Marshall University

The Metamorphosis of Marshall University

 (photo courtesy of Marshall Special Collections)

A view from Third Avenue

     Old Main occupies a site once known as Maple Grove. It was a grassy knoll covered by a thick stand of virgin timber: oaks, maples, beeches, and poplars. In the 1800’s, the local farmers cleared some of the timber and built on the crest of the knoll a crude, one-room log cabin, which they named Mount Hebron Church. They used the cabin for weekly worship services on Sunday. It was also used for a subscription school, probably during the winter months when the children were not needed for farming. The old log Mount Hebron Church looked rough and forlorn. A group of these men determined in 1837 to improve the old school building and petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to establish an academy to better educate their children. Among the leading proponents was John Laidley. On March 13, 1838, the Assembly passed a bill incorporating the new academy.   
   In 1839 the new Trustees purchased one and a quarter acres of land at Maple Grove from James Holderby for $40, the deed calling for the land to be "used for the express purpose of an Academy and no other use." The trustees had the cabin torn down and workers erected a fine brick building. The new two-story brick building was twenty-two feet wide and fifty feet long. Large foundation stones, four feet long and two feet wide, weighing over 600 pounds, supported the building. The stones had been hauled down the Ohio River to Holderby's Landing. There were classrooms on each of its two floors, as well as a room that served as a chapel. The building was completed enough to begin classes in September 1838 (the term continuing until August 1839). It was finally finished in March 1839. The building served as the Marshall Academy's only structure until 1856. In that year a new structure was added to its west side. In 1898 the building was razed to make room for an entirely new building. The new building was completed in late December 1897 and was accepted by the Board of Regents on January 29, 1898.

    When the 1870 and 1896 buildings were joined in 1899, the easternmost section of the 1896 building was removed to make room for the new building. The large bell tower was torn down when the westernmost section of Old Main was built in 1906-07. The surviving section of the 1896 building is nestled in the present Old Main.

    Since 1907 the building's exterior has not changed much. The western towers section is still the most identifiable part of the building. The southern entrance continues to allow easy access to the building from that side of the campus.