Introduction

Origins

The City

Collegeville (1887, 1895)
College Delta (1897, 1899)
Oakwood (1899)
Cedar Bank (1900)
College Grove (1903)
Fairview (1903, 1905)
College Heights (1904)

Charter of 1907

Avondale (1913)
Bungalow Knolls (1915)
Chesterfield Hills (1916)
Ardson Heights (1919)
Ridgely Park (1920)
Oak Ridge (1924)
Strathmore (1925)
Glen Cairn (1926)

The Campus

Chronology

1855–1870
1871–1885
1886–1900
1901–1915
1916–1927

 

Interactive Map

Sites on the National and State Historic Registers

Complete list of
Significant Structures

Sources

The Three Wells Halls

All three editions of Wells Hall were named for Judge Hezekiah Griffith Wells (1812–1885).

H. G. Wells (not the famed author) was born in Ohio and studied at Kenyon College. In 1833 he came to Kalamazoo, where he served as county judge and was elected to five terms as village president. He was appointed one of the original members of the Board of Agriculture by Section 36 of the Reorganization Act of 1861. In 1869 he became the first elected president of the board.* In 1874 U.S. President Ulysses Grant appointed Judge Wells as presiding officer of the Court of Alabama Claims. Wells tendered his resignation to the board but by unanimous acclaim he was convinced to withdraw it, and for several years he served in both roles. He remained president of the board until 1883.[Beal, pp. 343–344. 1st AR (1862), pp. 49–50. Minutes, 9 Feb 1869, p. 182]


Judge H. G. Wells. Photo Credit: Beal, p. 342.

“The Agricultural College owes much to Judge Wells’ ability, and his zeal in behalf of the school, for its present high position and prosperity. He spent one whole season before the state legislature, when efforts were being made to have the College removed to Ann Arbor and made a department of the University. He was confident that such a course would be detrimental to the best success of the College.” [Beal, p. 344, biography “probably prepared by T. C. Abbot”]

Wells Hall the First (1877—1905)


First Wells Hall, viewed from the north. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

After Saints’ Rest was destroyed in late 1876, the state Legislature granted a $25,000 appropriation to replace it. The result was this larger and much more elaborate design by architects Watkins & Arnold. Wells Hall was built in 1877 and was located to the south of College Hall, on a site now occupied by the east wing of the Main Library. The first Wells Hall met the same fate as the building it replaced, when it burned down on February 11, 1905.[Lautner, p. 46. Beal, p. 270]


First Wells Hall burns, 11 February 1905. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

 

Wells Hall the Second (1906—1966)


Second Wells Hall, viewed from the north. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Physical Plant.

The second Wells Hall was designed by E. A. Bowd, who started working almost before the collapsed walls of first Wells had cooled. The state legislature quickly authorized a $55,000 appropriation ($5,000 less than the Board’s request) and in July 1905 Chittenden & Skinner of Lansing were contracted to build it on the site of its predecessor. Construction was completed in time for fall term 1906. It too was a student dormitory and consisted of six units, or wards, separated by brick partition walls that were intended as a means of fire prevention—a design that might have saved the building when nearby Engineering caught fire in 1916. Until the 1920s the dormitory lacked hot water, and men “warmed their shaving water by conducting steam through a rubber tube from the radiator.” Second Wells lasted until April 1966, when it was demolished to make room for the new East Wing of the Main Library.[Minutes, 1 Mar 1905, p. 270; 30 Aug 1905, pp. 298–302. MAC Record, 10(38), 13 Jun 1905, p. 1; 11(30), 17 Apr 1906, p. 1. FSD (1906), pp. 3–28. Kuhn, p. 325]


Second Wells Hall smoulders next to ruins of Engineering, 5 March 1916. View is from the south. Photo Credit: M.S.U. Archives.

Wells Hall the Third (1967)

Today’s Wells Hall is an office, classroom, and lecture hall building in the International style. It was built in 1967, with the D-wing added in 1970. At the time, B-108 Wells was said to be the largest lecture hall on campus. A major addition to the B-wing was finished in 2012 to accommodate units of the College of Arts and Letters that moved from soon-to-be-razed Morrill Hall.

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