CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image: Hedding Hall Fire 1-9-1943

Built in 1870 and originally known as Old Main, the second building on the IWU campus was renamed Hedding Hall after the university absorbed Hedding College in 1928.

Due to faulty electrical wiring in Amie Chapel, Hedding Hall burned to the ground on the night of January 9, 1943. Approximately 4,500 spectators gathered that night to witness the blaze; some students and faculty even risked their lives rescuing academic records from the burning building. According to the special edition of The Argus newspaper published the following day, damages were estimated at $300,000.

The foundation of Hedding Hall was roofed over, and its main arch became the facade for the building renamed Duration Hall, which remained in use until 1967. One of the bronze name plates presented at the 1932 dedication of Hedding Hall is still visible in the photograph of the demolition of the arch. (Coincidentally, Duration Hall was razed to make way for Sheean Library, which was in turn replaced by Ames Library, which opened on January 9, 2002—59 years to the day after Hedding Hall burned.)

In addition to the above image, the Historical Photographs collection contains eight other views of Hedding Hall—both before and after the fire—as well as a video assembled from footage taken the day after the fire. This digital collection also includes many other photographs illustrating Illinois Wesleyan University since its founding in 1850, and can be browsed by subject: alumni, athletics, buildings, departments and programs, dormitories, Greek life, people, presidents, student organizations.

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