McInnis Learning Center

Largest building on campus, McInnis Learning Center is the first dedicated academic building on Eastern's St. Davids campus. The building was completed in 1972 and includes an auditorium and a state of the art nursing lab on the third floor, along with classrooms and faculty offices. There is also a rooftop observatory named for Dr. David Bradstreet, current faculty member of Eastern University. Tied with the observatory is the Julia Fowler Planetarium, and the two features have played important roles in the university's science departments, as well as the larger community.

McInnis Learning Center is the first dedicated academic building on Eastern University's St. David's campus. The groundbreaking ceremony was on October 15, 1970, with its dedication and completion in 1972. McInnis Learning Center was named for "J. Wesley McInnis," a family member of Charles B. McInnis who was a Board of Trustees member who'd made a $300,000 pledge to the building's construction in 1969 and had suddenly died of a heart attack in August 1970 before the building's completion.

In addition to the building itself, a planetarium was built on the roof in 1972, thanks to the efforts of Helen Craymer of the Education Department and financed by Mrs. Grace Kea (for whom Kea Residence Hall is named after). It became the home of several astrological shows, including The Star of Bethlehem, a Christmas show which ran consistently for over fifty years. Originally beginning as a rooftop observing deck with a Celestron 8 telescope, the permanent Bradstreet Observatory was added in 1996, thanks to fundraising efforts started in 1987 by Dr. David Bradstreet, '76 alumni and current faculty member of Eastern University.

The Planetarium was later named the Julia Fowler Planetarium on May 18, 2007, in memory of the wife of trustee Conrad Fowler (the namesake of Fowler Hall across campus). Since then, both the planetarium and observatory have played an important role in the university's science departments, as well as a larger part of the community. "The Zula Patrol: Under the Weather," a television show produced by E&S Spitz Creative Media, was filmed in the planetarium in September 2007, and the observatory was named the "Best Place to Ponder the Heavens" by Main Line Today Magazine in July 2009.

McInnis was renovated in 2012 and has a total square footage of 65,554, the largest building on campus. It is approximately three levels high, including an auditorium of almost 4,000 square feet and a state of the art nursing lab that is over 8,000 square feet.

"McInnis Learning Center." Folders in Eastern University Archives. Located at Warner Memorial Library, Eastern University, St. Davids, PA, 19087.