Antioch Hall, North and South Halls

Antioch Hall, North And South Halls
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Rear of Antioch Hall
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Location	Hyde Rd., Antioch College campus, Yellow Springs, Ohio
Coordinates	39°47′59″N 83°53′17″W / 39.79972°N 83.88806°W / 39.79972; -83.88806
Area	3 acres (1.2 ha)
Built	1852
Built by	Alpheus M. Merrifield
Architect	Boyden & Ball[2]
Architectural style	Romanesque Revival
NRHP reference No.	75001411[1]
Added to NRHP	June 30, 1975

Antioch Hall, North and South Halls are a group of historic buildings on the campus of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. They were the college's three original buildings,^[3] and were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Greene County, Ohio in 1975.^[1]

Antioch Hall (known to Antiochians as Main Building) was constructed in the 1852–53 timeframe by architect Alpheus Marshall Merrifield.^[4] It combines elements of Romanesque, Greek Revival and Gothic architectural styles, the latter being most noticeable in its towers.^[4]

It underwent a massive renovation from 1958 to 1962.^[4] This included the inset of a concrete structure inside the original building which stabilized it and insulated its interior against weather and degradation.^[4] The renovation also created four floors, instead of the previous three, and relocated its entrance from the east side to the west side.^[4]

Antioch Hall was closed along with the College in June 2008; however, while the College reopened, Antioch Hall did not.^[4] Since the campus's central Power Plant usually provided steam heating to this building and others, and because the Power Plant went offline with the general closure in 2008,^[5] Antioch Hall lacked heating which in turn led to plumbing failures and flooding in February of 2009.^[4] Some restoration has been done, the largest from a $500,000 directed grant from Yellow Springs Community Foundation in 2019, intended to tackle projects of immediate need such as reintroducing heating.^[4] But considerable additional funding is needed to bring the building back to usefulness, with estimates ranging from $7.5 million to $20 million.^[4]

North Hall is an operational residence hall.^[6] Its first residents were the entering class of 1853.^[6] In 1953 it was extensively reconstructed following a significant fire in February of that year, with use of an interior steel framework supporting four-inch reinforced concrete floors which made the building more fireproof.^[7] In 2011 it underwent a $5.7 million renovation effort to combine both comfortable and sustainable living, and reopened in 2012.^[6] The renovation project achieved a LEED energy-efficiency Gold Level Certification on July 26, 2013,^[8] and was the oldest building in the country to obtain such a rating, taking the title from the U.S. Treasury Building.^[9] The project included solar panels on the building’s roof, and twenty-five 600'-deep geothermal wells for heating and cooling.^[9]

South Hall also opened in 1853, as the college’s men’s dormitory.^[10] Renovated in 1994, it too was damaged after closure in 2008 when a sprinkler system pipe on the fourth floor of the unheated building burst in December of that year, flooding the structure’s east end.^[10] However, contractors and volunteers pushed through a cleanup effort to dry it out.^[10][4] It reopened after some exterior renovations in January of 2010.^[3] It is the location of college offices,^[6] as well as Herndon Gallery, which is used for exhibitions and academic conferences.^[11]

• Horace Mann

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