Laidley Hall
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laidley Hall, shown here, was one of two dormitories built on
the
Marshall campus in 1937 as part of the school’s centennial
celebration. Both have been demolished.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In March, during this year’s spring break, work crews began
demolishing Marshall University’s Laidley Hall, one of
two dormitories built in 1937 as part of
Marshall’s centennial celebration.
The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), renamed in
1939
as the Work Projects Administration, was the largest and most
ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of people
(mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works
projects, including the construction
of roads and public buildings.
In the midst of the Great Depression, the WPA built three
buildings
on the Marshall campus — a teacher training school named for
Confederate General Albert Gallatin Jenkins (later home
of the Marshall Lab School) and two dormitories.
The record-setting 1937 Ohio River flood
precluded occupancy of the three
buildings until the fall
of that year.
One of the two dormitories was named Laidley Hall in honor
of one of Marshall’s chief founders, lawyer John Laidley.
When a new school was built in 1837, it was Laidley
who convinced his neighbors to name it
for his friend John Marshall.
The second dorm was named Hodges Hall, honoring
Thomas E. Hodges, who was principal of the
school from 1886 to 1896. The school saw
considerable growth under Hodges,
with its enrollment exceeding 200
students for the first time.
Hodges Hall last housed students in 2007. After that it
became office and storage space. It was demolished
in 2013. Laidley Hall last housed students
in 2015. Like Hodges, it was used for
offices and storage after that.
A Marshall spokesperson said the two former dormitories
were vacated and demolished as a part of the university’s
ongoing effort to identify campus spaces that have
had outlived their usefulness. In 1937 it cost
$300,000 to build the two dorms — far less
than what it cost to demolish them.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on April 30, 2024.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ Back ]