The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

Avery Hall

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Avery Hall (front facade), Lincoln Memorial University

Institution Name: Lincoln Memorial University
Original/Historic Place Name: Avery Hall
Location on Campus: Campus Quad
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1902-1904

original construction Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: stone

Walls: brick

Roof: shingle

Function:

1904-1906	library
1904-1916	residence hall
1904-1916	dining hall
1904-present (2007)	classrooms

Significance:
Landmark designation:

none

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
Avery Hall was the first building constructed on the LMU campus, a 1,000-acre landscape set in the mountains and foothillsof the Cumberland Gap region of East Tennessee. The building originally served as the academic, social, and spiritual needs of the young women who attended the college, since it served as the library, offered classrooms, and included a dining hall in its earliest years. Its construction marked the beginning of the Lincoln Memorial University as it is known today because of the architectural tone it set for surrounding buildings on campus. Today, this core area of the campus quad, containing Avery Hall along with Carnegie-Vincent Library, Duke Hall of Citizenship, and Farr-Chinnock Hall, is central to the academic lives of students.

While the campus does not have a traditional quadrangle area, many buildings, including Avery Hall, were erected in a manner that would emphasize the natural beauty of the campus. The developed portion of the campus represents only a fraction of the overall acreage owned by the university. The majority of university lands remain undeveloped in an effort to retain the beauty of the surrounding rural landscape.

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Suppiger, Joseph E. Phoenix of the Mountains: The Story of Lincoln Memorial University. Harrogate, TN: Lincoln Memorial University Press, 2001 (1977).

II. Location of other data: