The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Hopwood Hall

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Hopwood Hall (three-quarter view), Lynchburg College

Institution Name: Lynchburg College
Original/Historic Place Name: Administration Building
Location on Campus: facing due east on the edge of The Circle
Date(s) of Construction:

1909	original construction Frye, Edward G. Jones & Adams

Designer: Edward G. Frye; Jones & Adams
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Beaux-Arts classicism (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, culture, education, history, religion
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: brick faced with concrete

Walls: brick

Roof: slate, rubber, and copper on the dome

Function:

ca. 1909	academic department building (science labs and art studio)
ca. 1909	administration
ca. 1909	theater
ca. 1909	chapel
ca. 1909	library
ca. 1909-present (2006)	faculty offices
ca. 1909-present (2006)	classrooms
ca. 2004-present (2006)	academic department building (computer lab, language lab, and Wilmer Writing Center)
ca. 2004-present (2006)	auditorium

Narrative:
Completed in 1909, the Administration Building was renamed Hopwood Hall in 1953 in honor of the founders of the college, Josephus and Sarah LaRue Hopwood. The building was designed by noted neo-classical architect Edward G. Frye and is still the main academic building at Lynchburg College. It would be impossible for a student to graduate without having a significant number of classes in this building. In recognition of this fact, graduation is held in front of this structure each year.

Lynchburg College is Virginia's second oldest college founded as a co-educational institution, and the construction of Hopwood Hall was an important step in the realization of the founders' concept of that educational model. Within its walls men and women engaged in a variety of academic activities, from painting, to physics, to the study of literature, to the mastering of foreign languages.

The list of academics, actors, musicians, poets, politicians, reformers, theologians, and others which have graced its stage, is seemingly endless, including the best and brightest the 20th century had to offer. Hopwood thus provided a cultural venue for the campus and the wider community. A program of preventive maintenance keeps Hopwood Hall in first-class condition.

References:

Chambers, S. Allen. Lynchburg, An Architectural History. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1982.

Hopwood, Josephus. A Journey Through the Years; an Autobiography. St. Louis, MO: Bethany Press, 1932.

Potter, Dorothy T. "Walls and Halls, An Architectural History of L. C." In Jubilee: 1903-1978. Lynchburg, VA: Lynchburg College, 1978.

Potter, Edmund D. "The Westover Hotel." M. A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1995.

Wake, Orville. "The First Fifty Years, A History of Lynchburg College." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 1957.