The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Main Building

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Institution Name: Antioch College
Original/Historic Place Name: Antioch Hall
Location on Campus: 75 Livermore St.
Date(s) of Construction:

1852-1853	original design Merrifield, A. M.
1959	remodeled (3-story interior gutted and replaced with 4 stories, and new front entrance relocated to former rear entrance)

Designer: A. M. Merrifield
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Gothic revival, Romanesque revival, Victorian (Glossary)
Significance: architecture, education, history, religion
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: stone

Walls: brick

Roof: copper

Function:

ca. 1853	other (student literary society halls)
ca. 1853	library
1853-1910	chapel
1853-present (2006)	administration
1853-present (2006)	classrooms
ca. 1910	gymnasium
ca. 2004-present (2006)	auditorium (assembly hall)

Narrative:
Antioch Hall went largely unchanged until 1910 when its chapel was converted into a gymnasium. The building underwent a major renovation in 1959, when its original three-story interior was gutted and enlarged to four stories, and a new front entrance was installed on what was once the rear of the building.

Main is the historic center of all campus activity. Its lofty appearance and cross-shaped layout embodies the spirit and aims of Antioch's founders, the Christian Connexion. It is a good example of the Gothic and Romanesque revival styles popular in the mid-nineteenth century. So familiar are its towers that the building is often erroneously attributed to James Renwick, architect of the Smithsonian Institution. As Antioch's most recognizable landmark, in a sense Main Building represents Antioch itself.

References:

Alexander, W. B. "The Architectural Ancestry of Antioch Hall." Antioch Alumni Bulletin (February 1938): 3-9.

Borchers, Perry E. Main Hall [Antioch College]. Historic American Buildings Survey report and photographs. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1959.

Building A Campus: One Hundred Years of Architecture at Antioch College. Pamphlet. Dayton, OH: printed for Dayton Art Institute Exhibition, April 1954.

Dober, Richard P. Campus Design. New York: Wiley, 1992.

Dober, Richard P. Campus Landscape: Functions, Forms, Features. New York: Wiley, 2000.

Gaines, Thomas A. The Campus as a Work of Art. New York: Praeger, 1991.

Ingram, Valerie. Antioch Hall, North and South Halls [Antioch College]. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1975.

Johannesen, Eric. Ohio College Architecture Before 1870. [Columbus, OH?]: Ohio Historical Society, 1969.

Kidney, Walter C. Historic Buildings of Ohio. Pittsburgh: Ober Park Associates, 1972.

Straker, Robert L. "The Master Builder From Massachusetts." In Horace Mann and Others: Chapters from the History of Antioch College. Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press, 1963.

Turner, Paul Venable. Campus: An American Planning Tradition. New York: Architectural History Foundation; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984.