At one time or another, probably every TCU student has had a class in Reed Hall. As one of the three original buildings on campus a century ago, it has long been devoted to academic studies and to the liberal arts in particular.  Of course, there was Eden’s Greens in the basement for stirfry, a salad or a sandwich at lunchtime… and the Faculty Center on the second floor, where the Mills Glass Collection was displayed and that wonky staircase led from the first floor to the second.  All gone now, of course.

 

After a year of extensive renovation, Reed Hall is almost ready to re-open and the changes are remarkable.  To begin with, it’s now a four-story structure since what was the partially used basement is now the First Floor and entirely filled with faculty offices and meeting spaces. Overall, the style and feel is similar to that of brand new Scharbauer Hall that adjoins the landscaped plaza behind Reed.

 

On a walking tour with Andy Schoolmaster, dean of AddRan College that occupies both buildings, he points out new features that will make Reed a quieter, more energy-efficient place to teach and learn. High-tech classrooms with teaching stations, writing labs, conference and seminar rooms, team rooms for student interaction, break rooms for faculty, student lounges and testing rooms fill the building. Each and every faculty member has a 150-square-foot office with a window.  It is definitely a new millennium for this steadfast old relic.

 

Perhaps the most comprehensive history of Reed Hall is contained in Joan Hewatt Swaim’s book Walking TCU, published in 1992 by TCU Press. The cornerstone set in 1911 is still there at the northeast edge of the building but the rest is unrecognizable from what it once was.

 

Originally built as the administration building for the campus, the façade back then looked like a larger version of Jarvis Hall next door, with six Ionic columns and a gable roof over the open veranda.  Ivy covered the bricks, all the way to the roof. The original classical architecture was later transformed into neo-Georgian. Swaim’s book notes that nearly every academic program at TCU had its beginnings in the classrooms and office spaces of Reed Hall. Besides housing presidents and vice presidents, the building, at one time, also contained the library, the post office, the bookstore and, for 38 years, an auditorium used for chapel services, theater productions, graduations and various student programs.

 

One of the more colorful aspects in the building’s nearly 100 years was surviving a 1918 plane crash. The young pilot had been showing off for his girlfriend in Jarvis Hall and collided with Reed’s northeast parapet, flinging him unharmed into the honeysuckle bushes below.