Of the 48 buildings at Eastern, 31 are named after someone. Did you ever stop and ask yourself about the names that don the buildings or the history behind them?

From the Old Main-Livingston C. Lord Administration Building, the Mary Josephine Booth Library, or Robert G. Buzzard Hall, many buildings on campus go beyond just the brick and mortar.

“Most of the buildings on campus are named after people that have made a positive contribution to the university,” said Louis Hencken, president of Eastern.

Old Main-Livingston C. Lord Administration Building

The oldest building at the university, Old Main was formally dedicated August 29, 1899, and classes first began September 12 of that year as the building housed classrooms, a library, an auditorium, administrative facilities, a museum and offices.

Livingston C. Lord was Eastern’s second president, after Samuel M. Inglis and in his time as president, and saw a lot of firsts come to campus: the graduating class of 1900 (three men and one woman); the first homecoming in 1915; and in 1928, established the first school fraternity: Delta Lambda Sigma, which later became Phi Sigma Epsilon.

While some things may have changed since Lord’s time, others have remained constant. For example, the school’s nickname, ‘The Panthers’ was established in 1930 and one of his last quotes, “Tell the truth and don’t be afraid” is somewhere on the paper you’re reading.

Mary Josephine Booth Library

At the turn of the 20th century, while Eastern was still in its infancy, its library was made up of two rooms in an area of 2,170 square feet. At the time, the 2,500-volume library was sufficient for its patrons. At the time.

Today, Booth Library houses around 1,500,000 volumes on four levels. Much of what we have available now is owed to Mary Josephine Booth.

Booth was head librarian from 1904 to 1945 and as Eastern started to expand, she made an effort to build a separate library building. By the 1940s, Eastern was granted funds to erect it and on Feb. 2, 1948, Booth broke ground on the building; it was later named in her honor, and was dedicated May 27, 1950.

Robert G. Buzzard Hall

Robert Guy Buzzard was Eastern’s third president, who saw everything from conference championships in football, basketball and baseball to making a push for general education in the late ’40s, which is probably one of the reasons Buzzard contains the Department of Education.

Also in his time, the Health Education Building was dedicated and renamed Lantz Gym in honor of first Athletic Director and math instructor, coach Charles Lantz, which was then renamed to our McAfee Gym after Florence McAfee, head of the women’s physical education program (1935-1962). The Lincoln-Douglas Halls were completed as well, named after Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

Blair/Pemberton Halls

Constructed in 1913, Blair Hall is the third oldest building on campus, but has also been renovated and rededicated following the fire that damaged its roof on April 28, 2004. Francis G. Blair was the first supervisor of Eastern’s training department.

Completed in 1909, Pemberton Hall is the second oldest building on campus and the oldest women’s residence hall in Illinois. It was named after State Senator Stanton C. Pemberton, who helped get the appropriation approved.

At the time it was built, girls were not allowed out of the dorm after 7:30 p.m. and lights had to be out after the ‘riot’ hours from 10-10:30 p.m.

The History is not limited to these either

There are many more buildings on campus that have history behind them, but to describe them all, would take a lot more words then can fit into a single story.

“I’ve said many, many times before in my speeches that we have nice buildings here, but the difference between Eastern and other universities are the dedicated people that work here,” commented Hencken.