The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Hugh M. Neely Hall

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Hugh M. Neely Hall (general view), Rhodes College

Hugh M. Neely Hall (detail of entrance), Rhodes College

Institution Name: Rhodes College
Original/Historic Place Name: Hugh M. Neely Hall
Location on Campus: Thomas Ln.
Date(s) of Construction:

1927	original construction Klauder, Charles Z. Hibbs, Henry

Designer: Charles Z. Klauder; Henry Hibbs (Philadelphia)
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Gothic revival, Other (Glossary)
Significance: architecture
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: stone

Roof: slate

Function:

ca. 1927-present (2006)

dining hall

Narrative:
Neely Hall was designed as the campus's original dining hall and, although expanded in size, continues to serve the same purpose today. The tall refectory windows divided by paired buttresses gives an Oxfordian and ecclesiastical aura, yet the scale of the interior is domestic like the dormitories the building adjoins. One of the gables outside contains a single open belfry in which hangs the 1848 bell brought from the original campus in Clarksville, Tennessee. The college moved to Memphis from Clarksville in 1925.

References:

Cooper, Raymond W. Southwestern at Memphis 1848-1948. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1949.

Hanbury, Evans, Wright, and Vlattas, and Company, Architects. Rhodes Master Plan 2010. [Norfolk, VA: Hanbury, Evans, Wright, and Vlattas, and Company, Architects, n.d.].

Morgan, William. Collegiate Gothic, The Architecture of Rhodes College. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1989.

Rhodes 150, 1848-1998: a Sesquicentennial Yearbook. Little Rock, AR: August House Publishers, 1998.

Roper, James E. Southwestern at Memphis 1948-1975. Memphis, TN: Southwestern at Memphis, 1975.

Strode, William. Rhodes College. Louisville, KY: Harmony House Publishers, 1985.