Hill Memorial Building

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Standing front and center of the Ohio Northern University campus, the tower of Hill Memorial overlooks Ada’s Main Street. Originally called the Administration Building, the three-story building held several offices and classrooms that hosted most of the clubs on campus. In its early life, Hill Memorial had a history of catching on fire in that time fire trucks were still pulled by horses. The building caught on fire twice, in 1889 and 1913, the latter of which resulted in the loss of the third floor. After the second fire in 1913, the building was reconstructed and then dedicated to its namesake, Rev. John Wesley Hill.

Images

Ohio Northern students pose for a photograph in front of the Administration Building, year unknown

History, Building, Architecture, Medieval architecture

The fire-gutted remains of the Administration Building in 1913. After its restoration, the university renamed the edifice the Hill Memorial Building.

Building, Landmark, Architecture, Classical architecture

Hill Memorial's current state as of today

Dukes, Ohio Normal School, and Hill at the front of campus. The middle building has since been replaced by Lehr Memorial

Landmark, Building, Architecture, History

A WWI era post card with Dukes, Lehr, and Hill Memorial Buildings respectively.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The first fire in 1889 is said to have started by a student in the basement. Lighting was provided by oil lamps, so a student decided to go in the basement to refill his lamp. With no other way to provide light, the student light a match, filled his lamp, and left, leaving behind the still hot match. The fire then sparked in the basement and was accelerated quickly by the 30 tons of coal and barrels of flammable oil. Luckily, the fire only caused smoke and water damage, which the building's insurance covered for. The fire in 1913 was detected at 2 AM on Tuesday, November 4th, 1913, and quickly spread to engulf the entire building. The damage was catastrophic to the structure, leaving it in ruins. It was then rebuilt to be stronger and has an internal iron frame to better carry the load of the floors better. In October of 1914, the building was dedicated to honor John Wesley Hill, a well known minister in the area.

An alum of ONU, John Wesley Hill was a travelling Methodist minister who grew up in northwest Ohio in the 1830s. During his 50-year career as a minister, he traveled around Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Hill was a prominent clergyman in the Midwest, but also was involved with politics heavily, campaigning heavily for peace during WWI. He later retired with his wife in Ada, Ohio, dying in 1936.

As ONU began to grow, so did its need for more energy. Since it was founded, ONU was powered and heated by a steam power plant, but this soon proved to be insufficient. In 1922, an annex was added to the rear of the building, housing a power plant with two gas generators to produce additional heat and electricity for the entire campus.

During its history, Hill Memorial was host to almost all of ONU’s departments at one point or another. It was home to the College of Liberal Arts in 1929 and the College of Engineering in 1936 until it moved to the old Ada High School. Hill Memorial hosted the Biology department in 1953 until the Meyer Hall of Science was constructed. Hill is now the home of the History and Political Science departments as well as the Sociology and Psychology departments.

Sources

Ohio Northern University Library. June 29th 2018. Accessed November 18th 2020. https://library.onu.edu/c.php?g=357885&p=2416816.

John Wesley Hill, Wikipedia. July 22nd 2020. Accessed November 18th 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hill.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/66131/hill_memorial_1.jpg

http://lgimages.s3.amazonaws.com/data/imagemanager/66131/hill_memorial_4.jpg

https://www.onu.edu/sites/default/files/hill-building.jpg