The Spring 2008 issue of the Broadcaster includes a feature that shows and describes several campus building that no longer stand.
Miessler Hall
Location: Approximately where the “Son of Man, Be Free” sculpture now stands.
History: Miessler Hall held classrooms on the first floor, contained a large communal dormitory room and also served as Concordia’s infirmary. It was built in 1905 for the cost of $6,370.50 and survived until 1969. The north end of the building was for a steward, his family and kitchen help.
Claim to fame: Gained notoriety as a home to rodents. Dr. Robert Fiala (Class of 1960) remembers: “Mice-ler Hall was also a name because I caught lots of mice in there. My first semester here after transferring I caught 56 mice. When once they made me the proctor, I caught 20 more mice. I began to keep a scorecard of them all.”
Becker Hall
Location: Southeast of Jesse Hall.
History: Built in 1907 for $27,000, it was also known as the Administration Building and the Science Building. Becker Hall contained classrooms, the chapel and a bookstore. Concordia’s maintenance department was in the basement. In the late 1960s and early 70s it was the primary building for Concordia High School. Later it was home to most teacher education professors and courses. It was demolished in 1999 after the Thom Leadership Education Center was built.
Claim to fame: Survived a major fire in 1939. Glennie Sorenson Duensing (Class of 1953) remembers: “Everyone had to play the organ in chapel as a requirement for becoming a teacher. I remember the organ being at the front and everyone hated it. Some people couldn’t even play a note, and they still had to do the same as the rest of us.”
Alumni Memorial Gymnasium
Location: The southeast part of the Thom Leadership Education Center now covers the same ground.
History: Originally expected to cost $30,000 to build, the Great Depression helped knock the cost down by a third. Known more commonly as the “Old Gym” after the P.E. Building was erected in 1960, it also served as the campus post office.
Claim to fame: Home court for Concordia High School boys in 1960, the year they won the Nebraska Class C state championship. Dr. Richard Zwick (Class of 1955) remembers: “We had lots of Christmas programs in the gym on the stage, and I remember this one that everyone still remembers. The announcer came to announce the show, and it was dark to start the play, so he walked to the front of the stage and completely fell off the front of it. He did get up and continue announcing the rest, but I remember laughing so hard at that.”
Nebraska Hall
Location: Located to the southeast of Founders Hall.
History: Nebraska Hall’s lifespan lasted from 1913 to 1986. Built for $13,200, it was primarily the campus music building and contained six pipe organs and 15 pianos in its early years. On its third floor it housed a dormitory room for 60 students. It was also was home for a time to the president’s office and the school library.
Claim to fame: Fun instead of piano practice. Dr. Richard Zwick (Class of 1955) remembers: “While I was here the upper class music students would be piano monitors, and we would go around to the practice rooms making sure the correct person who signed up for practice was practicing and everything was going correctly. Well, while I was piano monitor I would go around checking the rooms, but I would always stay a little longer at this one young girl’s practice room. I ended up marrying her later on.”
The Training School
Location: (The white building.) Originally where Strieter and Schuelke Halls are now.
History: Built to help prepare Lutheran teachers, the Training School was used for grades 1, 2, 7 and 8. (Students in grades 3-6 were taught in classrooms in Seward’s downtown area, next to the old St. John Lutheran Church building.) The training school was used until St. John built the the first section of its current school across the street from Concordia in 1929.
Maintenance Building
The Maintenance Building went up in 1952 and was taken down to make way for part of parking lot of the Thom Leadership Education Center in the late 1990s. The otherwise unremarkable building was a landmark on campus because of its tall smokestack.
The White House
White House No. 1, built in 1897, was a white frame building located to the east of Founders Hall that served as a dormitory and infirmary.
There is a very old picture of this house at this webpage. In the part marked Timeline, click on the year 1897. I would like to put that picture in this blog, but I can't download it from that webpage.
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