Electrical Engineering Building / Everitt

By the late 1940's a new building campaign was embarked upon, both to build up campus in the aftermath of the war and to modernize the Charles Platt's original campus master plan. [1] The Electrical Engineering Department had outgrown their old building, which once ran along Wright Street, with a center wing extending partway onto today's Bardeen Quad. [2]

The crowded campus conditions in the aftermath of the Second World War forced classes in the late 1940's to be scheduled to maximize the number of students serviced, and thus many classes were held in the early hours of the morning, before the sun had risen. In the fall of 1947, the Department of Electrical Engineering desperately needed additional classroom space, and so, for lack of better facilities, it was decided that a small portion of the new Electrical Engineering Building, which was still very much under construction, would be allowed to play host to a few classes. The ongoing construction meant no electricity, lighting, or heat could be provided to the classroom, leaving students to illuminate their classroom on their own accord. The first class to enter the building met just before daybreak on the first day of class, assembling outside the southeast entrance to the building. Finally, "when the time came, [they] entered the building en masse [sic] carrying lighted lanterns and flashlights and flickering candles. Some wore miner's lamps on their heads." Leading them with a miner's cap prominently on his head was William Everitt, the building's later namesake and the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. He gave a short speech and then "declared the new EE building open". [3]

Electrical innovation was still considered wizardry in the 1940's and 50's, and so an open house was scheduled two years later on May 15, 1949 and open to the public. Among other exhibitions, a radar installation and a "bucking-bronco motor" were demonstrated. [4] The building was finally dedicated 4 days later, on May 19, 1949. [5]

The original building, as well as its 1961 addition, were both designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White [6] The $1.05M addition [7] was to be completed by July 1963, [8] adding a 4^th floor to the front of the building, 3 floors at the rear of the building, and an "antenna research penthouse". [9]

The building was renamed in 1988 in honor of Dean William Everitt, who served as Dean of Engineering from 1949 to 1968. [10]