Old Main, McKendree University

Old Main, a three-story brick building on the McKendree University campus in Lebanon, east of Stanton St., north of College Rd., and west of Bothwell Chapel, is the oldest surviving building on campus. It was constructed from 1850 to 1851 as the second campus building. McKendree University started out in 1828 as Lebanon Seminary and then became McKendree College two years later; it is the oldest college in Illinois and the oldest U.S. college with a continuous association with the Methodist Church. Old Main formerly held classrooms and halls for student literary societies. The building was the subject of a Historic American Buildings Survey in the 1930s and is part of the Lebanon National Register Historic District. The McKendree U. registrar and graduate admissions have offices in Old Main; the literary society rooms were renovated in 1999.

The original, wood frame building on campus was built from 1828 to the early 1830s and was used for the Lebanon Seminary from 1828 to 1830 and for McKendree College beginning in 1830. The charter for incorporation of McKendree College was agreed to in 1835; one of the men voting for the charter was Abraham Lincoln. The second main building was the new Main building, later called "Old Main." The three-story Old Main building was constructed in red brick with oak sills, stone lintels, and a wood cornice and pediment. The cornerstone was laid on Commencement Day 1850. Construction was finished on June 15, 1851. The first two stories contained classrooms and the third held halls for student literary societies. The first literary society on campus, the Philosophian, was founded in 1837; the Platonian began in 1849.

When Old Main was constructed, it was meant to house a new "Normal" (teacher education) department in the college. Ten thousand dollars had been raised for the project, directed by a professor, Dr. William Goodfellow. However, the Normal school didn't become a reality until 1869, when women were first admitted to McKendree College. The original college building burned down one evening in 1856, leaving Old Main as the lone building on campus. After the fire, Old Main was used temporarily for chapel services, taking over what had become the main use of the burned building. Insurance funds from the original building were part of the money used to build the new chapel in 1857, to the east of Old Main. When young ladies were admitted to the college in 1869, one of the first things they did was establish their own literary society, the Clionian. Their hall was in the chapel building.

When Old Main was documented in 1935 for the Historic American Buildings Survey, it was one of nine buildings on campus. The side gable roof was covered in tin. A brick vault was built on the first floor in the 1920s or early 1930s to hold student records. The Georgian style structure features a central entrance in the middle of the five-bay longer sides. The entrance with white pine doors (in 1935) is larger and more elaborate on the main (south) side than on the north facade. Red paint was removed from the exterior surface of the brick in the late 1930s, and crumbling mortar and damaged bricks were replaced.

After renovation in the 1960s, Old Main's first floor held administrative offices and the second floor was classroom space; a lecture hall and literary society rooms occupied the third floor. After the mid-1960s renovation of the first floor, office space for the college's president, the academic deans, and their staffs was doubled. New wood paneling was installed in the entrance corridor and new restrooms were built on the first floor. Faculty, staff, and students toured the new offices in an open house on November 22nd, 1965. McKendree College became McKendree University in 2007, a private liberal arts school offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. The registrar and graduate admissions offices are now housed in Old Main, plus the literary society rooms (Philo and Plato Halls).

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