College Hall

Quicklinks:     Photos | Map & Directions

From the beginning of the discussions, trustees referred to the new building as the “college edifice,” meaning that its intended use was to house the college. – C. William Heywood and Richard Harlan Thomas, Cornell College: A Sesquicentennial History, 1853-2003. Vol. 1.

College Hall, also known as Main Hall, was the second building constructed on Cornell’s campus after Old Sem. When construction began in the fall of 1855, architects were so expensive that the Board of Trustees decided to have the hall built by students, faculty, and townspeople, based on a design picked out of a book. Students assisted master craftsmen in the stonework, woodwork, and other aspects of the building.¹ Faults in the brickwork, still visible today, reveal the amateur nature of College Hall’s construction. However, despite the novice workers, the building is still standing today, with only minor adaptations to keep it upright over the years.

The cornerstone of the building was laid on July 4, 1856, and the building was officially dedicated on November 26, 1857.² Once completed, it contained a 100 x 55 basement and was three stories tall, with an octagonal cupola on top.³ Unlike other similar buildings, it only cost the college $22,000, due to the use of student workers and the lack of a professional architect.⁴ Until 1889, it was known as the ‘Main College Building’, as it hosted all the classes for the college, while Old Sem hosted the seminary and preparatory school.⁵ Very quickly it would become the center of both academic and social life on campus.

The building played host to many different aspects of college life. The first floor was the location of many of the faculty offices, including that of President William Fletcher King’s, whose office also housed the college library (until it was moved to the Carnegie Library) and his sleeping quarters.⁶ The offices of the Dean, Admissions, Registrar, and Business also were located in College Hall until the renovation of Old Sem into an administrative building in 1959.⁷ The second floor was left mostly unused except for visiting faculty, although at one time the Dean of Student Affairs and the school nurse had their offices there.⁸ The third floor provided space for Cornell’s Literary Societies and the college chapel; when the chapel was moved to King Chapel in 1878, the space was opened for more meeting areas for the Literary Societies.⁹

The basement of College Hall has served a multitude of purposes over the years. It initially housed the gymnasium,¹⁰ from 1873-1878 it was host to Cornell College’s armory,¹¹ and after that, it was home to Cornell’s bookstore, a position it would retain for the next eighty years until the bookstore was moved to Old Sem.¹² From 1916 until the renovations in 1977, the basement also contained College Hall’s only bathrooms.¹³

Indoor plumbing was installed in 1916, but otherwise, the building stood mostly unchanged until 1935, when it would be renovated for the first time, and then again in 1957. The largest renovation would take place in 1977, during which the entire hall was remodeled. Fire doors were installed, and the building was made handicapped accessible with an elevator and a ramp leading into the basement.¹⁴ The floors were transformed into “quads” – suite-like spaces for faculty offices, clerical work space, and classrooms.¹⁵ Room 301 was redesigned to evoke the era of the Literary Societies, complete with historically accurate wallpaper, chandeliers, and plaster cornices, as part of the room had belonged to the Aesthesian-Star-Zetagathian societies.¹⁶ The original bell from the building’s beginning was also returned to the cupola, where it would remain until the building was struck by lightning in 2012.¹⁷ In 2015, the cupola was restored, although the bell, which was melted in the fire, is no longer in use. After the renovation College Hall contained 24 faculty offices, seven classrooms and session rooms, a language laboratory, and an academic research room.¹⁸

Today, College Hall is home to the departments of Education, Economics and Business, Sociology and Anthropology, History, and Classical and Modern Languages.

The Literary Societies

“They are our joy and pride. About them centers the social life to a degree scarcely understood by students from other institutions. What fraternities mean to most colleges, society means to the student life at Cornell.”¹⁹

The time period from 1853-1926 is known as the era of Literary Societies at Cornell College, during which these groups were the sole source of social life on campus. Members of literary societies met once a week to debate social, political, and philosophical issues of the day, as well as to read their own compositions. As one of the only forms of extracurricular involvement at the time, the societies helped teach members social poise, extemporaneous speaking, parliamentary procedure, and how to “think on their feet.”²⁰ After the society meetings, there would often be “socials,” where men and women, who would normally not be allowed to converse in public situations, were able to sit down with snacks and drinks and spend time with each other (still heavily supervised by faculty members, of course).²¹

Bonds between the members of these literary societies ran deep, sometimes to the point of overthrowing other loyalties. During the Civil War, a Confederate captain freed a Union prisoner after learning that they both belonged to the same literary group at Cornell.²² For most other society members, however, the bonds allowed them to keep in contact with fellow alumni and current students, much in the way the Greek groups of today do.

The first literary society began at the inception of Cornell College, and the rest were soon to follow, eventually leading to 11 men’s societies and 10 women’s societies.²³ On November 6, 1857, President Richard Keeler approved the Amphictyon Society’s request to use a room in the north half of third floor of College Hall as a space for their meetings.²⁴ This space, which was named Amphictyon Hall, was dedicated along with building itself several weeks later. In December of 1857, the Philomathean Society was formed to serve the women of Cornell’s campus, and they also used College Hall for their meetings, which were held on Saturday evenings while the Amphictyon Society met on Fridays.²⁵

Over time the number of literary societies at Cornell College began to increase and when daily services were moved to King Chapel in 1878 the southern half of the third floor was divided for the other literary societies.²⁶ More than 15 literary groups existed at Cornell between 1853-1927, and their legacy would be inherited by the social groups (sororities and fraternities) that would succeed them. After the literary societies were discontinued due to worries that they were too exclusive, their rooms were transformed to different uses: a theater, storage space, and a social room.²⁷ The social room, formed from the old Aesthesian and Star-Zetagathian Halls in 1930, ensured that College Hall continued to remain a center for non-academic life on campus, as students could come there to socialize and try out their cooking skills.²⁸ These social rooms were eventually transformed into classrooms and faculty offices when the third floor was remodeled in 1957.²⁹

Unfortunately, the grace and grandeur of the literary societies was not lasting. They lost popularity, due to a perception that they were too selective and elitist.³⁰ By 1928, the groups were suspended, and there were no sanctioned social groups on campus. At the end of the Literary Society entry in the 1928 Royal Purple (the last year societies were allowed), there is this note from the editor trying to explain the confusion caused by the decision to ban literary societies on campus:

The Editor takes this opportunity to inform the innocent observer of the present artificial and unwholesome social situation on the campus. The size of this section is due to a failure to recognize the Literary Society as a remnant of the past. He dedicates this page to a Cornell with a healthy social life and looks forward hopefully to its realization.³¹“

The unnamed Editor speaks of a “healthy social life,” perhaps one without social groups, or perhaps they were a part of a group of Cornell students who had already begun creating their own social groups, although it took some persuasion to get the faculty to start officially recognizing these groups the following year.³² Until 2006, these groups were called “social groups,” but now they are officially recognized as fraternities and sororities.³³

Today, the Greek groups are one of the many ways students participate in activities similar to that of the literary society. Cornell has had a ban on national affiliations in place since 1871 because the board of trustees were worried about what the stereotype of “fraternities” would do to campus perception.³⁴ When the groups were initially formally recognized, they were asked not to use their Greek letters as part of their name, so many chose different names–going back to using the name of the literary society that was their roots, or anglicizing the Greek letters, leading to many of the names heard around campus today.³⁵ Now they are free to advertise their groups through letters; the Greek names, or their nickname (the initial name they went by); and they provide many students a brotherhood or sisterhood that sustains them through their four years at Cornell and beyond.

---

List of The Literary Societies

(compiled from Royal Purples 1888 to 1924; some of the dates are listed differently in the yearbooks)

Men:

• Zetagathian (Stars) – founded in 1876/77
• Adelphian – founded in 1853/57
• Amphictyon – founded in 1853
• Miltonian – founded in 1871
• Parmenian – founded in 1912
• Irving – founded around 1888/90
• Gladstone – founded in 1888

Women:

• Aesthesian – founded in 1872
• Alethean – founded 1888
• Aonian – founded in 1901/02
• Philomathean – founded in 1853/57/58
• Promethean – founded in 1914
• Thalian – founded in 1917
• Emeraldine – founded in 1920
• King – founded in 1897
• Clionian – founded in 1888

---

Greek Life

(compiled from Cornell College’s website, Greek Life History and the fall 1995 Cornell Report, “Social groups: A past and a presence,” by Dee Ann Rexroat ’82)

Women:

• Alpha Sigma Pi (Arrows) – founded in 1902
• Beta Psi Eta (Betas) – founded in 2012
• Delta Phi Delta (Delphis) – founded in 1934, disbanded in 1969, reactivated 1986
• Kappa Delta Chi (K D Chis) – founded in 1957, disbanded in 1964, reactivated 1982
• Phi Lambda Xi (Phi-Lambs) – founded in 1990
• Phi Omega (Phi-Os) – founded in 1962
• Rho Zeta Omicron (Rhozes) – founded in 1999
• Kappa Theta (Thetas) – founded in 1954

Men:

• Alpha Chi Epsilon (Axes) – founded in 1929
• Delta Phi Rho (Delts) – founded in 1898
• Gamma Tau Pi (Gammas) – founded in 1949, but evolved from the Panthers, founded in 1927
• Mu Lambda Sigma (Milts) – founded in 1871 (directly descended from the Miltonian Literary Society), officially chartered in 1929
• Phi Kappa Nu (Newts) – founded in 1975
• Beta Omicron (Owls) – descended from the Adelphian Literary Society (19th Century)
• Sigma Kappa Psi (Skys) – founded in 2005
• Sigma Tau (Taus) – founded in 1989 (no longer active)

Co-ed:

• Chi Chi Chi (Tri Chi) – founded in 1985 (no longer active)
• Alpha PHi Omega (APOs) – founded in 1977 (no longer active)
• Sponges – founded in 1984 (no longer active)

---

Select “Open in Maps” for directions

Related Sources:

1. C. William Heywood and Richard Harlan Thomas. Cornell College: A Sesquicentennial History, 1853-2003. Vol. 1 (Cedar Rapids: WDG Pub., 2004). ↩︎
2. Charles Milhauser, “College Hall 1857-1978,” College Archives. ↩︎
3. Ibid. ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. Ibid. ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. Ibid. ↩︎
8. Ibid. ↩︎
9. Ibid. ↩︎
10. Ibid. ↩︎
11. Ibid. ↩︎
12. Ibid. ↩︎
13. “Lisa Koenig, “College Hall Now Wears a Brighter Wall,” The Cornellian, October 5, 1977, 1. ↩︎
14. Milhauser, “College Hall 1857-1978.” ↩︎
15. “Cornell College College Hall Rededication October 14, 1978.” College Archives. ↩︎
16. Milhauser, “College Hall 1857-1978.” ↩︎
17. Jake Krob, “Lightning sparks fire at Cornell’s College Hall,” Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun, September 14, 2012. ↩︎
18. Imelda Yang, “Building has Undergone Many Face-Lifts,” The Cornellian, January 20, 1986, 6. ↩︎
19. Royal Purple 1904 Yearbook, (Mount Vernon, IA: Junior Class of 1904, 1905), College Archives. ↩︎
20. “College Hall – Room 301; The Literary Society Room (Renovation of 1978),” Information Sheet, College Archives. ↩︎
21. Ibid. ↩︎
22. Ibid. ↩︎
23. Charles Milhauser, “How social groups were born,” Cornell Report, Fall 1996, College Archives. ↩︎
24. Amphictyon Society Record Book 1. “Cornell College Nov. 6, 1857,” College Archives. ↩︎
25. Philomathean Society Record Book 1.“Dec. 12, 1857,” College Archives. ↩︎
26. Charles Milhauser, “College Hall 1857-1978,” History of College Hall for Rededication Ceremony,” June 10, 1978, College Archives. ↩︎
27. “Notes on College Hall – from archives file,” College Hall 1857, College Archives. ↩︎
28. “The New Social Rooms,” Cornell College Bulletin, No. 6, January 25, 1930, College Archives. ↩︎
29. “College Hall Renovation is Next Priority,” Cornell Advance Newsletter, October 1976, College Archives. ↩︎
30. Milhauser, “How social groups were born.” ↩︎
31. Royal Purple 1928 Yearbook, (Mount Vernon, IA: Junior Class of 1929, 1928), College Archives. ↩︎
32. Milhauser, “How social groups were born.” ↩︎
33. “Timeline,” Greek Life, Web. Accessed June 2, 2016. ↩︎
34. Milhauser, “How social groups were born.” ↩︎
35. Ibid. ↩︎

Cite this Page:

Brad Kane ’18 and Hannah Robertson ’18, “College Hall,” Mount Vernon Iowa History Tours.