Van Meter Hall
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Van Meter Hall is an auditorium located on the campus of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, situated on top of “The Hill”. Constructed in 1911, it is the oldest surviving building on WKU’s campus. It was also the first building on Western’s campus by Brinton B. Davis, who would go on to design many other buildings there. The building is named for Charles Van Meter, an prosperous steamboat captain who provided significant financial assistance to the university in its early days. This is the second building named Van Meter hall on campus, with the original being built in 1901 to house the university after a devastating fire.
Images
A view of Van Meter Hall today. Photograph courtesy of Western Kentucky University
A photograph of an elderly Charles Van Meter, taken in 1906. He is the namesake of Van Meter Hall, a local man who made his fortune off the postbellum steamboat trade. Courtesy of Western Kentucky University TOPScholar.
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Van Meter Hall under construction, circa 1910. The work at this point is primarily being done on the front edifice, with the columns being actively installed, and the frame of the stairwell is present. Workers can be seen at the bottom of the image, and seemingly all of them are African-American. Courtesy of Western Kentucky University TOPScholar.
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Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The building was named for Charles James Van Meter (alternatively spelled in some period documents as Vanmeter). Born to a prominent enslaver, his early years were spent managing his father's plantation and stores. While there is no evidence he owned enslaved people himself, he certainly benefited from the profits of their labor. Charles eventually became a steamboat captain in 1856, and began running people and goods all along the Green and Ohio River. During the Civil War he was contracted by the Confederate government in Bowling Green to provide supplies for their 'shadow government' in opposition to the loyalist government in Frankfort.
Postbellum, Captain Van Meter would become one of the heads of the Green River Navigation Company, which was granted a monopoly over the river trade for roughly twenty years, and end up getting involved in nearly every industry imaginable from coal mining to logging. Mr. Van Meter was also heavily involved in various Lost Cause organizations, including helping to fund the Jefferson Davis memorial in Todd County. He also ran a spa in Grayson County, staffed almost entirely by African-Americans who served as servants, butlers, and maids.
Charles Van Meter was also instrumental in the foundation of Western Kentucky University. In November of 1899, what was then known as the Southern Normal School burned to the ground. The school’s insurance had recently expired, and school President Henry Hardin Cherry had spent nearly all his money on constructing the school in the first place, and only had enough funds to rent out rooms in another building. The founding school would have surely gone under if not for a herculean effort by the local community to raise funding for the construction of a new school. And Charles Van Meter was at the forefront of this effort, donating vast sums of money into the university. His contributions were so generous, that the school decided to name their new building after him and elect him chancellor of the university, and one student gifted him a cane to show appreciation for how “the university had leaned on him”. Van Meter would pass away in 1913, with President Cherry acting as pallbearer.
The new Van Meter Hall began construction in 1909. It was designed by the Louisville architect and captain Brinton B. Davis, who would go on to design many other buildings on Western’s campus. Construction went quickly, and the work was done by February of 1911. The primary feature of Van Meter Hall is its large auditorium, ornately decorated in the style of the time, with vast skylights and neoclassical statues resting in alcoves in the walls. It has a seating capacity of 1,500 people, and is still widely used today. It is the oldest surviving building on campus, having now stood for well over a hundred and ten years. It is commonly seen on the marketing of Western Kentucky University, and has become a veritable icon of the university. According to one survey of students in 2022, Van Meter Hall was elected as the best looking building on campus.
Sources
Slavery and Confederate connections. Accessed March 10th, 2025. https://www.wku.edu/naming-and-symbols/documents/ogden-potter-vanmeter.pdf.
Crocker, Helen B. “Green River Steamboating: A Cultural History, 1828-1931.” TOPScholar, 1970. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/theses/article/2668/&path_info=chb.pdf_w.pdf.
“Charles Joseph Vanmeter.” TopSCHOLAR®. Accessed March 10th, 2025. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/wku_timeline/39/.
“Cap. C.J. VanMeter.” Southern Educator. November 1911, Vol. 1, No.2. Access March 20th, 2025. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=dlsc_ua_records
Lowell H. Harrison. 1987. “Western Kentucky University”. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=938454&site=ehost-live.
“Van Meter.” Van Meter | Western Kentucky University. Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.wku.edu/music/vanmeter.php.
News, Herald, and Price Wilborn. “Opinion: The Four Most Attractive Buildings on Campus.” WKUHerald.com, February 28, 2022. https://wkuherald.com/64419/life/opinion-the-four-most-attractive-buildings-on-campus/.