page_title: Waller Hall
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Waller Hall / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: West entrance
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: Construction of the new building began in February 1864 with excavation of the basement. This was on the north section of Willamette's campus in downtown Salem. Then on July 24, the cornerstone of the building was laid into place in a ceremony. The President of the Board of Trustees, David Leslie, laid the cornerstone of the hall. This ceremony included a time capsule and a speech by Governor A. C. Gibbs.
  All of the bricks used in the construction were fired on campus using clay excavated from the construction site in order to build the foundation. The builders ordered 500,000 bricks total for the construction project. Construction was completed in 1867 and the building was named University Hall. The school "marched" from the old school building to the new and began using it on October 21, 1867.
  Total costs for the building were $40,000 at occupation with a need for approximately an additional $17,000 to finish and furnish the building. The building was first used for classrooms, a library, parlors, recitation rooms, and some physical education in the attic. Also in the early years the structure housed the chapel services of the school, and some temporary accommodations for students.
caption: Westside of the building
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