SDA Music Buildings
A Chronology
While
the action on the stage is what really counts, there is no denying that the
setting in which the performance unfolds can facilitate both the preparation
for and presentation of the event. This is no less true in music than in drama,
a fact acknowledged by the money spent over the years by Adventist schools at
all levels on music facilities and instruments. While the following chronology
focuses primarily on buildings built for music and the arts, it also includes
some noteworthy historical structures that have been modified for musical use.
1920
Music Building
Emmanual
Missionary College (Andrews University)
The first building at any SDA school built specifically
for music was constructed at a cost of $6,000. The student body of 300,
challenged to raise the funds in 30 days, responded by having all funds in hand
one day ahead of schedule. The fact that music teaching, practice, and
rehearsals until this time had been happening on the third floor of the
administration building may have provided incentive for all students to help
place them in a separate building!
1927
Johnson Memorial Music Conservatory
Walla
Walla College
The facility was built at a cost of $12,000, $7,000 of
which was donated by an Adventist minister in Portland, Oregon, Christopher
Johnson, in memory of his wife. Students raised $3,500 and the conference
donated the rest. Two grand and thirteen upright pianos were purchased as the
building was completed for an additional $3,750. In spite of its poor acoustics
and small size, it continued in use until 1964.
1932
Noah E. Paulin Hall
Pacific
Union College
Noah Paulin was the first
person at PUC who, while still teaching, had a building named for him. On the
campus since 1914, Paulin had distinguished himself as a violinist, teacher and
chair of the music program. A charming facility with practice rooms and a small
auditorium when new, it was adequate for the era but by the time a newer building
was built forty-five years later, it was suitable for only a small segment of
the program.
1937
Hole Memorial Auditorium
Southern
California Junior College (La Sierra University)
W. J. Hole’s land in Southern
California became the site of what is today called La Sierra University. Hole
was a businessman and sportsman whose philanthropy during the early years of
the school included a gift of $10,000 towards the construction of what is one
of the first actual auditoriums on an Adventist campus.
It continues today, following
a major renovation in the 1970’s, as the primary stage for music department
presentations on the LSU campus. A Casavant organ, the third largest pipe organ
in that region, was installed in 1970. The building in which the auditorium is
housed now serves as the university’s music facility.
1946
Engel Hall
Union
College
Although the projected cost
for the music facility was $45,000 plus 15,000 for furnishings, actual cost for
the building alone was $87,000. The students raised $15,700 of the needed
amount within four weeks of the beginning of the fundraising campaign in 1945.
The building, with its five
studios, two classrooms, rehearsal area, 18 practice rooms and 100-seat recital
hall, was connected to the nearby library building in 1967, with music
occupying part of the connecting construction. A number of renovations were
done in the 60’s and 70’s and, in 1985, music and art took over the entire
music/library complex. It is named for Carl Engel, music teacher at UC for 32
years.
1952
Benjamin F. Machlan Auditorium
Atlantic
Union College
Located on the right side of
a three-part imposing Colonial New England-styled facility, Machlan auditorium
is named for the college president whose leadership led to AUC’s standing as a
four-year school.
In planning from 1938,
construction on the building began immediately after WW II, facilitated by a
dramatically increased enrollment and cheap GI labor. It was completed in time
for the school’s 70th anniversary. With its large stage and 1,000-seat capacity
it is a center for music activities for both the campus and the region.
1953
Hamel Hall
Emmanual
Missionary College (Andrews University)
Constructed at a cost of
$136,000 for a four-teacher, one-degree program, this three-story building was
part of a post-WW II building program that would serve as a prelude to EMC’s
transformation from a small college to a major force as Andrews University,
home for the church’s seminary and its primary school for graduate study. The
building was totally renovated in 1989 and, in 1995, named for Paul Hamel who
had served as music department chair from 1955 to 1994 and had been a major
force in other areas on campus, as well. Today, with its two rehearsal rooms,
ten studios, 19 practice rooms, two organs, 19 pianos and the largest music
library in SDA universities, it continues as home for an expanded music program
offering several undergraduate and graduate degrees.
1954
Harold A. Miller Hall
Southern
Missionary College (Southern Adventist University)
Completed in 1954, the first
real music facility at SMC, with its seventeen practice rooms, seven studios,
recital hall and music library, was hailed as a vast improvement over the
cramped quarters music had occupied in the administration building for the past
thirty years. An attractive building with Georgian-Colonial architecture, it
became inadequate as the program expanded.
1964
George E. Peters Hall
Oakwood
College
The second of six structures
constructed at OC in the 1960’s, the music building includes seven teaching
studios, two rehearsal areas, five practice rooms and four classrooms built
around a 125-seat auditorium. It is named for George E. Peters, noted SDA
African-American evangelist in the first half of the 20th century.
1966
Melvin K. West Fine Arts Center
Walla
Walla College
The first in a series of
large comprehensive SDA music facilities to be built in the last third of the
20th century, the MKW fine arts center was designed to accommodate a small to
medium college music program. Built at a cost of $650,000, the two-story
building, has two rehearsal areas, ten teaching studios, 27 practice rooms, two
classrooms, music library, and office, all clustered around a 300-seat
auditorium. New instruments and equipment were purchased at a cost of $120,000
as it was completed. It is equipped with 17 grand pianos, 25 upright pianos, a
harpsichord, and four pipe organs. An art gallery and art studios, classrooms,
and offices occupy about a fourth of the building. It was named in 1996 for
Melvin K. West, chair of the department at the time of its construction.
1967
Noah E. Paulin Hall
Pacific
Union College
Constructed at the same time
and within the same parameters as the fine arts center at Walla Walla College,
the new Paulin Hall at PUC is strikingly different in layout and appearance.
The two-story structure, constructed for over $500,000, includes two rehearsal
areas, fourteen teaching studios, 28 practice rooms, two classrooms, offices,
three ensemble libraries, and a 468-seat auditorium with a 48-rank Casavant
pipe organ. There are three other organs in the facility, the largest of these
being a 15-rank tracker, located in the organ studio. Other keyboard
instruments include three harpsichords, and 25 grand and 22 upright pianos.
1974
Thayer Music Conservatory
Atlantic
Union College
Under the leadership of Jon Robertson
in the 1970’s the music program at AUC underwent a rapid expansion that
necessitated a move from the oldest building on the main campus (the original
administration building occupied since the 1950’s) to a nearby larger and older
historically famous building, the Thayer Mansion.
Constructed in the mid
1800’s, expanded and refined in the 1880’s, and then completed in 1902 by the
Thayer family, at that time one of the richest in the nation, the structure is
regarded as a highlight of American Georgian architecture. Its interior
includes rooms known worldwide as some of the finest examples in Louis XVI
style, popular in that era.
In an earlier time, its
setting in the midst of extensive formal gardens was the site for outdoor
performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bought by the college in 1942,
it had served as an administration building and dormitory before Robertson
spoke for it on behalf of the department, and then set about beginning a
restoration that continues to this day.
1981
J. Mabel Wood Music Hall
Southern
Adventist College (Southern Adventist University)
The vision and persistence of
Marvin Robertson, chair of the department of music at SAC for 33 years, one the
two longest tenures* of a music chair at an SDA college, led to the planning
and construction of this 44,000,000 square foot music facility. Constructed at
a cost of over $1,000,000 and located near the older Harold A. Miller music
hall, it includes two rehearsal areas, ten studios, 23 practice rooms, and the
250-seat Dorothy E. Ackerman Auditorium. It is equipped with newer instruments,
the latest in equipment, and three tracker action organs, including one in the
auditorium with mean-tone tuning.
The building was the capstone
of Robertson’s accomplishments at SC which included achieving accreditation
with the National Association of Schools of Music, and the installation of an
internationally recognized group of tracker pipe organs, including one of the
largest in the Western Hemisphere, located in the University Church. The
building is named for J. Mabel Wood, SMC alumnus who taught piano at the college
for eighteen years. *Edna
Farnsworth also served as music chair for 33 years at Atlantic Union College
1985
Mabee Center
Southwestern
College (Southwestern Adventist University)
A modern facility built at a
cost of about 1.5 million dollars, the building has two rehearsal rooms, seven
practice rooms, offices, seven teaching studios, and a 180-seat auditorium. It
is equipped with five grand and eight upright pianos and a Johannus electronic
organ. There is also an art instruction room. The building is named after the
major donor to the building fund.
2000-
Music Conservatory
Montemorelos University
A large music complex, a
combination of older and new buildings, easily accommodates MU’s large
conservatory and university music programs. Because of the school’s location in
a mild climate, the building’s architecture combines the best elements of both
enclosed and open areas. It is equipped with a number of new pianos and organs,
all donated by Orland and Joan Ogden.
2004
Howard Performing Arts Center
Andrews
University University
A
beautiful concert hall with acoustics lavishly praised by performers from its
opening to the present (2016), HPAC was described by AU President Neils-Erik
Andreasen at the time of the inaugural concert as “A dream fulfilled and
promises kept.” Half of the cost was contributed by John and Dede Howard,
musicians and philanthropists in the community, who were honored at that time
with a photo of the building signed by students and faculty. The facility has a
capacity for 832 persons with 417 seated on a sloped main floor, 265 in the
balcony, 38 in boxes, and 112 in an elevated area behind the stage that can
double as a choir loft. The stage which
is located two-feet above floor level can seat an orchestra of 120. A spacious two-story lobby provides an
impressive entry and an attractive place for visiting during intermission and
at the end of programs.
2011
Peters Music Center
Washington
Adventist University
The first phase in a two
phase building program, the Peters Music Center was completed in 2011 at a cost
of six million dollars. The three-story
facility includes five teaching studios, a two-story instrumental rehearsal
room, a large classroom, two large practice rooms suitable for chamber
ensembles, three medium-sized practice rooms, and a percussion studio/practice
room. Other features include a music library and three ensemble areas, chair’s
office, administrative offices, a robing room, and storage for private and
university instruments. The choir
continues to rehearse in an attractive atrium which doubles as a recital hall
in nearby Sligo church. Phase two will
include additional practice rooms, a recital hall with a pipe organ, and a
choral rehearsal room.
Academy Music Facilities
The
investment in music facilities at the academy level in the 20th century also
underscored the value Adventist education placed on music. While some
outstanding facilities and auditoriums were constructed and part of a larger
school building, there were exceptions, two of which are described below.
Forest Lake Academy
Maitland, Florida
After many years of
rehearsing in everything from tin-roofed buildings, cafeteria basements, to the
chapel stage, a freestanding all-music facility clustered around a 600-seat
auditorium was built at Forest Lake Academy in 1968. A large rehearsal area,
six teaching studios, eight practice rooms and a computer lab for teaching
music notation make it an outstanding music facility for a music program at the
secondary level.
Upper Columbia Academy
Spangle, Washington
One of the oldest of
freestanding, built-for-music facilities at the academy level, the music
building at UCA was built in 1961. A three-story facility with separate
rehearsal rooms for choir and band, three teaching studios and 17 practice
rooms, it was completely redone in 1985 following a fire that extensively
damaged the building. In 1998, the band rehearsal room was enlarged and a
connecting passageway to the campus performing area, along with dressing rooms
and another teaching studio, were added.
This
article, with photographs, was printed in the Winter/Spring 2002 issue of Notes,
a publication of IAMA. It was updated in
2016.
IAMA