Moravian Preservation Master Plan.indb - Society for College and ...

Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
combined in the early years of Moravian College.
The College’s music program was greatly enhanced
by the combination of the men’s and women’s glee
clubs into the College Choir. Social groups, fine arts,
and athletics also improved following the merger
(Weinlick 1977:101, 115).
Moravian College Campus
Expansion: 1956-1978
The mid-1950s saw the raising of over $1 million
in funds to support Moravian College, including
a $150,000 bequest in March 1955 from the late
Adolph Wiesbach, a Moravian Church member
from North Dakota who took interest in the college
though he had never been there; a $124,300 grant
from the Ford Foundation in December 1955; and
the results of the successful Moravian Development
Program fundraising campaign by 1958. The
funding paid the remaining costs of College Hall
(Johnston Hall), and plans were made for endowed
professorships, scholarships, and several new
buildings and campus improvements. The building
plans included new landscaping, a men’s dormitory,
a new science building, and a new library (Weinlick
1977:104-105).
The question of how best to integrate two separate
campuses into a single institution took time to
resolve. Given the smaller size of the Church Street
campus, most future new building development
was to occur at the Main Street Campus, but
renovations would be made at both sites to achieve
coeducation and eventually expand the size of the
school to 1,200 students. Initially, renovations were
made to several of the existing buildings, and some
repurposing occurred. Men moved into Clewell
Hall on the Church Street campus, and spaces in
Colonial Hall’s dormitory wing and Comenius Hall
were converted to classrooms. New parking areas
were added on both campuses (Weinlick 1977:105).
The first new building of the post-merger period
was the Rau-Hassler dormitory complex west of
Johnston Hall (figure 2-49). This area had much
open space which would eventually be used for
additional buildings. As early as 1958, there was
discussion of building a Student Union, but it took
four years for this to become a reality. Located to the
south of Johnston Hall, the College Union Building
(figure 2-50) was finished in the spring of 1962. Seven
years later, it was renamed the Haupert Union
Building in honor of retiring President Haupert,
and has since been known as the HUB. From its
completion, the HUB has occupied a vital role as the
center of campus life with its meeting, auditorium,
and dining facilities (Weinlick 1977:109).
With the construction of new buildings, functions
in several old buildings on the Main Street Campus
were changed. Colonial Hall and Comenius Hall,
both of which had contained dormitory space, were
renovated as academic and administrative buildings.
Zinzendorf Hall, the former refectory, became a
classroom, administrative, and dormitory building
for the Theological Seminary, and was known as
the Seminary Building for a time. Johnston Hall’s
construction had meant the conversion of the 1912
Gymnasium into a theater; after construction of the
HUB, the building was converted from a theater to
a library annex (Weinlick 1977:110).
In 1962, the College produced a ten-year plan of
development. By this time, it had begun acquiring
additional land outside the original campus, with a
purchase of over three acres south of Steel Field and
Figure 2-49. Rau-Hassler Dormitories (Moravian College
Archives).
Figure 2-50. Haupert Union Building, rear view (Moravian
College Archives).
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 2 • Historic Overview • 29