page_title: Waller Hall
section_title: Later years
hierarchical_section_title: Waller Hall / History / Later years
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Waller Hall at en:Willamette University From: Horner, John B. (1919). Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland.
context_page_description: Waller Hall is a building on the campus of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in the United States. Opened in 1867 as University Hall, it is the oldest higher-education building west of the Mississippi River still in use, currently housing the university's administrative offices.
  Built in the Renaissance style of architecture, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The building has been gutted twice by fires with the interior rebuilt each time, and went through renovations in 1987 to 1989 and again in 2005.
context_section_description: The old school building, the Oregon Institute, burned down in December 1872 leaving University Hall as the only building on campus. As a result, all departments were housed in the building including the College of Law from 1884 to 1923 when it moved to Eaton Hall and the Medical School from 1867 until 1880 when it moved to Portland. University Hall remained the only permanent campus building from 1872 when the Oregon Institute building burned down until 1906 when the Medical Building (now Art Building) was built. Other school buildings such as the first Lausanne Hall were located off campus.
  On September 16, 1891, University Hall, the school's first brick building, caught on fire. As a result of the fire the top two floors of the building as well as the roof were destroyed. The building was then re-built after the 1891 fire, but unlike the original plans it was constructed with a Mansard style roof. Additionally, a square tower was also built on top in lieu of the original cupola which included a school bell. From its construction until 1987, Waller Hall was used as an academic hall and hosted classes along with housing the school's chapel and as offices for the faculty.
  In 1912, Willamette renamed the building in honor of the Reverend Alvan (Alvin) F. Waller who was instrumental in getting the hall built. Then on December 17, 1919, another fire swept through Waller Hall while school was on break for Christmas. This second fire completely gutted the five-story building, but the exterior walls remained intact. The Mansard roof and square tower were destroyed in the fire. The university rebuilt the hall the following year, and used the original plans that included the round cupola but omitted the Mansard style roof and the square tower topping the structure. Architect Fred A. Legge oversaw the rebuilding and re-design of the hall. A campaign launched in 1920 by the university was set to raise $100,000 to be used for the reconstruction of Waller, plus completing the new Lausanne Hall and adding a central heating plant.
  There was some discussion of demolishing the hall in the 1980s after the structure had become dilapidated. One proposal called for building a replica on the same site as the original, but school administrators opted to renovate Waller Hall. From November 1987 to November 1989 the 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m²) building went through a $2.26 million renovation. This renovation addressed interior issues with the building including seismic upgrades in the event of a large magnitude earthquake. These renovations also turned the attic into an office suite for the school's president. After renovations in 1988 the building was used for university administration offices. Further renovations were completed in 2005 at a cost of $1.3 million for upgrading the 100-year-old windows to newer energy efficient models, repairing the brick, fixing leaks, installing skylights, re-painting, and slightly lightening the exterior red-brick coloring.
caption: Waller with Mansard style roof
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