Alumni Hall

I’m not sure any building on campus has had as many names as the Hugh S. Black Building. 

We still have a handful of nineteenth century buildings on the campus – Main Building and the four homes that made up the original campus. But I’m not sure that many people on campus realize that the building that houses Admission and Financial Aid offices is another structure dating from the nineteenth century.

Times seemed good in Spartanburg during the 1880s. With railroads and textiles, the city was experiencing its first taste of prosperity since before the Civil War. Wofford had never officially provided housing for students, preferring instead to let them board with families in the village or with professors on campus. The home-like atmosphere, trustees and professors felt, would be better for the students. But by the 1880s, with enrollment hovering in the upper 70s, and with students living in unused rooms in Main Building, the trustees decided to build three cottages to be used as dormitories.  

When the alumni got wind of the plan, in a spell of generosity, they asked to be allowed to raise the money for a single dormitory for the students. They pledged to raise $10,000, and they organized local alumni chapters throughout the state to raise the funds. The trustees accepted the alumni association’s offer, though it took some time for the alumni to actually raise the funds.

And so, with Masonic rites and with much of Spartanburg’s leadership looking on, the college laid the cornerstone of Alumni Hall on Friday, October 19, 1888. Edgar L. Archer, of the class of 1871, who had made substantial contributions to the construction of the building, led the opening prayer, and the featured address was a biographical sketch of Benjamin Wofford, presented by John Bomar Cleveland of the class of 1869, another significant donor and later a trustee of the college. President Carlisle also spoke.

When the building opened it was, as one observer described, “commodious and well appointed, and furnished with all modern conveniences, and is a pleasant home for many students.” The building, as originally built and as the photo shows, was four stories tall.

In 1895, Alumni Hall became the home of the Wofford Fitting School, which had been in operation since 1887 in the buildings of the old Spartanburg Female College, in what became the Spartan Mill village. Alumni Hall remained part of the fitting school complex until it was discontinued in 1924.  

As is the case with buildings at so many colleges, fire played a role in Alumni Hall’s history. On the night of January 18, 1901, a fire nearly destroyed the building. It was, as The Journal reported, a severe loss to the college.  In the aftermath of the fire, the Journal reported, “the kindness of the people of all parts of the city to the students of the Fitting School was very gratifying to the college authorities. Telephone messages came thick and fast to offer temporary homes to the young men, and they were soon provided for.” President Carlisle was reportedly unsure as to what action to take, but the trustees quickly decided both to rebuild the hall and to build a larger facility for the Fitting School’s classrooms. The new building, constructed next door to the re-named Archer Hall, provided extra recitation rooms for the students in the Fitting School. Archer Hall was rebuilt, but without its third and fourth floors, and took its new name from the largest original donor to the building.

With the closure of the Fitting School, Archer Hall reverted to the college. The building was used as a dormitory until the 1950s, though in the late 1940s, it was used as meeting space for fraternities. In the early 1950s, the building was re-conditioned for use as a dormitory to meet enrollment growth. With gifts from Spartanburg’s Black family, the building received its third name: the Hugh S. Black Dormitory. By 1959, it had become the home of various campus offices, and at that point, it became the Hugh S. Black Building.

In the early 1980s, the neighboring Snyder Hall was demolished, and in 1986, the Black Building was connected to the newly-constructed Neofytos Papadopoulos Building.  

Pictures: Alumni Hall-the Hugh S. Black Building-at different points in its long life.