Face-lift unveiled for Academic Hall

A refurbished Academic Hall, Southeast Missouri State University's iconic landmark, reopened Thursday with a nod to the past while looking to the future.

About 700 people attended the grand reopening and ribbon-cutting for the famously copper-domed landmark, which had been closed for two years as it underwent $23.9 million in renovations.

In the building's auditorium, university president Kenneth Dobbins, Missouri commissioner of higher education David Russell, former Southeast presidents Bill Stacy and Kala Stroup and student government president Benny Dorris shared memories of their time at Southeast before playing a video on the history of the building.

"I think this is a glorious day for Southeast Missouri State University and Academic Hall. As we renovated and restored Academic Hall, we knew what we wanted. We wanted everyone to have an opportunity to take a class here," Dobbins said.

After it was built in 1906, the building was used mainly for classroom space. But as the university grew, it housed mainly administrative offices.

In January, the Department of Communication Studies returns to the building, so students again will have a chance to take a course there, officials said.

A main feature of the renovation is a one-stop area for student financial services, with the cashier's office adjacent to it, a news release from the university said. When students arrive in the area, they swipe their student IDs in a card reader and are placed into a queue that can be viewed on three flat-screen TV monitors.

At the east end of the hall is a reception desk for the registrar's office, career services and academic advising, the release said.

The Lawrence Group of St. Louis was the architectural consultant and Kiefner Brothers Construction of Cape Girardeau the general contractor during renovations. Going into the project, site superintendent John Schumer of Kiefner Brothers said not many pre-existing drawings were available. So the company and architects only knew what was there as areas were being refurbished. At its peak, the company had 25 to 30 people working on the building.

Schumer said the joist hangers, suspended concrete floors and railroad irons for reinforcement proved interesting and surprising.

Schumer said he didn't think joist hangers were around until the 1950s and that they were probably forged on site.

The main staircases that take people from the first to third floors use cast iron railings that had been painted brown over the years and concealed details such as state seals on each newel post. He said those also would have been cast on-site.

Ornaments on the rails were brass, which nobody knew at the project's start, Schumer said.

Three printing plates, which Schumer guessed were photo negatives, were found with a few newspapers from the 1930s and '50s and library cards from the '60s and '70s.

He said workers also tore up a floor where a swimming pool used to be.

"It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work [on] and be a part of this project," Schumer said.

Loyd Ervin and his family of Ervin's Metalsmiths in Cape Girardeau spent much of the last two years restoring about 30 original light fixtures, including some from the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, according to a story by News Bureau director Ann Hayes.

"It was important to me to be a part of that project," Ervin said. "Someday, my grandchildren will probably walk under some of those fixtures.

"It was an interesting project," he said. "Working on something from the 1904 World's Fair ... to touch something like that and that type of craftsmanship is something you don't do every day."

On Thursday evening, students, former students and community members got to view the work.

Tyler Rosemann, his brother, Tim, and friend, Misaki Makino, liked that it was a mix of the historic and new.

"My favorite part is being able to go into the dome now," said Tim Rosemann, a junior.

Board of Regents President Doyle Privett said he thinks the companies did an outstanding job of restoring the integrity of the building.

Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs is looking forward to moving in. She graduated from Southeast in 1998 and started teaching part-time in 2002 and full-time in 2007.

"I teach for the Department of Communication Studies, so we're going to be upstairs. It's quite a transition for us," Clubbs said. "I keep using the phrase, 'I'm just all aflutter.'"

Patty Chiles and her husband Ernie of Jackson stood by the auditorium stage after the remarks, looking around. "We've seen the whole building. I'm glad they kept some of the historical stuff," she said.

Ernie Chiles was a student at Southeast in the 1960s and once worked in some of the plays in the auditorium. And he had English, history and speech in the building. "I was curious about what they did for the lighting and sound. They have updated that considerably," he said.

rcampell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address: 1 University Plaza, Cape Girardeau