Tina Weedon Smith Memorial Building / Smith Hall

The cornerstone of the Tina Weedon Smith Memorial Building was laid November 9, 1917. The stone itself was laid by Captain Thomas J. Smith, who had funded the $215,000 building in honor of his wife. [1] Designed in the Beaux Arts style by James McLaren White [2] and George E. Wright, [3] the three-story building was 126 feet long by 163 feet wide, with a full basement and attic. [4] A massive performance hall seated 650 on the house floor and 450 in the upper balcony. The acoustics of the hall were very precisely controlled, with a "period of reverberation of 1.75 seconds" when the hall was filled to capacity and "provision[s] for reducing the period of reverberation when there is no audience". [5] Practice rooms were abundant, with 7 studios and 2 classrooms on the first floor and 11 studios, 49 practice rooms, and a 200-person lecture hall on the second floor. The third floor housed an additional 47 practice rooms. [6]

Smith Hall has the distinction of being the first building on campus to be wholly funded by private donations, paving the way for later buildings such as the Beckman Institute. [7] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. [8]

Almost from the beginning, campus planners were envisioning extending the structure via almost 30% to the west, and the proposed modifications appeared on campus maps through 1930, but those plans were never realized and the following year, in 1931, campus maps dropped the proposed changes. [9]