Ceremony celebrates hall that lies at heart of Mall

The sound of chimes playing "Good Night, Ladies" echoed outdoors on the Mall Sunday afternoon, signaling the beginning of a ceremony to re-dedicate Memorial Hall, one of the University's landmark buildings, which recently opened after a $9.8 million renovation.

Earlier that day, the building- constructed as a memorial to Delawareans who lost their lives in World War I-had served as a backdrop for Memorial Day services.

UD President David P. Roselle, who played the chimes to open Sunday's ceremony, noted that, in decades past, when Memorial Hall was the home of the library, those same chimes hung behind the library's circulation desk and were used to signal the closing of the library each night.

Roselle welcomed some 275 faculty, staff and friends, including retired faculty and Marjorie Johnson Squire Tilghman, AS '28, whose father, Everett Johnson, presided over the building's first dedication in 1925.

In his remarks, Roselle described Memorial Hall's dedication 74 years ago, quoting from coverage in The Review, which reported that the event drew as "distinguished a throng of people as has ever trod the campus here-Gold Star mothers, veterans of the war, men and women high up in the state, representatives from 45 various colleges and universities in the country and hundreds of plain rank and file citizens."

"We are here to celebrate this remarkable building and its place in the history and legend of our University," Roselle said. "Memorial Hall stands today, after its extensive renovation, as proudly as it did on May 23, 1925."

The renovation project included making the building handicapped accessible; replacing windows; updating mechanical, electrical and communications systems; lowering the floor in some areas of the basement; and addressing safety codes.

Memorial Hall is now home to 74 faculty offices for the Department of English, two problem-based learning classrooms, 12 traditional classrooms (all with appropriate audiovisual support), two computer labs, one theatre classroom and the University's Writing Center.

Provost Mel Schiavelli spoke on the significant role that Memorial Hall has played in the culture of the campus. Originally Memorial Library, it had a reading room holding 5,000 volumes, stacks built to hold the "unimaginable figure" of 125,000 volumes and subscriptions to 150 periodicals. Students numbered 560 in 1925, he said, and the circulation of library books was about 50 a day.

To put the statistics from 1925 in perspective, Schiavelli noted that today there are 2.3 million books and bound periodicals in Morris Library, as well as 2.9 million microforms and 120 network databases, not to mention 14 million hits annually on its web site.

"Memorial Hall continues to be for many alumni of our University the central meeting ground of their college experience," Schiavelli said. "Home to the Scrounge in the '40s and early '50s, Memorial Hall was not only the intellectual axis but the social crossroads as well."

Carol E. Hoffecker, Richards Professor of History, provided an historical overview of Memorial Hall and the statewide effort that went into its original construction. (See accompanying story on page 2.)

In officially rededicating Memorial Hall, Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees, quoted President Hullihen's remarks from the first dedication: "The dedication of a library that is to serve generations to come as far down into the future as the imagination can project is in itself a stirring occasion to all how have an interest in the preservation of the best and finest things of human life and experience."

"Memorial Hall stands today as it did on that sunny day 74 years ago-a tangible witness and landmark tribute to the human spirit," Kirkpatrick said. "Today, as we rededicate Memorial Hall, we remember the thousands of students, faculty, alumni and friends who have entered here and been enlightened, and we look forward to the generations to come linking the common bond of knowledge and experience within her walls."

After a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on the north steps of Memorial Hall, guests toured the renovated building.

Also at the event, the University of Delaware Medal of Distinction was presented to Nancy Bradford du Pont Reynolds.

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