Old Main Building

Old Main is a series of 5 building additions that have been joined together between the years 1868 and 1908. Its towers have become the symbol of the university to alumni. The general style of the building, however a whole composed by five additions, is consistently medieval, both Romanesque and Gothic.

The red brick masonry combined with rough faced, squared stonework surroundings, lintels and belt courses, serves to unify different features. In the American cultural environment, medieval styles became favored for collegiate buildings. Scholars preferred it because they will detach the learning and teaching community from the confusion of the city, as were the monasteries in the Middle Age, protected from the current turmoil. Then, the monastic look of the university building will foster a proper aesthetical and physical environment needed for contemplation and thorough study.



However, the Old Main chronology is rather complicated, as there were many buildings that were razed, and voids that were eventually filled. When Marshall Academy was founded, in 1837, the classes were given at a log building called Mt. Hebron.



Close to this building was a beech tree that was a witness of Marshall Buildings development until it fall down by a storm, in 1975. In 1839 the first section was built, a brick building with 4 rooms, 22 ft. wide and 60 ft. long, with stone foundations. In 1856, a 2nd. Section was built, a three story building, 60 ft. long and 30 ft. wide.



In 1870 the 3rd section was built, the oldest section now still standing. The older part of Old Main building is a pair of pavilions located at the east end of the present group, with a hipped roof block with cross gable dormers, and a perpendicular pavilion which ends at south with a front gable and to north with a convex wall, that covers a three story building.


Then was added another building, a pavilion that has a cross gabled roof. Two pedimented gables appear at each side of the façade, looking north or south. A tower was inserted in this section, which was demolished later. The designers of the aforesaid three sections are unknown.



The next addition (4th. Section) was built in 1897, designed by Frank & Henry R. Davis, Architects, of Baltimore, with a huge front gabled block and a small parapet; it develops three stories with different kind of windows. At the top, near the gable edge, a small Palladian window crowns the whole. The third floor has three huge, wide round arched windows, and two rectangular windows at its sides, symmetrically located. Second and first floor has two windows each one, slightly asymmetrical. Nevertheless, the northern part of this addition is very similar and has a small protruding section in the first two stories. This huge block was completed with a great tower, and a porch, on the west end, of Romanesque design.



In 1898, the 1st and 2nd section of 1839 and 1856 were razed, and a College Building was built at east end.

In 1899, to fill the gap between the 1870 and 1896 buildings, it was erected a brick addition, and a curvilinear revision of north façade was performed, still existing.
Again, the last addition built in 1905-1907, what was called the New Administration building (now the western façade), obliged to demolish the Romanesque tower as well.



The western façade of Old Main building is perhaps the best recorded in the memory of all visitors. It was built from 1905 to 1907, and shows a Gothic revival entrance, with octagonal towers with castellated (battlements) finishing at its tops. The doorway is a Tudor arch with rough stone-masonry, and Victorian Romanesque (1870-1890) details: stone quoins, decorative stone bands, all according to the existing buildings. The west entrance of Old Main has a remarkable antecedent:

It is very similar to the New York University Building, designed by A. Jackson Davis in 1832 and completed in 1837.



This part of the Old Main has a rectangular shaped plan, and it is like the head of the building compound. This latter part of the Old Main building had a full height auditorium with a stage crowned with a Tudor arch (later modified), and a first floor. Nowadays, this huge interior space is still there, but has not been used since 1990.



A library was also located, and then transferred to the Morrow Building. The northern and southern sides of this last part of Old Main have two symmetrical gables, at the third floor, flanked by a pair of castellated, overhanging turrets, surrounding a triple gothic arch with tracery. The turrets are supported by rough, sandstone buttresses added to the second story wall.
Other entrances and doorways are round arched with rough stone finishing, and most of the windows have masonry segmented arches and double or single hung openings.

Close to the Old Main Building was the Marshall Beech Tree, already existing when Marshall was founded in 1837.



It is interesting to remind how the architectural heritage sensitiveness increased in the last 40 years. As regards the Old Main, in 1963, a Master Plan designed by Boggs and Rehm recommended the destruction of the entire building.



In 1981, after a great debate about preservation held at the USA with the Penn Station issue, Dean, Dean & Kieffer wrote a report containing plans of renovation of 1870 and 1907 buildings, but razing of 1896, 1898 and 1899 sections, thus leaving a void that was filled by a plaza. This last plan shows concern of the historical values that contrast the 1963 version, which was totally indifferent.