beth Thomas