Harrelson Hall
Flashback Friday this week brings us a slightly vintage view of the most loathed building at NC State, Harrelson Hall.
According to the NC State Special Collections Research Center blog, Historically Stated, this building was disliked early on:
The Department of History’s 1972 annual report described the building as “one of the most unsatisfactory academic buildings imaginable,†going on to accuse the structure of drastic temperature changes and crowded conditions.
A reader commented on our 2007Â post on Harrelson Hall with a personal anecdote about how one faculty member felt about the building:
[…] Long time History department member Joe Hobbs has for decades told his students to “take a brick with them†as they leave his classes. He hoped to slowly demolish Harrelson, brick by brick. Here is hoping it is gone before he is.
— Festus
There's an error on the back of this postcard. Do you know what it is?
Known as the “Round Building,” this remarkable structure houses the School of Liberal Arts at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. It is the first round classroom facility ever built for a university.
I’m not sure if Dr. Hobbs is still there, but Festus received his wish almost one year ago when the Board of Trustees announced a formal approval for demolition. Harrelson Hall comes down in the Fall of 2014.
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01/06/2012
YES, YES, YES! Do we really have to wait until 2014?
That was the worst imaginable academic setting I ever attended a class in. Horrid!
I’m quite pleased it will be blown to smithereens. Can I push the button?
01/06/2012
Aw, I love Dr. Hobbs! He isn’t still there, by the way. He retired a while back and was teaching as an emeritus professor, but his health started to get pretty bad so he had to stop teaching a couple of years ago :(
01/06/2012
Okay, it is an unusual building shape wise and I don’t know if I would take a class in that building. But the vibe that is gives off reminds me of some buildings on the UNC Charlotte campus as in the “cold war era bunker” vibe. Dr. Hobbs sounds like a professor that I would have love to have.
By the way, my dad has a picture of me and my sister as kids in front of the building – my dad was there in the mid-60’s.
01/06/2012
Here’s hoping they take the “Brickyard” and many of the surrounding buildings down with it as well. That entire section of campus is less than stellar from any standpoint, minus the Nowicki section of DH Hill and the concrete “sound machines” of course..
01/06/2012
Dr Ronald Sack of the history department has said he thinks Harrelson Hall is possessed by demons.
That said, I have to confess to some nostalgia about the old Round Building. My dad Paul A. Bredenberg, who died in 2009, taught in the philosophy and religion department at State and had his office in Harrelson during the 1960s and after. I never heard him say anything negative about the building.
I and my brother Jeff Bredenberg, who died in 2010, used to go see our dad there and enjoyed running up and down the central ramp. We thought it was pretty cool that our dad had his office and taught there.
Al B.
01/06/2012
I took some classes in the building and it was pretty grim but I don’t begrudge their attempt to do something new. This article said the building originally had curved blackboards, which caused problems: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~njrose/Special/Tidbits/HarrelsonHall.html First cylindrical building on a campus – now people know you can’t have curved blackboards!
Also, try to imagine how modern and experimental this building must have seemed in 1962. After 15 years of post-war GI bill students crowding the school, the brickyard and Harrelson must have seemed like quite an improvement.
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/exhibits/gibill/eVetville.html
01/06/2012
There once was an architect on campus,
Who felt sure he could better Ramses,
But disliking angles, he favored Pi,
And Harrelson is the mess he left us.
01/09/2012
When I was in high school circa 1972-72, we used to go into the unlocked (in those days) Harrelson Hall at night. The topmost floor was empty except for a few benches, and quiet except for the noises of air moving through the HVAC system. We imagined it was a starship in our altered states-of-mind. ;-)
01/09/2012
Oddly, Harrelson is the basis for one of the dominant buildings in my dreams. Hmm, was the psychology department ever housed there?
01/16/2012
Round and round and round the way we go… i remember so vividly getting lost in that building in my freshman year (yeah, really ! you know stupid and naive freshman) many,many years ago. But wonder why build new building? this area would be a good place to make a park like area for students… something like a lawn area (or maybe something that NCSU students can use to refer to as one of the main focal points of the campus… maybe ‘Red Lawn’ ?
01/27/2012
If you stop by Harrelson today, it actually looks pretty cool…for now. We enclosed the bottom level and moved the bookstore there until it takes its permanent place in the new Talley Student Center, which will be complete in…you guessed it…late 2014.
07/22/2016
Sadly, Joe Hobbs has left us. He was a great man and a great history professor. I was one of the few State students to receive a BS in both, History and also in Chemical Engineering. Professor Hobbs was a joy to me and a good guide. He knew well both history and his students. That is the mark of a great teacher. I disagree with him only on Harrelson Hall. I had all my history classes there and also all my math courses there, as well. The friends and memories that I have in that building are immense. I loved what happened in that building to me. I will miss the building, where these great friendships and memories occurred.