Corwin-Larimore Halls

The story of Wesley College truly begins in 1899 when Edward Robertson was elected president of Red River Valley University in Wahpeton, North Dakota. There was concern about the location of Red River Valley University, and some thought a move was necessary to the institution's prolonged success.¹ Luckily, UND president Webster Merrifield discussed plans for Red River’s future at UND during a meeting of the State Educational Association, letting Robertson know that “this is where you belong.”² After a few years of deliberation, Merrifield and Robertson actualized their ideas and moved Red River Valley University from Wahpeton to Grand Forks under the name Wesley College.

Wesley College was officially opened to students in the 1905-1906 school year.³ Larimore Hall was completed in 1909 and Corwin was completed in 1910 with the generous financial assistance of the Larimore family and  Mr. Corwin. Larimore hall acted as the institution’s primary dormitory for women and Corwin hall held spaces for classrooms, offices, and the Conservatory of Music located on the southern end of the third floor. Early on, Wesley College was restricted to courses on religion but that soon changed. The school eventually specialized in music, religious education, and elocution.⁴ Students of both Wesley College and UND were free to take courses from both institutions as part of their education cooperation. Their Beaux-arts exterior stood out on an overwhelmingly Gothic style campus.

Students entered Larimore through two arched doors accompanied by an elaborate wood framework on the first floor. The dorms themselves were double rooms to ensure healthy socializing among Wesley students.⁵ The double door hints to a constriction of traffic to keep men and women separate without a chaperone present, a sincere worry at the time of Wesley College’s initial construction. Corwin Hall housed the impressive music conservatory with an elegant domed recital hall furnished with a pipe organ. A civil agreement was made between UND and the new Wesley College to split the music program between the two institutions. UND faculty would teach classroom courses while Wesley faculty provided applied learning through music lessons.⁶ UND offered three-year degrees in music education, whereas the Wesley Conservatory offered three performance degrees. 

As with many young institutions, Wesley College had its fair share of hard times. Edward Robertson, Wesley College president, struggled with finances from the onset of the institution’s opening as did many during the Great Depression and the North Dakota agricultural crisis. Wesley College furthermore struggled with enrollments after WWI, likely because of their distinctive programs and educational offerings.⁷ After years of financial difficulties, UND officially purchased Wesley College in 1965.⁸ 

UND renovated the building's interior in ways that disguised its original design. A staircase door compromised the music hall acoustics, Larimore dormitories became almost unrecognizable after being transformed into middling offices and psychology research rooms, and mosaic floors were covered with monotonous carpeting. In effect, a desire for functionality over history and architecture diminished the unique features of Corwin-Larimore halls and Wesley College as a whole. UND slated the buildings for demolition after years of ‘deferred maintenance’ made them too expensive to keep. Wesley College’s decade on UND’s campus invokes a tension between preservation and progress. The historic buildings were demolished in the summer of 2018.