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By Sharron Hannon
shannon@uga.edu
A 95-year-old campus building designed by a UGA alumnus and faculty member will be rededicated in an April 5 ceremony that includes speeches in the Chapel and a ribbon-cutting ceremony involving one of the building’s current occupants--former Gov. Zell Miller, who now  holds the Philip H. Alston Jr. Chair in the Institute of Higher Education.
Meigs Hall--named for Josiah Meigs, the university’s second president and the person who convened the first classes on campus--has been renovated and restored to become the new home of the Institute of Higher Education. In addition to housing institute faculty members, the building features state-of-the-art classroom space.
“We have six classrooms in this building, including a first-floor classroom that is probably the most technologically advanced on campus,” notes Ron Simpson, acting director of the Institute of Higher Education. “Faculty from across campus can use this for special class sessions to try out innovative teaching methods.”
That would no doubt have pleased Charles Strahan, the building’s designer. An 1883 graduate in engineering, he went on to head UGA’s engineering school from 1890 to 1933. In A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia, historian Nash Boney notes that Strahan taught at UGA for 62 consecutive years--an unbreakable record--and also left his mark in the buildings he designed, including the Academic Building and Terrell Hall.
When what is now Meigs Hall opened in June 1905 it had another name: LeConte Hall, named for UGA’s noted scientist-educators, John and Joseph LeConte. The building housed the biology department, with labs of various types and a rooftop greenhouse where plants were grown for classroom experiments. In 1937, the burgeoning biology department--including offshoots of botany and zoology--moved into a new biological sciences building, taking the LeConte name with them.
The building was then renamed Meigs Hall and the psychology department took up residence, remaining for the next 32 years. During this period, the building housed a clinic, a laboratory where electroencephalographic studies were conducted and another where rats were used for learning experiments.
In the 1950s, the educational possibilities of new technology were explored--with an introductory psychology class being offered over closed-circuit television in 1959. Two years later, when the university was desegregated, Charlayne Hunter took her first class in Meigs Hall.
Eventually, the psychology department moved on to other space on campus and the department of Germanic and Slavic languages moved to Meigs, beginning a 30-year residence that lasted until their 1999 move to Joe Brown Hall.
Paul Cassilly of the University Architects office oversaw the renovation-restoration project. “Probably the most important thing we did was to restore the full-height ceilings,” he says. “We also added appropriate new lighting and a new mechanical system.
“We had to do a complete window replacement because the windows were so old they were falling apart,” he adds. “They were too far gone to restore.”
Underneath the rotting Meigs Hall sign over the building’s entrance, workers discovered the word “LeConte” carved into the stone facade. It’s there still--underneath a new copper sign that says “Meigs Hall.” |
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Meigs rededication includes open house, teaching seminar
The April 5 public events planned for the rededication of Meigs Hall begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Chapel with brief remarks on historic preservation by President Michael F. Adams. Provost Karen Holbrook will talk about Meigs Hall as a center for teaching and learning, followed by comments from Ronald Simpson, acting director of the Institute of Higher Education, now headquartered in Meigs.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Meigs Hall, with Zell Miller and Rep. Louise McBee among the participants. That will be followed by a reception and open house, where visitors can tour the restored and renovated building.
The final event of the day is a seminar on teaching at UGA featuring three past recipients of the Josiah Meigs Award for Teaching Excellence: Frederick Stephenson, Susette Talarico and Josef Broder. Stephenson, a two-time Meigs Award winner, has collected essays from fellow award recipients to produce a manuscript titled “Meigs Teachers: 1,000 Years of Teaching Excellence.”
Another open house
The community is invited to tour the newly restored administration building on North Campus. April 4 • 4-6 p.m. |
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