Is it time for deconstruction or a renovation?
For almost fifty years Allen Hall, an academic building, has stood just outside the southwest end of the drill field. This building is visually known for its six-story tower, rock panel exterior and a seemingly ancient interior design. Despite it’s old looking interior, Allen hall is still used today and houses multiple large lecture halls, various classrooms, and the department of mathematics and statistics.
Today’s Use
Allen hall today is home to only the department of mathematics and statistics, a few large lecture halls, and a lot of classrooms. The tower, which was once the home of multiple offices spaces, has converted to dozens of classrooms that a variety of classes are taught in. The many offices that resided in Allen now have moved to different places all around campus leaving only the department of mathematics and statistics.
Initial Use
Not much has changed architecturally about Allen Hall since it’s construction in 1972. The only difference from then and now is that it is surrounded by other academic buildings rather than a parking lot. However, the use of this building has changed a lot from its intended purpose. When originally being opened for the fall semester of 1972, Allen hall was used for more office spaces rather than classrooms or lecture halls. In fact, you could find the offices of the president and vice president on the sixth floor of the tower (Special Collections). Also, Allen held the college of education, college of arts and sciences, department of mathematics and statistics and many other different types of offices and administration (Special Collections). While Allen hall did have some lecture halls and classrooms, it was not much as compared to today.
H.E. Allen
Henry Edward Allen, or slim, was born was born on February 23, 1910 in Sallis, Mississippi (Special Collections). Throughout his high school experience, he worked several jobs causing him not to graduate until he was twenty-one years old. Despite all of the working he did in high school, he entered Mississippi State University on almost a complete scholarship that paid for books, tuition, and meals. During his years at Mississippi State, he continued to work, but this time mainly for himself. He started a newspaper company, tailor shop, and a jewelry shop within his own dorm. Allen was a business major and even though his curriculum at the time would have required him to take two math classes there is actually no record that he actually even signed up to take any (Special Collections). This is ironic considering the very building that is named after him is home to the department of mathematics and statistics. After graduating from Mississippi State, Allen quickly rose in ranks at work and quickly became the number one salesperson in the whole company. In addition to this company, he also owned his own publishing and photography company. Allen was a proud alumni of Mississippi State and wanted to contribute to it in some way. Even though he originally wanted to donate to a scholarship foundation, he was convinced to donate money towards a new building on campus. Allen contributed $100,000 to the building on Allen hall, a building that would altogether cost around $2,812,500 (Special Collections).
Controversy?
Before being constructed there was controversy over all of the trees having to be cut down for the building. At an Earth day rally on campus a speaker said “Look to your left. Soon this area will be cleared, and trees cut in order to build a new administration building. Can we stand by and let the beauty of nature be raped like this?” (Special Collections). This concern, however, was dismissed by advisers for the construction because actions were made to conserve trees where the building was going to be and put less than the minimum amount of parking lots needed for the building. Also, there were plans to put multiple flower beds and shrubs all around the building to create an almost park-like atmosphere (Special Collections). These plans for greenery are still kept today with Allen Hall having many shrubs, bushes and flowers scattered outside the building. There is also even less parking than originally planned for the building because of the construction of buildings now surrounding Allen Hall.
The Centennial Sculpture
In 1978, a sculpture was built to celebrate the one-hundred-year anniversary of Mississippi State. This sculpture was titled “A Noble Past, A Promising Future” and stood directly in front of the entrance on Allen Hall. The sculpture is described as “an abstract, geometrical work of welded pieces of ‘angle iron’ of various lengths forming an open cage or lattice work” (Special Collections). This sculpture was tall standing at sixteen feet if you included the height of the base. It also had a flower bed by the base of the sculpture. The centennial sculpture was designed by Bernard Schmidt and the department of Landscape Architecture (Special Collections). This sculpture has since then been replaced by the eternal flame memorial.
Tear it down?
Because of its age, Allen hall stands out against most buildings on Mississippi State’s Campus and not necessarily in a good way. The lack of renovations in Allen hall has really degraded the quality of the building. Many of the classrooms and lecture halls seem to come straight out a movie from the seventies with the sliding chalk boards, old wooden desks that are drilled into the ground and white-grey-brown brick walls. There even is a distinct unpleasant smell in Allen hall that some people claim to have caused them to become sick. To contribute to these downfalls, there is an Instagram page solely dedicated to post about everything wrong with Allen Hall, @thefallofallenhall. Some people might think that all of these reasons would be enough to tear it down and build another building, or simply renovated it, but as of today there seems to not be any plans of deconstruction in the near future.
Citations
Gandy, Nekita. Special Collections. Mitchell Memorial Library. Mississippi State University Archives. Accessed 9 October. 2019 http://lib.msstate.edu/specialcollections/
Thefallofallenhall, “Photo of broken desks”. Instagram, 7 September 2017. Accessed 19 October. 2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/BnbToIAlahZ/
M., Jaron. “Exterior View of Allen Hall”. FOURSQUARE CITY GUIDE, 7 January 2011. Accessed 19 October. 2019 https://foursquare.com/v/allen-hall/4b587057f964a520c75728e3?openPhotoId=4d277095ed9ca3405aeff3e0
Learn more at
http://lib.msstate.edu/specialcollections
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Mississippi State University Special Collections for helping create this blog about Allen hall.
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