The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Hobbs Hall

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Hobbs Hall (three-quarter view), Lynchburg College

Institution Name: Lynchburg College
Original/Historic Place Name: T. Gibson Hobbs Science Building
Location on Campus: facing due north on the edge of The Circle
Date(s) of Construction:

1959	original construction Johnson, Stanhope S.
1992	addition Greenwood Partnership

Designer: Stanhope S. Johnson (Lynchburg, VA), Greenwood Partnership
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Beaux-Arts classicism, Colonial revival (Glossary)
Significance: education
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: cinder block faced with brick

Walls: brick

Roof: slate (original building); Hypalon (addition)

Function:

1959-present (2006)

academic department building (sciences)

Narrative:
Named for T. Gibson Hobbs, President of the Board of Trustees from 1918 until 1942, this facility opened in the spring of 1959. Mr. Hobbs was a member of the class of 1904--the first graduating class at Virginia Christian College (renamed Lynchburg College in 1919). It contains the classrooms and laboratories for all of the sciences except psychology. The crew of the first nuclear merchant ship, Savannah, was trained in Hobbs Hall.

An addition containing new laboratories, offices, and classrooms was added to the rear of the original building in 1992. A regular program of preventative maintenance keeps this building in first-class condition.

References:

"Lynchburg College, A Beacon of Excellence," A supplement to Lynchburg News and Advance, September 8, 2002.

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