For the last 33 years, Webster Hall has been a building looking for a home.
Ever since the construction of the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts in 1962, the College has searched time and time again for new ways to use the centrally-located, architecturally-imposing Webster Hall that stands on the corner of Wentworth and College Streets.
Despite the impressive roster of performances that have taken place in Webster, College officials have continually searched for a new use for the building.
In the last year alone, Webster has been host to speeches by William Buckley, Jr. and then-Haitian President in exile Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and concerts by acts such as Digible Planets and Natalie Merchant.
In the early 1960s, the College considered transforming the building into a new center for the social sciences, but in 1977 the College approved a different location -- the new Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences on the corner of Main Street and Webster Avenue.
In 1977, students lobbied for the Hall to become a new student center. However, the plan was abandoned in favor of College Hall, now Collis Center.
In 1978, Webster Hall was considered space for more classrooms which could accommodate classes of 75 to 100 students. This plan was scrapped due to size considerations, according to Facilities Planning Director Gordie DeWitt.
The building has also been considered for a new art gallery and during the 1960s, a possible site for a new swimming pool, DeWitt said.
The most recent plan to use the building for the special collections is four to five years old. DeWitt called the expansion of Baker Library into Webster Hall "the best thing."
"When the Hopkins Center opened, the usefulness of Webster Hall as a performance space really disappeared," DeWitt said. "From that point on it's really been kind of an orphan. It's had no real purpose from day to day."
DeWitt said any efforts to save the building do not "seem likely to work."
Nonetheless, the planned renovations have raised a hue and cry from many students concerned about the loss of the medium-sized programming space offered by Webster Hall.
Student Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95 said Monday the Assembly will kick off its agenda this term with a concerted effort to preserve the building's present purpose.
The Assembly's efforts mark yet another episode in Webster Hall's rocky history.
The College first began thinking of a new auditorium on campus in 1885.
But it took 15 years before President William Tucker managed to raise the funds.
The hoped for date of inauguration for the building was 1901, the hundredth year anniversary of Daniel Webster's graduation. Instead, the building was not yet begun until Sept. 25, 1901 when Webster's great-grandson Lewis Armistead laid the cornerstone.
Due to lack of funds, the original design was greatly simplified during the course of its construction, eliminating a planned dome.
Yet another setback occurred when the money raised to build Webster Hall was diverted in 1904 to reconstruct Dartmouth Hall, which was ravaged by fire. Webster's completion was delayed until 1907.
The building, with an original capacity of 1500 people, was first used for the College's opening ceremonies on Sept. 26, 1907.
For the first half of the century, it was the largest auditorium in the town of Hanover.
Such performers as the Vienna Boys Choir, the Monte Carlo Ballet, Fred Warring and his Pennsylvanians and opera diva Gladys Swarthout graced the stage of Webster Hall.
In his essay "Falling in Love with Webster Hall," John Scotford '38 wrote of the experience of seeing Swarthout, during which he "fell in love" with the "most physically beautiful opera diva of that time."
Such a performance would create a lot of interest from the campus.
"At the time she was still in her twenties and since the male student body rarely saw a woman in Hanover over 14 and under 30, we were vulnerable," Scotford wrote.
