On October 24, Hampden-Sydney College held the rededication of Venable Hall. The second-oldest building on Hampden-Sydney’s campus, Venable is an architectural and engineering treasure constructed by Jeffersonian-trained masons and enslaved labor between 1824 and 1831.
Venable Hall was slated for a planned refresh including paint and a new roof in 2019, when newly hired Director of Facilities Kevin Miller noticed Jeffersonian-era details that he felt required more investigation to pay proper homage to. Bringing on MCWB architects out of Williamsburg, Virginia, Miller’s suspicions were confirmed and a full historic renovation was undertaken. MCWB enacted a full-scale forensic architecture campaign using archival documents, personal letters, and local newspaper articles as well as drone imaging, laser scanning, core sampling, and Matterport imaging to marry physical and documentary evidence. This intensive process resulted in a historically sound renovation proposal that would restore the building to its original 19th-century grandeur while incorporating all the amenities that 21st-century students require.
“Venable has been continuously used as dormitories for 200 years. How many other buildings have that kind of uninterrupted use?” says MCWB Principal Larry Wilson. “Venable is significant, yes, because it’s recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, but more importantly because of the local reverence it holds. It embodies the memories and spirits of the people who lived and worked here, the people still alive who come back here, and all of the friendships that were forged in its halls.”
Built in two phases, the building comprises a unique timeline of the architectural and engineering advances that occurred in the eight-year span between the beginning of phase one and phase two of Venable’s construction. The east end of the building, known as Stagger Inn, is constructed of roughly hewn, handmade bricks with wide masonry joints with an oxide stain and white pencil lines to give the appearance of straightness and uniformity and hand-made nails in the original heart pine floors evoking a truly Colonial feel. The center and western portions, known as Tortilla and West End respectively, feature refined bricks uniform in color and shape, thinner joints, and machine-pressed nails. The Schoelkopf Parents and Friends Lounge, situated in West End, is a two-story, 40 feet by 40 feet room with a double corridor and student rooms on top of it, requiring an impressive feat of engineering for the time to make structurally sound then and for the 200 years in which it’s been in use.
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